Partnering with EIT Climate-KIC on the New Accelerator - Call for Expression of Interest

The Expression of Interest phase for potential partners is now open until 29 November 2020.

EIT Climate-KIC is looking for new and existing partners to collaborate on the New Accelerator programme.

Over the last ten years, the EIT Climate-KIC Accelerator programme has supported over 2 000 start-ups in 32 locations across Europe with access to resources, tools, mentoring and networks. Along with 33 partners, EIT Climate-KIC has helped many climate positive ventures mature into scalable businesses that have contributed to the fight against climate change and its impacts.

Over the last decade, however, the context has changed. The science shows that climate emergency is even more urgent than we realised ten years ago, and the need for systemic change in tackling it is even more pressing. In response, the entrepreneurship support landscape in Europe has changed dramatically. In order to adapt and meet this challenge head-on, the EIT Climate-KIC Accelerator Programme has been refocused and new elements have been introduced based on our strategy, Transformation, in Time.

With that in mind, EIT Climate-KIC has chosen to shift from a supply-led to a demand-led model. EIT Climate-KIC will operate as an innovation ecosystem connecting ‘demand’ with ‘supply’ to catalyse transformational systemic change. This requires bringing different actors – cities, regions, countries, companies, start-ups or individuals – together to successfully tackle the complex challenges ahead of us.

Discover more about EIT Climate-KIC

How to get involved

The goal is to enable partners to effectively run Accelerators. Together, we can work as a collective of actors that will build on the operating system and catalyse entrepreneurship to tackle climate change. EIT Climate-KIC is looking forward to working with new as well as existing partners to bring climate entrepreneurship to the necessary scale. If you have a particular interest in a topic, or experience in supporting climate entrepreneurs, please make sure to check the Expression of Interest guidelines.

The New Accelerator will have three pillars, running on the same watertight ‘operating system’, operated by EIT Climate-KIC.

Pillar 1: Themed Accelerator

EIT Climate-KIC is looking for partners (a consortium) to co-launch EIT Climate-KIC mission which is to build the world’s most prominent accelerator(s) in these thematic areas.

Pillar 2: Place-based Accelerator in RIS Countries

EIT Climate-KIC is looking for partners (a consortium) to build and enhance climate start-up ecosystems in 14 RIS countries through an effective accelerator and to source the start-ups with the highest climate impact potential. The EIT Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS) is a dedicated programme to accelerate climate innovation across eastern and southern Europe. More information on RIS eligible countries is available here.

Pillar 3: Open Licence Accelerator

EIT Climate-KIC is sharing the assets created over the past ten years to build the largest global alliance of green accelerators by providing support and licences to green accelerators across the globe. More details about this pillar will be shared in due course.

EIT Climate-KIC recently hosted a webinar for partners, please consult these slides for more information.

Next steps

If you would like to collaborate with EIT Climate-KIC on the New Accelerator, the Expressions of Interest phase is open, and we invite you to send us your proposal by 29 November 2020 at 23:59 (CET).

EIT Climate-KIC has one partner webinar on the Themed Accelerator coming up on 11 November at 16:00 (CET). If interested, please sign-up here.

Guidelines for Expression of Interest.

Application for Expression of Interest

Questions? Please, check the FAQ, or contact the team at new.accelerator@climate-kic.org.