Pan-European contest to drive entrepreneurship
Twenty-four early stage start-ups across Europe have been given the opportunity to become part of the pan-European ecosystem of EIT ICT Labs and help their businesses get up and running. Launching the Idea Challenge, ICT Labs says it aims to foster young entrepreneurial talents and spur ICT innovation for economic growth.
ICT Labs has invited young innovators wanting to start a new business and early stage start-ups to submit their cutting edge ideas. Successful participants will win up to €40,000 cash, office space for six months, and coaching and mentoring from experts of the ICT Labs Business Development Accelerator. Prize winners will also become part of the European innovation ecosystem of ICT Labs, which provides access to a network of investors and venture capitalists as well as to the European market through leading multinational corporations.
The Idea Challenge is a European contest and will be held in eight European cities where ICT Labs is represented through its co-location centres, namely London, Eindhoven, Rennes, Trento, Berlin, Munich, Helsinki and Stockholm. Each city has a dedicated topic that needs to be addressed in the idea proposals. The topics cover the eight most important trends in ICT: health and wellbeing; smart spaces; cyber-physical systems; future cloud; cyber security and privacy; the Internet of Things; urban life and mobility or smart energy systems.
Applicants from all over Europe can submit their proposals online until 20 April 2014 for the topics health and wellbeing, smart spaces, cyber-physical systems and future cloud. Ideas that address cyber security and privacy, the Internet of Things, urban life and mobility can be submitted from 1 September to 30 September 2014.
