From idea to a new business

Great Teams and Innovative Business Ideas at the Second Cross-KIC EIT RIS Business Planning Bootcamp in Budapest, Hungary.

Organised jointly by EIT RawMaterials, EIT Health and EIT Food in cooperation with Climate-KIC, the second edition of the Business Idea Competition has become a proven concept, successful in educating young entrepreneurs, thus fostering innovation. As the first stage of the Competition, the three Innovation Communities together organise three Bootcamps in EIT RIS regions with the aim of delivering fundamental business planning skills, and further insights and training on how to talk with potential customers and investors.

This year there were 229 applications from the three thematic fields in total. EIT RawMaterials received 68 applications from 25 different countries, from teams comprising 156 participants. We evaluated eligible teams on the innovativeness of their idea, identification of an existing problem, risks, market opportunity, motivation and team. 75 projects were selected based on excellence (25 from each thematic field). The teams selected by EIT RawMaterials are based in 13 different countries and consist of 64 participants. Representatives of these teams (45 young innovators) with great scientific knowledge in their field, but none or little business education, will participate in the Business Planning bootcamps to get trained on how to transform their idea into a business. The teams selected by EIT RawMaterials cover the entire raw materials value chain, from technologies to improve the exploration of ores to innovative materials, from a solution for improving recycling of WEEE and magnets to new solutions and business models to develop a circular economy approach.

After the promising kick-off bootcamp in Zagreb, Croatia one week earlier, the Budapest Bootcamp, organised on 11-12 May, was hosted by the Technical University of Budapest, a partner of EIT Health. The third bootcamp will be held in Warsaw, Poland between 15-17 June. After the bootcamps, the participants will enter into a competition, where the top five teams from each field will be selected and will have the opportunity to receive further training and mentoring and eventually compete at the Joint Pitch Finals and have the chance to win EUR 10,000.

The second edition of the Joint Business Ideas Competition is a continuation of a successfully started Cross-KIC collaboration focusing on participants from countries within the EIT RIS.

Follow-up with participants of the first edition showed that the mixed thematic environment was a winner; some of them made substantial progress in turning their ideas into business. EIT’s three Innovation Communities trained more than one hundred innovators, who now add value to their extensive network.