The Portuguese Who Inspired the Creation of the EU Innovation Award

The Portuguese Who Inspired the Creation of the EU Innovation Award

by | Jul 29, 2015 | Uncategorized

EU Innovation Award

Diogo Vasconcelos was the Portuguese politician who inspired the creation of the European Commission Innovation Competition back in 2012, only a year after his death. He dedicated his work to innovation (including helping in Beta-i’s early stage) and the support of decentralized models to address some of the major global social challenges. The European Social Innovation Competition is now already on its 3rd edition, organized by the UE and supported by NESTA, Kennisland, Shipyard, Impact Hub and Matter&Co.

Yesterday, 28th of July, 30 projects were selected semi-finalists from a list of over 1400 candidates applying for the 50k prize with ideas related to New Ways to Grow, the sustainable value and inclusive society projects requested by the jury in this 2015 edition. One of the short-listed projects is the Portuguese Padaria Pão com História, focused on education and youth through the implementation of a bakery located in a vulnerable district. The bakery intends to create lasting jobs and reduce school drop-out and absenteeism. Know more about it here.

Over 40 countries contributed with applications on social matters which are considered great concerns for the Europeans. Ideas on how to promote inclusion, education and youth, employment, health and aging population, climate change, food waste and environment were the most approached ones.

In November, 10 finalists will be selected, 3 of which will each be awarded a €50,000 prize at the awards ceremony in Brussels. You can follow the competition for the latest semi-finalist profile updates and competition news on Twitter  #diogochallenge.

 

Want to be the next Portuguese idea selected for the European Award?

Do you have an idea on one of these above mentioned topics or any other? Would you like to apply to future editions of the European Competition? Start working on your idea now by applying to the national wide reference in pre-acceleration, Beta-start. Applications are open until the 31st of July.

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Beta-start: Are you ready to start?

Beta-start: Are you ready to start?

by | Jul 25, 2015 | Uncategorized

Start

Start

From coming up with an idea to launching a new business, there’s a long and rough way to go. It involves doing a lot of market research, finding a sustainable business model, building the right team, developing a product and crafting a business strategy.

At Beta-start, you can cover all within a 4 weeks program. On each week we will guide entrepreneurs in a very structured way. The core of the program is what is called the Lean Innovation, an Action-Learning method developed by Beta-i in which you are going to have lots of workshops and hands-on activities.

What’s On Us?

We will introduce you to the entrepreneurial ecosystem and get you to meet tons of entrepreneurs, mentors and investors. Feel free to search about Beta-i’s network and write down who you would like to meet, just ask us for it.

When selected for Beta-start, you’ll have a specific coach for your project who will guide you and help you during your journey. Besides coaches, there is an incredible network of mentors and entrepreneurs attending regular Beta-i events and Beta-start workshops.

What’s On You?

We are looking for 1st time entrepreneurs who are proactive and willing to spend 4 weeks of intense work with us. It’s a valuable learning experience, thus we don’t want you to come with an existing product expecting to be able to improve it during Beta-start. Instead, we want people presenting us real problems, getting out of the building to understand if that problem applies to others and going deeper and deeper on the solution.

Ready to start the craziest journey of your lives?

The post Beta-start: Are you ready to start? appeared first on Beta-Start.