Support opportunity for agri-food start-ups (EIT Food Seedbed, 15.3.2020)

The below information is about the ongoing recruitment for a free-of-charge program supporting innovative agri-food startups, EIT Food Seedbed.

The program is implemented by EIT Food, a consortium of over 50 partners including European companies, research institutes and universities, organised as part of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), part of European Commission. EIT Food is the largest European initiative supporting innovations in the agri-food sector. EIT Food programs are co-financed by the European Union as part of the Horizon 2020 program.

EIT Food Seedbed supports people, who have entrepreneurial ideas in areas related to the agri-food sector or have already established a start-up company. The beneficiaries will gain expert support (training and mentoring) and financial support (reimbursement of travel costs for project bootcamps, meetings with mentors and potential customers, up to 10,000€, and the best start-ups will also receive cash prizes awarded by EIT Food). The unique element of the program is support for the verification of feasibility of the business idea and technical solutions by means of a structured dialogue with potential customers (customer discovery process), implemented based on methodology developed by EIT Food, in co-operation with specialist trainers and mentors, facilitated by the financial support offered to start-ups.

The program is run in English language in five European hubs: in Poland, Northern Ireland, Germany, Spain and Denmark. The organizing team includes: Queen's University of Belfast, University of Cambridge, Aarhus University, University of Warsaw and seven companies-leaders of the agri-food sector. Detailed information about the program can be found at: https://www.eitfood.eu/entrepreneurship/projects/Seedbed and on the website of Seedbed Hub Warsaw: http://timo.wz.uw.edu.pl/Seedbed, where you can also find testimonials of startups and mentors, who participated in Seedbed last year.

The website includes also a link to application form on start-up portal F6S: https://www.f6s.com/seedbed2020/apply

Application deadline is March the 15th, 2020 and we strongly encourage early submissions. Applicants should present an innovative idea, which has the potential to make a big impact on any part of the food sector including the way we produce, deliver, consume and recycle our food. Apart from typical agri-food solutions, start-ups may also operate in fields related to the food system, including: machines and equipment for agriculture and food manufacturing, logistics, packaging, ICT solutions, food waste reduction, business services or social innovations. The program addresses idea holders and early-stage startups, so we particularly encourage applications from students and scientists, whose business idea is connected with their technological research, and its further development requires specialist business skills and contacts with potential customers in various European countries.

If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us by e-mail or ask questions via our application website: https://www.f6s.com/seedbed2020