Creative community, advanced know-how, unique programme, expert trainers and mentors, this is EIT Jumpstarter. With the contribution of best-in-class experts, creative community, unique know-how our aim is to support idea-holders to turn their ideas into business. We help innovators and entrepreneurs build a viable business model around their innovative product or service idea, validate it and if their business idea is proven to be sustainable, we encourage them to register their company.
The strategic aim of this program is to create a sustainable impact in the Central-Eastern and Southern-European Regions by boosting innovation and entrepreneurship within this part of Europe. The program’s concept originates from the real needs of the innovation ecosystem of these regions. Countries face similar challenges; they have enormous innovation potential, with bright scientific minds, but the research results are likely to remain within the labs. At the same time, there is a significant number of needs that have been unmet from the corporate side. To overcome these challenges connecting the innovative solutions with the articulated demands from the industry and increase the competitiveness of our regions – six EIT Communities teamed up to jointly running EIT Jumpstarter. The competition is organized by EIT Health, EIT RawMaterials EIT Food, EIT InnoEnergy, EIT Manufacturing and EIT Urban Mobility. They are six Knowledge and Innovation Communities of EIT, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology. They bring together businesses, research centres and universities as partners creating a favourable environment for creative thought and innovation to flourish. EIT is a valuable, credible partner to get your business idea up and running.
Graduates of the program possess the skills and knowledge to launch their company, and as part of the alumni community, they receive further support and dedicated advisory from the EIT Communities regarding the next stage of their start-up journey. We introduce teams to partners, VCs, regulatory bodies and companies that can produce their products, their first buyer or a test site. They meet major innovation hubs in Europe, which is important when they want to enter foreign markets.
The program has trained more than start-up teams since 2017, and interest in our competition is growing. In 2019 EIT Jumpstarter won the Best Association Training Initiative Award of the European Association Awards.
As of its 2021 edition, EIT Jumpstarter is accepting applications from the fields that the New European Bauhaus initiative covers.
The New European Bauhaus proposes to focus our conversations on the places we inhabit and on our relationship with natural environments, beyond the built space. It is a practical approach to discover beautiful, sustainable and inclusive ways of living and to use them to inspire our way forward. It is also a design lab, accelerator and network at the same time. A creative and interdisciplinary movement, convening a space of encounter to recuperate and revisit sustainable practices from, empower the most inspiring practices of today, and design future ways of living, at the crossroads between art, culture and science.
Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Montenegro, Republic of North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Réunion, Martinique, Mayotte and Saint-Martin (France), the Azores and Madeira (Portugal), and the Canary Islands (Spain).
Additional eligible countries in the RawMaterials field: Austria, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg, France, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Ireland.
Are you part of a scientific project team, innovator, scientist, PhD student or master’s student with a product or service idea to disrupt the existing markets in healthcare, agri-food, raw materials, energy, urban mobility or manufacturing sectors? Do you want to bring your idea out of the lab to the market? Then EIT Jumpstarter is ideal for you.
During the 8 months-long programs, you will find and validate the best business model for your innovative idea. The courses build on the lean start-up methodology from Silicon Valley translated to the European Environment. You will learn about: how to refine your deal, market segmentation, customer value proposition, market segmentation, financials, investment basics, legal basics
You will receive travel and accommodation support during the program, and the best teams in each category will have the chance to win a €10,000 money prize.
EIT Jumpstarter is a very selective, competitive program; participating in it opens doors towards the European markets and connects the best teams with the six EIT Communities’ large industrial partners such as GE Healthcare, Siemens, Philips, Roche, Bosch, Nestlé, Pepsico and Maspex, among others.
