The EU has put in place a successful research infrastructure with Europe taking a leading position globally in many fields of scientific research and many patents being filed. However despite the positive research outcomes, Europe lags behind in technology transfer and commercial exploitation. Lack of early stage investment is a major contributor to this innovation gap. This 'valley of death' will be bridged by the "European Investor Gate (EIG)" project, the main aim of which is to stimulate investor interaction with innovative SMEs and to facilitate the investment readiness of innovative SMEs or entrepreneurs in ICT participating in EU RTD programs. The goal is to provide these entrepreneurs/SMEs with access to finance by putting them in contact with potential investors. While in previous years, several activities have started with the same aim, these have been more focused on the organization of pitching events while EIG will put a strong emphasis on the initial training. Researchers will be coached at an early stage of development in order to be better prepared to convince potential investors about their research results. Concurrently, investors will be trained in order to understand the exploitation potential of ICT projects and thus be able to better judge their chances of success.EIG will focus in particular on 3 thematic sub-areas of the current FP7 WP: Challenges 1 (Pervasive and Trusted Network and Service Infrastructures), 4 (Technologies for Digital Content and Languages) and 8 (ICT for learning and Access to Cultural resources). To reflect the expertise of the consortium and thus to ensures the highest quality of the training and investor preparation, the consortium will focus on 3 main topics: media, mobile and networks where there is a high level of investor interest.The consortium is highly complementary, ranging from investors, consultants and experts in EU RTD projects, all with a demonstrated track record in early stage investment.