Five projects, one mission: Expanding Acceleration Ecosystems in the European Union
Five projects, one mission: Expanding Acceleration Ecosystems
Incubators, accelerators and different types of ‘company-builders’ play a crucial role in providing start-ups with growth support. Due to the diverse innovation landscape in Europe, start-ups from better-connected innovation ecosystems benefit from more local accelerators with greater funding opportunities and more qualified business support services compared to their counterparts elsewhere.
This geographical gap often requires start-ups from less connected ecosystems to move to more established hubs elsewhere in Europe. Consequently, there are fewer scale-ups in less connected innovation ecosystems, creating unbalanced business activity and employment opportunities. The European Commission, launched the ‘Expanding Acceleration Ecosystems’ mission, as part of the European Innovation Ecosystems (EIE) work programme, with the purpose to reverse this flow by making ‘modest’ and ‘moderate’ innovation ecosystems more attractive to international companies interested in setting up their businesses outside the established centres and tapping into the potential of local ecosystems.
In light of this, around one year ago, five projects kicked off to support the European Commission fulfil this mission: sharing business acceleration related best practices, knowledge, tools and methods; exchanging promising start-ups and SMEs; exchanging accelerator programme experts; establishing links between local actors in developing ecosystems, among others, and one of these projects is S3E – The Engine for South European Deep Tech.
S3E has developed an engine of growth to contribute to improving the connectedness and efficiency of the southern European countries’ innovation ecosystems. Our focuses on the acceleration of deep tech research projects, growth startups and scaleups, contributing to closing the innovation gap between these countries and more advanced innovation ecosystems. S3E is supporting south European innovators to develop into deep tech and procure funding for the early stages of development through three innovation programmes: START, CHARGE and REVERSE.
However, S3E is not alone in this mission and four other projects were selected with complementary action plans to expand acceleration ecosystems. Let’s discover them in this blog’s post!
AccelerAction: A pan-European Networked Acceleration Programme to expand acceleration ecosystems and foster the scalability potential of European business
The diverse innovation landscape in Europe and the geographical gap among the "innovation leaders" and the less-connected ecosystems highlights that the latter suffer from weaker entrepreneurial activity and scarcer investments. The EU-funded AccelerAction project aims to improve the quality and outreach of business acceleration services in weaker innovation ecosystems in the field of DeepTech by creation of new pan-European Networked Acceleration Programme (EU-NAP) that will be tested in 3-months blended exchange programme for 10 promising start-ups with special focus on gender dimension. To its end the project will encourage entrepreneurial activities, stimulating cooperation among innovation actors generating alliances and strengthening less connected ecosystems to increase their competitiveness & connectivity also thanks to the creation of the virtual platform with match-making feature.
ACCELERO: Accelerating Local Innovation Ecosystems in Europe
ACCELERO has the ambition of creating a pan-European community of business support organisations (BSOs) as the onestop shop for all BSOs and its “customers”, the startups and SMEs, as well as for peer-to-peer exchange, networking and connectedness for all stakeholders engaged in the broader innovation ecosystem. This will be achieved with an initial ACCELERO extended community apart from consortium members to co-create and pilot-test high-quality business acceleration services with European BSOs from emerging and moderate innovators together with experts from strong and leader innovation regions or Member States, followed by the launch of the community inside Euroquity platform.
Food-scalEUp: Expanding the European digital agri-food acceleration ecosystem
Expanding the European agri-food digital innovation ecosystem’s capacity is a priority for 10 organisations that form Food-scalEUp, an EU-funded project that is focusing on emerging and moderate innovator regions. Its objective is to help these innovator regions become better connected, effective, impactful, resilient and recognised around the globe. To succeed, it will develop optimal business acceleration services in agri-food digital innovation ecosystems; foster connections and transfer knowledge regionally and beyond; and balance the capacity of agri-food digital innovation and acceleration ecosystems in the regions in question.
BEYOND: Boosting pan-european Exchange between acceleration ecosYstems for improving quality and Outreach of business acceleration services in Developing innovation ecosystems
Introducing the new Virtual Accelerator Marketplace (VAM), designed to support joint business accelerator activities for Europe’s startups. It also aims to advance investment flows from net contributor regions towards ‘modest’ and ‘moderate’ ones. Developed by the EU-funded BEYOND project, VAM will test a self-sovereign digital identity scheme (funding passport) available to startups independent of which accelerator they join. Moreover, a joint platform will allow online acceleration and provide a framework for the efficient development of startups. BEYOND will also focus on sharing specific offers from the different project participants and resources; it will develop an incentive structure where all partners benefit from high-quality startups developing their services, and create a cross-region marketplace for fundraising.
Looking forward to exploring synergies and creating a long-lasting collaboration.
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S3E at the Danube Lighthouse Conference of the EU Ocean Mission!
Last week, our team members Christina Deligianni and Spyros Kouvelis from the Institute for Sustainable Development at EPLO travelled to Bucharest, Romania, to attend the Danube Lighthouse Conference of the EU Ocean Mission.
The Danube lighthouse, which is part of the EU Mission ''Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030'' 🌊
With a 2030 target, this EU Mission aims to protect and restore the health of our ocean and waters through research and innovation, citizen engagement and blue investments. The Mission’s new approach will address the ocean and waters as one and play a key role in achieving climate neutrality and restoring nature.
Cross-cutting enabling actions will support this objective, in particular broad public mobilisation and engagement and a digital ocean and water knowledge system, known as Digital Twin OceanEN.
The Mission supports regional engagement and cooperation through area-based “lighthouses” in major sea/river basins: Atlantic-Arctic, Mediterranean Sea, Baltic-North Sea, and Danube-Black Sea. Mission lighthouses are sites to pilot, demonstrate, develop and deploy the Mission activities across EU seas and river basins
During the short trip, Christina and Spyros had the chance to visit the Polytechnic School of Bucharest and participate at the launch of the EcoDalli Project. We are grateful for having had excellent meetings with ICLEI, Danube and Black Sea Stakeholders, Romanian National Institute of Marine Geology, Uni of Zagreb, amongst others, and spread the word about the South European Deep Tech Revolution 🚀 🔥
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EU Publication: S3E is leading the new wave of deep tech innovation
S3E is among the EU projects leading the new wave of deep tech innovation!
The European Commission has released a new publication looking at each of the actions funded under the European Innovation Ecosystems work programme and contribute to the implementation of the new European Innovation Agenda objectives in relation to “Funding for deep-tech scale-ups”; “Enabling deep tech innovation through experimentation spaces and public procurement” and “Accelerating and strengthening innovation in European Innovation Ecosystems across the EU and addressing the innovation divide”.
S3E is one of the EU projects funded under the Flagship 3 “Accelerating and strengthening innovation in European Innovation Ecosystems across the EU and addressing the innovation divide”. This flaghsip unlocks excellence across the EU and connect regional innovation valleys involving regions with a lower innovation performance, in support of key EU priorities. Projects funded under the European Innovation Ecosystems Work Programme of Horizon Europe contribute to the Agenda by strengthening the connectivity within and between innovation ecosystems, supporting sustainable growth of businesses and promoting leadership of women in deep technology fields.
In particular, our S3E project intends to improve the market connectedness and efficiency of research teams, startups & SMEs working on Deep Tech, through the implementation of three innovation programmes that offer tailored services.
You can read the EU Publication HERE.
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S3E meets EU Commissioner Mariya Gabriel, responsible for Horizon Europe
On 26th January, 2023, the S3E project participated at the workshop ''How Horizon Europe European innovation ecosystems projects support new European Innovation Agenda'' in Brussels.
This first workshop organised by the European Commission and host by Ms. Mariya Gabriel, the Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth was an opportunity to present the first wave of projects funded under the European Innovation Ecosystems Work Programme in support of the New European Innovation Agenda (NEIA).
‘’It’s the first time since 2010 that we have a document that articulates a comprehensive strategy for innovation in Europe. And this is crucial to our ambition, which is to unlock the innovation potential in Europe.’’
Mariya Gabriel
The New European Innovation Agenda is a comprehensive strategy put forth by the European Union to promote innovation and competitiveness. It was adopted in July 2022 and aims to accelerate the digital transformation of the EU economy and society. One of the key components of the NEIA is the EU’s focus on deep tech and their potential to drive innovation.
We met more than 40 projects which directly contribute to three flagships of the New European Innovation Agenda: scaling up deep-tech innovative companies; enabling innovation through public procurement and strengthening innovation ecosystems across the EU by addressing the innovation divide. The projects are included in the new European Innovation Ecosystems (EIE) Data Hub, an interactive database showing all projects funded under the EIE programme.
‘’We count a lot in you, you are the green and digital transition, you are the circular economy, you are the health digitalisation, you are this new wave of deep tech innovation that would like to see Europe as leader, as powerhouse.''
Mariya Gabriel
S3E – The Engine for South European Deep Tech is one of the selected projects and during our presentation, Cláudia Barbosa shared the perfectly alignment of the S3E project with the goals of this NEIA, positioning Southern Europe at the forefront of the new wave of deep tech innovation and start-ups. S3E’s mission is to support moderate and emerging innovators to develop new technologies to address the most pressing societal challenges and improve the market connectedness & efficiency of research teams, startups & SMEs working on Deep Tech.
‘’Its only by working together that we can create this more open, more dynamic, more competitive Europe.''
Mariya Gabriel
Watch S3E 1 MINUTE PITCH
https://youtu.be/oC3W18EmOYM
Watch the whole workshop:
How S3E supports the new European Innovation Agenda
Read our last article here.
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Learn how we are going to accomplish our mission through our three innovative programs (START, CHARGE and REVERSE) and get ready to APPLY to the Open Call #1 to join the SOUTHERN DEEP TECH REVOLUTION.
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How S3E supports the new European Innovation Agenda
The New European Innovation Agenda (NEIA) is a comprehensive strategy put forth by the European Union (EU) to promote innovation and competitiveness. It was adopted in July 2022 and aims to accelerate the digital transformation of the EU economy and society.
One of the key components of the NEIA is the EU’s focus on deep tech and their potential to drive innovation. Another important aspect of the NEIA is the EU’s commitment to fostering entrepreneurship and small businesses. The agenda includes initiatives to support the creation and growth of new companies, particularly in the areas of clean energy, digital technologies, and health care.
In addition, the NEIA aims to increase the collaboration between the private sector, research institutions, and governments to foster innovation. This includes the creation of new partnerships and the development of new funding opportunities to support joint research and development projects. One of these projects is S3E – The Engine for South European Deep Tech.
The S3E project aligns perfectly with the goals of the New European Innovation Agenda, positioning Southern Europe at the forefront of the new wave of deep tech innovation and start-ups. S3E’s mission is to support moderate and emerging innovators to develop new technologies to address the most pressing societal challenges and improve the market connectedness & efficiency of research teams, startups & SMEs working on Deep Tech.
Europe wants to be the place where the best talent work hand in hand with the best companies and where deep tech innovation thrives and creates breakthrough innovative solutions across the continent. S3E is one of the projects working towards this purpose and that is why we have invited by the European Commission to participate in the workshop ``How Horizon Europe European innovation ecosystems projects support new European Innovation Agenda´´ next Thursday 26th January, 2023.
Event and Web-streaming link:
How S3E supports the new European Innovation Agenda
New European Innovation Agenda |
S3E – The Engine for South European Deep Tech |
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Improve access to finance for European start-ups and scale-ups, for example, by mobilising untapped sources of private capital and simplifying listing rules |
S3E has created three types of progams to accelerate Deep Tech projects and solutions coming from research teams, start-ups and SMEs that can impact social development and economic growth for a more sustainable future. |
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Improve the conditions to allow innovators to experiment with new ideas through regulatory sandboxes |
As part of these three innovation programs (START, CHARGE and REVERSE), S3E upskills researchers to fast-track science to the market, S3E supports growth stage startups in business development, S3E brokers access to investment and S3E facilitates Open Innovation with industry. |
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Help create “regional innovation valleys” that will strengthen and better connect innovation players through Europe, including in regions lagging behind |
S3E is focused on a group of countries (Southern Europe) that are lagging behind in terms of innovation-led social and economic growth and that, because of their geographic location, share some common socio-economic traits that may contribute to facilitate the deployment of this growth engine. |
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Attract and retain talent in Europe, for example by training 1 million deep tech talents, increasing support for women innovators and innovating with start-up employees’ stock options |
Through several open calls, S3E will support 150+ Deep Tech ventures to develop disruptive solutions built around unique, protected or hard-to-reproduce breakthroughs, and embodies products, processes or services capable of fulfilling currently unmet (or ill-met) market needs. S3E will unlock the untapped innovation potential of Southern European Deep Tech, targeting scientific and technical excellence in the fields of agricultural, life and physical sciences, engineering and technology. |
| Improve the policy framework through clearer terminology, indicators and data sets, as well as policy support to Member States |
South3E alignment with EU priorities and strategies strengths our commitment to improve the market connectedness & efficiency of research teams, startups & SMEs working on Deep Tech through the acceleration of Deep Tech projects coming from research teams, and deep tech solutions coming from start-ups and SMEs that can impact social development and economic growth for a more sustainable future. |