EIT Jumpstarter offers a 5-month pre-acceleration programme for early-stage innovators from over 22 countries. Participants can compete for a first prize of up to €10,000 across 8 categories.
ApplyEIT Jumpstarter promotes innovation and entrepreneurship in Central, Eastern, and Southern Europe. By addressing the unique needs of these regions, we aim to create a lasting economic impact.
To drive innovation and market access, tackling global challenges through collaborative efforts.
Collaborating with Horizon Europe, EIT Knowledge and Innovation Communities, businesses, research centres, and universities.
During and After the Programme
Our programme equips early-stage innovators with the essential skills and knowledge to launch their businesses. Alumni benefit from ongoing support and advice from the EIT Communities for the next stage of their start-up journey.
Countries
EU Member States: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Greece, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia
Horizon Europe Associated Countries: Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Türkiye, Ukraine
Outermost Regions: Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Réunion, Martinique, Mayotte and Saint-Martin (France), the Azores and Madeira (Portugal), and the Canary Islands (Spain)
And additional regions: Moldova, Albania
European Union Partners
The EIT Jumpstarter is powered by 7 EIT Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs). Each KIC focuses on a key sector, offering expertise and resources to help early-stage innovators turn ideas into successful ventures.
Thematic Areas
Empower
Our programme provides essential training, mentorship, and networking to help turn innovative ideas into successful enterprises.
Our programme is designed to support innovators in regions eligible for the RIS, ensuring that local talents receive the guidance they need.
Regional support is crucial for promoting innovation and driving economic growth in local communities.
The EIT Jumpstarter programme plays a vital role in bridging the gap between ideas and market access, helping innovators thrive.
Martim Perestrelo, LUMA Co-Founder & CTOWe learned how to highlight the most important aspects of our business in the pitch deck and […] now understand the main value proposition of our service and what is the essential aspects that juries or investors want to see when they listen to our presentations.
Filip Koprčina, Energy Shift Founder and CEO [EIT Jumpstarter] connected us with an amazing mentor from the relevant VC firm, that helped us improve our pitch deck and frame our ideas in an attractive way from the investor’s perspective, which proved to be successful so far.
Anthony Rosa, Alghètica CEO & FounderThe main thing EIT Jumpstarter taught us is that often start-ups are formed by technical people who speak the same “language”. Still, in some cases, that’s not the case, and in a varied team, it helps to understand better how to communicate appropriately to maximize efficiency.
Miljan Simonovic, NeWay CEO & Co-FounderEIT Jumpstarter had a great impact on our understanding of building a startup company, what are our future tasks, the risks to have in mind, etc. We consider it as a fantastic mentorship programme and during this period, we were exceptionally motivated to continuously work on developing our platform.
Luis Valente, ILoF“I cannot be happier about this prize. We work closely with pharmaceutical companies, so the money will be used to fast track our product in market and make sure our solutions reaches patients as soon as possible”,
Timur Sirman, MagnoTherm team“This joint business bootcamp with Food and Health and RawMaterials all coming together really inspired us and showed us new perspective on our own business idea, and also on the other side working in this international environment really boosted us to do the next step.”
Marios Chryssolouris, Freshstrips CEO“The most important thing we got during the competition is valuable feedback on various aspects of our business and good connections to industry partners and general advice about how to start our business. EIT is down the right road to bring us up to par with innovation capitals like San Francisco.”
Joao Ribas, Nebula-X team CEO“We are very excited to continue this process and learn more for the next steps, and hopefully continue taking advantage of the excellent initiatives that EIT Health promotes.”
Miguel Cerqueira, 2B NanoFood“We can name lots of benefits from the EIT Jumpstarter – we have reached several achievements, made so many contacts, all the mentoring that we had in all these months is measureless, and of course the prize that will help us move forward.”-
Start Now
Apply now to turn your innovative ideas into successful businesses with our expert guidance.
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