EIT Digital Venture Program (EIT Digital Incubator) 2024

Description

Venture Program (EIT Digital Incubator) The EIT Digital Venture Program (EIT Digital Incubator) is a two-stage competition whose mission is to support the establishment of deep technology-based ventures by helping innovators in: developing and finalizing their Minimum Viable Product (MVP)1, e.g. a market-validated functioning version of their product  establishing their company.  The program is executed and delivered by Innovation Partners of EIT Digital. The Innovation Partners of EIT Digital also support EIT Digital in communication and dissemination of the Venture Program to increase the number of applications during the marketing and outreach campaign.  In 2023 program was delivered in 22 countries. In the last 6 years, the EIT Digital Venture Program (EIT Digital Incubator) has invested in the creation of 160 deep tech startups, supporting more than 200 entrepreneurs in their early stages of development.  In March 2021 Greek startup Oliveex, a graduate of the 2020 edition of the Venture Program (EIT Digital Incubator), closed a €270K financing round to expand its team, and boost research and development activities. Another 2020 graduate, Revolab, quickly went from inception to closing a pre-seed round and expanding to the US. Polish startup Restimo in the end of 2022 has raised €255,000 to develop its RestHub application for the catering industry. 2023 graduate FinQbit (Poland) developing quantum computing algorithms for financial institutions raised 120,000 from Techstars Berlin.  EIT Digital reserves the right to choose at its entire discretion and without any further liability on EIT Digital’s part, to not execute this edition of the program if the number of applications does not reach the required amount for the development of the program. EIT Digital shall communicate said circumstance to the applicants of the cancelled edition as soon as reasonably possible.  For more details on the Venture Program (EIT Digital Incubator) 2024 process, please refer to the Annex A on the call document available at this page.

Beneficiary & submission

The EIT Digital is looking for EIT Digital Venture Program (EIT Digital Incubator) Partners in Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine, the Azores and Madeira (Portugal), Germany and Sweden to support for development and deployment of local Venture Program (EIT Digital Incubator) editions in mentioned countries. The process is guided by EIT Digital Strategic Innovation Agenda 2022-2024 (SIA), which identifies the five focus areas of our strategy: Digital Tech, Digital Industry, Digital Cities, Digital Wellbeing and Digital Finance. An overview is available on page 13 of the SIA. As a result, proposals are expected to be aligned with these areas. EIT Digital is a partnership-based organization. Organisations that are not yet a Partner are expected to initiate their application for partnership before the submission of the proposal. If the proposal is selected, the application must then be completed before the start of the activity. It is highly recommended to be in contact with EIT Digital before the submission date to ensure a clear understanding of the partnership requirements.  More information including details on how to become a partner are available at: https://www.eitdigital.eu/our-community/become-a-partner/  Proposal Submission  Proposals need to be filled and submitted via the EIT Digital submission system before the deadline on March 5, 2024, 5 pm CET (Brussels time).  Should the quality or number of proposals be insufficient, EIT Digital reserves the right to open a second submission before the March 10, 2024, to collect and assess new EIT Digital Venture Program (EIT Digital Incubator) Partner proposals.  Please contact the relevant EIT Digital Office if you need assistance or have further questions about EIT Digital in general and Venture Program 2024 in particular and check the program’s FAQ available in website.  Funding requirements  The maximum EIT funding amount is 30,000 € per program edition. The co-funding requirement for the Partner at the Activity level is minimally 40% of the total budget of the KIC Added Value Activity (KAVA). The following are examples of potential setups of an Activity budget:  Total Activity budget 50k €  EIT funding amount requested: 30k€.  Partners must provide minimally 40% in co-funding, i.e., at least 20k€.  EIT Digital funding is delivered in two tranches from the start of the activity:  The first tranche, amounting to 25% of EIT Digital funding, is disbursed at the activity’s start once the contractual and partnership requirements are completed  The final tranche, amounting to up to 75% of EIT Digital funding, is disbursed once the delivery has been completed, reported and evaluated. If the delivery is incomplete, the committed KPIs have not been achieved or the quality of the deliverables is substandard, penalties may apply on this final EIT Digital disbursement, affecting the total amount of EIT Digital funding.  Evaluation Process  Each eligible submitted application shall be evaluated by two external experts and one internal expert from EIT Digital. The main selection criteria are the demonstration of capabilities to deliver a local edition of Venture Program (EIT Digital Incubator) which in the view of the evaluators holds the most promise to be successful.  The assessment by experts’ team (both External and EIT Digital’s) will be based on the questions below. Internal reviewers will be asked to provide an assessment for each question, as well as an assessment and comments of the whole proposal.  Evaluation Stages  There are the following stages in the Evaluation Process:  Eligibility Check: Verification of basic eligibility criteria compliance.  Expert Review: Detailed assessment by the experts’ team based on specific criteria.  Consensus Meeting: Final discussion and scoring by a panel to decide on the selected proposals.  Evaluation Criteria  Proposals are evaluated on a scale of 0 to 5 across the following questions based on Excellence, Impact, Quality of Implementation and EIT Digital strategic alignment:  Excellence > Applicant Outreach and Diversity (20%): What strategies does the proposal show to attract a diverse range of applicants, with a specific focus on the percentage of female applicants?  Impact > Startup Success Rate (20%): What is your success rate in terms of the number of startups that have successfully incorporated post-program? How do you measure and ensure the success of startups after they complete the program?  >Investment Attraction (20%): What is the partner track record or potential in assisting startups to secure external investment?  >Commercial Impact (10%): How does the proposal plan to ensure that startups achieve commercial traction as a result of your program?  Quality of Implementation  >Program Delivery Capacity (20%): How is the proposal demonstrating the effective organization and delivery of a local edition of a Venture Program?  EIT Digital Strategic Alignment:  >Alignment with EIT Digital’s Strategic Objectives (10%): How does your proposal contribute to EIT Digital’s broader goals, particularly in terms of innovation and technological development? In what specific ways is your program aligned with and supportive of EIT Digital's strategic objectives?  Minimum Threshold: Each criterion must score at least 3 out of 5 and the overall minimum threshold is 70% of the total possible score.  Feedback and Revision: Applicants will receive constructive feedback for improvement. Proposals close to the threshold may be given an opportunity to revise and resubmit.  Final Selection: Final selection will be based on the proposal’s ability to meet the scoring criteria while also considering strategic alignment with EIT Digital’s objectives. This revised scoring structure is tailored to emphasize the key aspects crucial for the success of local editions of the EIT Digital Venture Program (EIT Digital Incubator), ensuring a comprehensive evaluation of potential partners' ability to contribute meaningfully to the program's goals.  Scoring grid  Experts score each question on a scale from 0 to 5:  0 – Proposal fails to address the criterion or cannot be assessed due to mission or incomplete information.  1 – Poor. The criterion is inadequately addressed or there are serious inherent weaknesses.  2 – Fair. The proposal broadly addresses the criterion, but there are significant weaknesses.  3 – Good. The proposal addresses the criterion well, but a number of shortcomings are present.  4 – Very good. The proposal addresses the criterion very well, but a small number of shortcomings are present.  5 – Excellent. The proposal successfully addresses all relevant aspects of the criterion. Any shortcomings are minor. 

Further information

The Venture Program (EIT Digital Incubator) 2024 call is open to residents in countries listed hereinafter. EU Member States: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Germany. H2020 Associated Countries in Europe: Montenegro, Republic of North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine.  Outermost Regions: Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Réunion, Martinique, Mayotte and Saint-Martin (France), the Azores and Madeira (Portugal), and the Canary Islands (Spain).