As part of the EIC Tech to Market (T2M) Programme Entrepreneurship Programme, the European Innovation Council (EIC) invites EIC Pathfinder (former FET-Open and FET-Proactive), EIC Transition, and all innovators eligible for EIC Tech to Market (see section “Who can apply”) to apply for the EIC T2M Business Validation Programme. The new batch will kick off in October 2024.

The Programme, which takes place from 14th October to 9th December 2024, includes intensive online courses, masterclasses, coaching, and interviews to focus on your product-market fit value proposition and customer discovery. 

The former participants found the Programme's dynamic to be very motivating. Individual coaching is the preferred feature of the Programme as it allows participants to truly question their product, market, and value proposition, whereas the interaction in collective sessions provided them with opportunities to get reciprocal feedback and insights from their peers and mentors.

 
Are you interested in this opportunity?
Make sure to apply until 4 October 2024! 

What to expect from the Programme?

The EIC T2M Business Validation Programme aims to help researchers through an immersive course for in-depth Business Model development and testing through Design Thinking approaches to build a sound Business Model and refine it through a market reality check.  

The Programme is 8 weeks of online courses, masterclasses, coaching and interviews with stakeholders that encompass testing the business model and check its market-fit by: 

1. Identifying target users/Customer discovery
2. Understanding the needs of the target users/customers 
3. Designing and assessing the market-oriented value proposition

 
Activities and timeline:

The programme will take place, online, over 2 months, starting from 14th October to 9th December 2024.

• 8 weeks (10 to 20 hours/week) of online courses, collective sessions, masterclasses, individual coaching and interviews with stakeholders.
  • Week 1 to 3: Introduction to Design Thinking and observation phase (3 hours of online content). In this phase, you will precise your consumer target profile, the overview of your competitors and the market opportunity.
  • Week 4 to 5: Conception & Prototype (3 hours of online content). In this phase, you will draw your value proposition and build the first version of your prototype (minimum sellable product).
  • Week 6: Business Model & Test (3 hours of online content). In this phase, we will help you to build your business model with a tool and to test your prototype with potential consumers to collect their feedback.
  • Week 7 to 8: Pitch & Launch (3 hours of online content). In this phase, we will give you tips on how to pitch in front of a public and some tools to acquire first clients and bêta testers without raising money.

 

Topics of collective sessions:

• Market and user observation 
• Benchmark
• Value proposition design
• Lean startup discovery
• Prototyping
• Pitch

 

Who can apply?

The application for this initiative is open only to EIC Pathfinder (ex. FET-Open and FET-Proactive), EIC Transition, ERC-POC, FET Flagship, Women TechEU beneficiaries and EIC Seal of Excellence holders. 

Please note that projects from all domains and sectors are welcome to apply.

The EIC T2M Business Validation Programme 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 or a business profile).
• 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 availability is limited, and 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 2 months of training programmes
• Business idea development stage

 

EIC Business Acceleration Services

This opportunity is brought to you by the EIC Business Acceleration Services through its Tech to 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.

The services to be delivered will cover EIC beneficiaries from all the countries participating in the EIC programme, namely, all the 27 EU Member States and Horizon Europe Associated Countries. 

To learn more about EIC Tech to Market (T2M) programmes, check out the FAQ 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.

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).