The European Commission is committing €90 million to Open and Disruptive Innovation over the next 12 months.

A new tool to help doctors communicate with non-responsive patients; a cloud-based irrigation controller to improve water efficiency on farms by up to 30%; an "electronic nose" to better determine how fresh your food is - these are a few of the 30 tech SMEs and start-up to receive EU funding. Find out who the tech winners are and what their idea is about in the Annex.

SMEs from Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Israel, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey and the UK were selected to receive €50 thousand each (€1.5million overall EU funding) over six months at most, to render their business idea technically and commercially viable.

European Commission Vice-President @NeelieKroesEU said: "I always believed SMEs generate the kind of innovative ideas that bring growth and jobs, the ideas Europe needs today. This new instrument was created to precisely unleash this potential, to allow individual SMEs access funding that can allow them make their brilliant idea a reality. I want to congratulate the first set of winners and invite more of Europe's brilliant innovators to come ahead. The future belongs to you!"

Most of the 30 SMEs selected are two to five years old. Chosen from 886 proposals, they are innovative businesses and new high tech spin-off from R&D bodies with a strong commercial dimension.

On September 24, on October 9 and on December 17 more winning SMEs will be announced; on these three occasions, funding of up to €43m will be offered to support SMEs from concept creation till commercialisation.