As part of the EIC Tech to Market (EIC T2M) Entrepreneurship Programme, the European Innovation Council (EIC) invites EIC Pathfinder (former FET-Open & FET- Proactive), EIC Transition beneficiaries and EIC Seals of Excellence to apply for the EIC T2M Business Idea Validation Bootcamp. The Business Idea Validation Bootcamp initiative will start on the 6th of June and will include collective workshops, team coaching, and interviews over 4 weeks to design the business model based on your initial idea and to test it outside the lab. 

Are you interested in this opportunity?
Make sure to Apply until 29 May 2023! 

 

What to expect from the Bootcamp?

The EIC T2M Business Idea Validation Bootcamp aims to help researchers to bring their project from the research stage to impact creating innovation by using the Design Thinking Methodology. Starting from a common baseline, the programme includes personalised, step by step support to strengthen the value proposition and align it with respect to the market needs, get feedback and insights from customers and investors, get tailored training and support to pre-validate the business model. 

The EIC T2M Business Idea Validation Bootcamp is a 4 weeks support programme to help participants align their research results with real business challenges and receive real-world inputs from industry representatives and investors to strengthen their value proposition and align it to the market needs. 

The programme is aimed to evaluate the business idea and its market readiness by: 

1. Applying an entrepreneurial mindset to research outcomes
2. Strengthening business and design thinking skills
3. Developing and validating the business model with support and feedback from experts 
4. Perform a 'reality check' on the developed business model

Activities and timeline:

• 4 weeks (8 to 12 hours/week) of group training activities and mentoring, plus one-to-one feedback from market stakeholders/investors through direct online interviews.
  • Week 1: Introductory session and introduction to the design thinking methodology (4 hours). 
  • Week 2: Group sessions (8 to 12 hours). Development, planning and design of your business idea/hypothesis.
  • Week 3: Online interviews with stakeholders (8 hours). This week is devoted to testing and validating your business idea viability through interviews with at least 10 industry/market representatives and investors.
  • Week 4: Group sessions (8 to 12 hours). Support to integrate the feedback, make the final adjustments of your business idea and business plan and to explore the funding opportunities for early-stage investments in the creation of your business.

Topics covered in training and mentoring sessions:

• Introduction to Design Thinking Methodology
• Business Model design and Business Model Canvas
• Business Idea and Planning
• Business Idea Validation
• Impactful pitching for fundraising and business development
• Access to Funding for early-stage businesses

 

Who can apply?

The application for this initiative is open only to EIC Pathfinder (ex. FET-Open and FET-Proactive) and EIC Transition beneficiaries. Please note that projects from all domains and sectors are welcome to apply.

The EIC T2M Business Idea Validation Bootcamp is open to motivated teams of researchers and to individual researchers. For teams, complementary profiles are considered to form eligible and successful teams and provide high-quality engagement. The profile of participants can be:

• Entrepreneurial lead/representative: responsible for the business orientation and entrepreneurial side of the idea/innovation (usually postdocs, PhD students or any researcher that could imagine herself or himself as a potential entrepreneur).
• Technology lead/representative: responsible for driving the technical direction of the idea/innovation and focused on how technology can be used to support business objectives.     

The number of places is limited, a selection committee will choose the best applications based on the following criteria:

• Strong motivation of the team to work on the entrepreneurial project
• Dedicated time to attend an intensive one months of training programmes
• Business idea maturity/development stage

 

Additional information

EIC Business Acceleration Services

This opportunity is brought to you by the EIC Business Acceleration Services through its Tech 2 Market Programme. All participants need to fill out a short quality survey just after the event and an impact survey after six months.
To explore further opportunities, keep an eye on our events page.

 

Cancellation policy

Cancellations will only be considered in duly documented cases of “force majeure”. Unjustified cancellation can lead to exclusion in future Business Acceleration Services events.

Need help?

Should you have any questions regarding the event or your eligibility, please contact us through our contact page (please choose “EIC T2M Entrepreneurship Programme” as the subject).