The S3E Open Call #2 has officially launched!
The wait is finally over! The S3E – Southern European Entrepreneurship Engine consortium is excited to announce the official launch of the second Open Call for the three tracks of the : Start, Charge & Reverse.
S3E is the ultimate program of support for entrepreneurs in Southern Europe developing Deep Tech solutions with social and sustainable impact at their core. Each track is dedicated to three main groups operating within the innovation ecosystem: researchers and TTOs working on a project as a team, startups at their growth stage, and corporates interested in joining forces with scaleups/SMEs.
The S3E Charge program has been an invaluable experience. The theoretical sessions and mentorship have greatly supported our growth and have improved the key strategies to effectively communicate our value proposition. We highly recommend this program to other entrepreneurs, as it provides the necessary tools and connections for success in the Deep Tech industry.
Naeria Navarro Navarro CTO, Fresh Water Nature SL - Charge Startup
What's the difference between the 3 tracks?
- S3E Start: helps research teams and tech transfer officers to explore the commercial viability of their deep tech projects. Through an 18-week online training & mentorship program, the selected research teams will learn first-hand about the processes required to develop a business case for science-based products or services.
- S3E Charge: supports deep tech startups in their growing phase that want to improve their business model and learn how to access dilutive and non-dilutive funding. Over 14 weeks, the selected startups will receive tailored mentorship to guide them through the validation process of their product or service, and the creation of an investment-ready business plan.
- S3E Reverse: connects corporate challenges with solutions developed by scaleups and SMEs thanks to our Brokerage Program, based on a successful open innovation methodology. To access the first phase of this track, large companies and public organisations have to submit a deep tech challenge.
You can find all the relevant information about each track on the section on our website.
How to apply
Those interested in joining the S3E Program need to follow these steps:
- Read all information about the S3E Program to decide which track best suits you
- Once you know which track you want to apply to, download the relevant track Guidelines for Applicants and the Open Call Text via Zenodo: +
- After carefully reading the mandatory documents, you can now complete your application via the F6S online platform: S3E Charge application for Startups + S3E Start application for Researchers + S3E Start application for Tech Transfer Offices
The S3E Open Call #2 welcomes applications from the following countries:
- South European countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Spain.
- Associated countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Kosovo and Turkey.
The S3E Start program has a comprehensive curriculum that provided us with the necessary information on deep-tech commercialization. With the TEC sessions, webinars and mentor meetings, we had the chance to learn from experts. The S3E team has been very supportive and answered all the questions we had. We strongly recommend this program.
Elif Begum Elcioglu NANO INK - Start Researcher
Key dates to keep in mind
- 18 September 2023 (12pm CET): The S3E Open call officially launches for the 3 tracks: S3E Start, S3E Charge and S3E Reverse
- 15 December 2023 (5pm CET): Deadline for applying to S3E Charge (startups) and S3E Reverse (large organisations acting as ‘Challengers’)
- 12 January 2024 (5pm CET): Deadline for applying to S3E Start (research teams & tech transfer officers)
Join our upcoming S3E Info Webinars!
To help this year's applicants prepare for their submissions, the teams behind S3E Start & S3E Charge will be hosting a series of Q&A Webinars. These sessions provide an open space to everyone interested in applying to ask any questions they may have about the S3E Program — we highly encourage future participants to come along!
Check the available dates for S3E Start and S3E Charge and book your preferred session via Eventbrite. The earlier you join one of our Info Webinars, the more time you and your team will have to prepare before submitting your application.
Got any questions?
Check the FAQs section on our website, where you fill find an extensive list of answers regarding the S3E Program. If you would like to speak directly to someone from the S3E team, you can email us at info@south3e.eu
We look forward to creating long-lasting collaborations!
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IIO: the ideal VaaS solution for new applications and voice services deployment
IIO is one of the supported startups in the first S3E Charge Accelerator Programme.
IIO is a Voice-as-a-Service (VaaS) platform for Customer Experience Management, equipped with human voice and emotion recognition for B2B and B2B2C markets, ideal for different business needs of different departments, such as Marketing, Sales, HR and Customer Care.
IIO is based on the revolutionary combination of three key elements to offer an unprecedented Customer Experience, Engagement & Relationship Management experience:
- Adaptive Conversational Engine (ACE): At the heart of IIO is the proprietary ACE conversational platform, a patented technology that uses emotion recognition and generative AI to create natural and engaging speech interactions.
- Recognition of human emotions: The emotion recognition technology integrated in IIO allows the platform to perceive the customer's mood and adapt to her mood.
- Generative AI: IIO leverages advanced generative AI engines, such as OpenAI, Bard, and Jasper, to quickly learn and generate relevant responses in any language.
IIO emerges as an innovative solution in the customer relationship management landscape, distinguishing itself from traditional solutions and allowing companies to reduce operating costs, increase sales opportunities and optimize customer engagement strategies.
Learn more about IIO by watching the pitch done by their Founder and CEO, Pasquale Bombino, during the Charge Open Day on 6th July 2023.
https://youtu.be/IX6ogAmg-lQ
Would you like to get in touch with them? Let us know! Email us at info@south3e.eu
Looking forward to exploring synergies and creating a long-lasting collaboration.
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Fresh Water Nature: the Spanish clean-tech startup proposing a more efficient usage of natural resources
Fresh Water Nature is one of the supported startups in the first S3E Charge Accelerator Programme.
Fresh Water Nature aims to provide the change on ultra-pure water production for Green Hydrogen generation with its technology Cool Steam. Cool Steam units profit from waste heat from electrolyzers (30%) to vacuum distill high quality water to be fed as raw material for electrolysis.
Using Cool Steam to desalinate seawater for Green Hydrogen allows saving 50% electricity compared with Reverse Osmosis based plants, enhancing electrolyzers efficiency by dissipating its waste heat and producing from it 5x extra water as by-product with 10x higher quality. This extra water may be valued for other industrial uses. Cool Steam is a patented disruptive solution that promotes circular economy, sustainability and cost-effectiveness in the ultra-pure water supply process, improving the value chain of GH production.
Learn more about Fresh Water Nature by watching the pitch done by their R&D Manager, Naeria Navarro, during the Charge Open Day on 6th July 2023.
https://youtu.be/frHCqWESVu0
Would you like to get in touch with them? Let us know! Email us at info@south3e.eu
Looking forward to exploring synergies and creating a long-lasting collaboration.
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S3E is proud to have supported its first cohort of South European deep tech innovations
In July 2023, the South3E consortium hosted the two most important events of the year — the Open Days for our S3E Charge and S3E Start programmes!
Two successful online events that brought together more than 200 attendees from all across the European innovation ecosystem — including international investors, business angels, innovation hubs, higher education representatives and the general public — to showcase the deep tech solutions and ideas developed by the startups, research teams and TTOs selected to participate in these EU-funded programmes co-developed and led by the S3E partners.
For those who couldn’t join us on the events of 6th and 20th July, we have prepared two booklets where you will find all the key information about the teams who pitched during the open days and their innovations. Follow the links below to grab your copy!
S3E Charge booklet
to download the S3E Charge booklet and meet the 12 startups who pitched their deep tech businesses during the open day on 6th July 2023.
S3E Start booklet
to download the S3E Start booklet and meet the 13 research teams who presented their deep tech projects during the open day on 20th July 2023.
During the following weeks, we will be sharing detailed articles to highlight the research projects and the startups who pitched during both open days, including the video recordings of their presentations. So stay tuned! Make sure you're following us on LinkedIn and Twitter, and sign up to receive our .
Research teams participating in S3E START test their business skills during the Value Proposition Pitch
On May 30, from 15:00 CET to 18:30 CET, the research teams participating in the S3E START programme had to present their deep tech projects value proposition in front of a panel composed of the HiSeedTech team - Cláudia Barbosa, Cristina Simões, Nuno Falcão e Cunha and Pedro Vilarinho. The event took place online with an audience of 50 people and was open to participating teams and the technology transfer officers, mentors, and S3E partners (AUSTRALO, EPLO, and IDI).
The session was held midway through the programme implementation and was intended to: (i) serve as a proxy for the Open Day that will take place on July 20; (ii) provide feedback to the teams and test the robustness of the work done to date; (iii) improve their business skills and familiarise them with the types of questions that might arise during real presentations to investors or other stakeholders.
Each research team had 5 minutes to present their value proposition, which included: defining the problem they are solving and the need behind it, defining the technology, the solution they have and identifying the market, the competition and the team behind it.
The pitches were made in the following order:
- BioMEMs: Júlio Rocha, Aveiro University (PT), , Portugal
- BUCKS: Kun V Tian, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
- Cancer Therapeutics: Kanwal Asif, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Italy
- CAVI: Jurij Gostisa, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
- CE4Land: Ivana Pajčin, Faculty of Technology Novi Sad, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
- DVS: Rossela Zaffino, ICREA/ICMAB-CSIC, Spain
- EditUp: Davide Ederle, Fondazione Hub Innovazione Trentino (HIT), Italy
- HTS-INKS: Mar Tristany, Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), Spain
- MARCIA: Clotilde Costa, Health Research Institute of Santiago de Compostela, Spain
- MET LAB: Diogo Silva, ITQB NOVA - Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Portugal
- Nano-ink: Elif Begum Elcioglu, Eskisehir Technical University, Turkey
- Sumatrix Biotech: Semra Unal Yildirim, Sumatrix Biotech, Turkey
- Breast 4.0: Tiago Marques, Champalimaud Clinical, Portugal
The teams are doing great progress and they still have the following seven weeks to focus on improving their value proposition and presentation to have the business model ready for the S3E START Open Day!
Looking forward to exploring synergies and creating a long-lasting collaboration.
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Press Release: S3E celebrates the Charge Open Day to present the deep tech solutions of the selected growth startups
S3E celebrates the Charge Open Day to present the deep tech solutions of the selected growth startups
The EU-funded project South3E will celebrate the S3E Charge Open Day on Thursday, 6th July 2023, at 13.00 CET, giving the chance to the participating South European startups to pitch their business ideas.
The consortium of S3E – Southern European Entrepreneurship Engine is pleased to officially announce the celebration of the S3E Charge Open Day. During the last weeks, the S3E project has deployed the S3E Charge Acceleration Program: a 14-week tailor-made mentoring and networking program for the 12 selected startups to develop an investment-ready business plan and support them in their access to non-dilutable and dilutable funding.
Read the official Press Release
On this virtual pitching day, we will facilitate the networking with industry leaders and investors, we will have inspirational speeches and the startups will have the chance to pitch and scale their business opportunities.
When
The event will take place virtually on Thursday, 6th July 2023, at 13.00 CET
How to participate?
The S3E project kindly invites Investors, Business Angels, Business Support Organisations, Innovation Agencies, Accelerators and Innovation Hubs to register to the event following this link.
Programme
- 13:00 Opening session by Daniel Gassman, Head of sector at the European Commission
- 13:10 Welcome to S3E Deep Tech Revolution: Introduction to Innovation and Sustainability by EPLO Institute for Sustainable Development
- 13:20 Projects presentation I: 7 minutes pitch + 3 minutes of Q&A
- 14:00 Inspirational Speech by Ms. Milena Stoycheva, CEO JA Bulgaria, Interim Action Programme Director INNOVATION, EIT Culture and Creativity*
- 14:10 Projects presentation II : 7 minutes pitch + 3 minutes of Q&A
- 14:50 Building a Team Culture in Deeptech Companies by Ms.Aga Bajer, Founder & CEO at CultureBrained®*
- 15:00 Projects presentation III: 7 minutes pitch + 3 minutes of Q&A
- 15:40 Closing Session by Mr. Spyros Kouvelis, Director EPLO Institute for Sustainable Development
*Speakers pending confirmation.
Register now!
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 🚀 🔥
You can also join our MISSION!
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S3E CHARGE acceleration program kicks-off to support growth startups
S3E team kicked off the CHARGE Acceleration program with an onboarding session with the growth startups selected through the Open Call #1.
The growth startups introduced themselves and their deep tech innovations. They all had the chance to meet each other creating a perfect atmosphere for collaboration, networking and opportunities to grow. During the following 14 weeks, S3E team and the assigned Mentors will be supporting the selected participants defining their business plans and go to market strategies.
About S3E CHARGE acceleration program
S3E Charge offers a 14-week tailor-made mentoring and networking program to develop an investment-ready business plan and support the access to non-dilutable and dilutable funding.
The mentoring process will guide the growth start-up teams in the development of a business plan for a product, service or process that makes them investment ready and takes their validated business case to an investor attractive level. So, they will acquire skills in technology commercialisation, science-based entrepreneurship, business development and intellectual property protection using their own business offerings through tailor-made mentorship.
When the selected startups finish the program, they will have developed a business plan for a product, service or process and acquired skills and be investment ready to:
- link their product/service/process product with market needs,
- better communicate their offerings to potential clients and investors,
- become market ready to pitch, persuade and readapt their business offerings to different audiences, depending on market needs
- connect to ‘Innovation Leaders’ and ‘Strong Innovators’ Ecosystems
- better understand to protect IP
- prepare an investment ready business plan
- get access to funds and funding
The outcome of the S3E Charge will better position them to apply for public or private funding and programs, because it will help them link their business offerings to market needs and become market ready to pitch and attract investments whilst having validated and honed your business plan and your value proposition.
Stay tuned for further communications!
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S3E START acceleration program kicks-off to support deep tech researchers
S3E team kicked off the START Acceleration program with an onboarding session with the 16 research teams and tech transfer offices selected through the Open Call #1.
The research teams presented their deep tech innovations and the tech transfer offices their research work. They all had the chance to meet each other creating a perfect atmosphere for collaboration and networking opportunities. During the kick off meeting, held virtually, we celebrated the first webinar of the training series called “War Stories'' with Joana Simões Correia and Thiago Gomes, former participants of the HiEngine program that inspired S3E START.
Joana Simões Correia is a co-founder and the Executive Director of Exogenus Therapeutics. With a PhD in Human Biology, she dedicated more than 15 years of her career to research in the area of human diseases, including cancer genetics and regenerative medicine. Author of several high impact papers and patents, she has been a pioneer in exploring the therapeutic potential of umbilical cord blood derived exosomes as a therapeutic tool. Since 2015 she has been leading Exogenus Therapeutics research and development team and activities and has been recognized several times for the excellence of her work, nationally and internationally (eg. ANJE Young Entrepreneur Award 2015, Everis Foundation Award 2016, Prémio Empreendedor XXI 2019). Under her leadership, Exogenus Therapeutics has conquered a distinguished position in the field and is recognized has a leading company harnessing the potential of exosomes as a therapeutic tool for diseases of high unmet need.
Thiago Gomes is the Co-Founder & CEO of a StartUp called BioReboot. BioReboot is a Startup that focuses on reusing and transforming agricultural waste into a biomaterial that has the potential to replace single-use plastics in the agriculture sector. It was the winner of the StartNOW 2020 acceleration program powered by StartUP Madeira. It represented the Autonomous Region of Madeira in the first phase of Climatelaunchpad 2021, the Global Green Business Ideas Competition. Currently, it represents the University of Madeira in the Born from Knowledge 2021 Competition.
Joana and Thiago gave participants an inspirational speech about their drive to be entrepreneurs, their successful experiences, sharing advices and learning, and the reasons behind their participation in the program that inspired S3E START.
During the following 18 weeks, S3E team and the designed Mentors will be supporting the selected participants defining their pathways from the lab to the market.
About S3E START acceleration program
The S3E Start includes online classes (mainly on the topics related to the development of a business case for deep tech projects) and webinars (on diverse topics pertinent to the development of the relevant skills). These in-class tutorials will account for less than half of the total workload of the Program, the remaining time being allocated to group meetings facilitated by the mentors. There are deliverables to be fulfilled each week and these deliverables will guide the participants throughout the three phases of the Program, namely:
IDEATION PHASE: In this phase a set of clearly defined product concepts will be developed and prioritized considering the linkages between the unique capabilities of the technologies and customer/market needs (Technology-Product-Market linkages). Each team is required to generate multiple product concepts that can be enabled by each technology. Then research teams will have to identify diverse market opportunities for each product concept to further specify product attributes.
DEVELOPMENT PHASE: In this phase teams will refine, improve, validate and select among the product concepts devised in the ‘ideation’ phase using a guided approach that will force them to contact the ‘market’ to challenge and sustain each of the T-P-M linkages proposed in the ideation phase. In the early stages of this phase, teams will be looking for ‘fatal flaws’ (product or market) that will justify ‘dumping’ one (or more) T-P-M linkage(s). With the information gathered from the market teams will develop “value propositions” for their products using a standard format that will force them to (i) clearly define the product, (ii) tie customer needs to the benefits of using the product in economic terms and (iii) differentiate the product from competitors based on unique product features. Additionally, they will build a business model that, for the product moving forward, describes the rationale of how the company will create, deliver, and capture value. Throughout this phase participants will have to use a set of management tools (e.g., 5 Forces Analysis, SWOT Analysis, Industry Mapping, “Voice of the Customer”, etc.) to gain a much better understanding of the way the market works and will be supported by the tools embedded in the approach, thus fine-tuning their product concept choices.
COMMERCIALIZATION PHASE: In this phase teams put the pieces of the puzzle together by building a strategy to bring the product to market. This phase begins with the definitions of the pricing point and the sales plan answering strategic questions such as market traction and market entry point(s). Additionally, drawing on the business model previously designed teams will define their development roadmap that will allow them to build the financial projections and risk analysis. At this stage teams will have all the elements needed to produce a business case and a final pitch that will be the final deliverables for the Program.
