What is the EIT Alumni Startup Days (EASD)?
The EASD is a flagship event of the EIT Alumni. Originally created in 2015, the EASD is a hackathon that brings together graduates, young professionals, entrepreneurs, and start-up enthusiasts from different fields of expertise under one roof to solve challenges faced by European society and industry. An integral part of these 12-hour hackathons is the partnership with key players in European industry, who are invited to propose the challenge for the event and judge the winning solution. The EIT Alumni Startup Days is a non-profit event, and all income from the participation fees is 100% re-invested into the event.
The first two editions; 2015 and 2016 took the form of multiple events running in tandem in major cities across Europe. Participants, largely made up of alumni, students and innovation enthusiasts came together to meet people from other parts of the EIT Alumni Community, form teams and embark on entrepreneurial adventures. Since 2018, a new format, the EIT Alumni Start up Days: Challenge Solving edition has been organised.
The structure of the EIT Alumni Startup Days
- Step 1: find an innovative partner company.
- Step 2: invite them to propose a challenge for the event,
- Step 3: unleash the full potential of the EIT Alumni Community to provide solutions to the challenge.
Pitch your idea!
You have something in mind? It keeps you awake at nights? Let's find the essence of your idea and bring it to life. Pitch your idea in front of everyone and assemble your team
Join an idea!
The creative spark did not hit you yet? Listen to the pitches and get caught by the spirit. Convince the pitcher why you bring value for the idea and enjoy the can-do attitude around you.
Still undecided?
We have plenty of inspiration on-site for you. Industry experts will give you insights and a hint on their future challenges.
We believe in the power of connections and perspectives. Exchange with other EIT Alumni and find your idea across all boundaries.(everything you do remains your intellectual property)
EIT Alumni Startup Days events
EIT Alumni Startup Days powered by women@eit - 2019
In 2019, Women@EIT and Women@EIT Local Leader Giulia Marzetti had the pleasure to organise the event, and gave the hackathon a different twist to celebrate and empower women in tech. All the coaches, mentors and jury members were women.
- Virtual Reality track: Design a VR application that will make interactive VR more interesting for the target group - non tech savvy operators aged 45+ in the manufacturing industry
- Fashion track: How can we reduce the online return rate for fashion retail?
Two excellent partners of the event, Gleechi AB, VR company, winner of EIT Digital Idea Challenge and Afound, marketplace of H&M retail, offered some goodies, prizes on the day, a mini-internship and office experience to the winners.
Winning solutions
- For the Gleechi - Virtual Reality track DiscoVR, an explorative application for VR, making VR attractive to manufacturing employers through a Virtual environment room, co-workers interaction and a personal assistant.
- For Afound - Fashion track Smart size shopping: Reducing customers refunds through analytics and Machine Learning, iterating on the data collected from the different purchases of a single customer.
Check out for more information on the event here.
EIT Alumni Startup Days in Barcelona - 2018
For the Barcelona edition of our new event format, we were very lucky to have the support of Tataj Innovation as our partner company. Tataj Innovation help mid-size cities build innovation districts, making them an ideal partner for the EIT Alumni. Daria Tataj, one of the first members of the EIT Governing Board and adviser to EU Commissioner Moedas, tasked participants with the mission of reinventing the Littoral Front of Barcelona. To sweeten the deal, Tataj Innovation offered participants with the best proposals a chance to join her and other local investors for a 24 hour Innovation Retreat at their new beachfront offices! Over the course of an intense 12hour workshop, in the wonderfully apt setting provided by the all-green, zero-waste, beautifully-decorated Apocapoc, participants navigated their way through the ideation process
The Challenge:
Incubating a new innovation disctrict in Barcelona: The recovery of the littoral front between the Badalona port and the Besos River.
Winning solutions
- An EU-Chinese-cultural business centre
- An Artificial Intelligence Living Lab
- An eco-friendly village for Badalona’s 100 hectare development land
- A 3D Print Fab Lab and Makers’ Space for social innovation
Check out for more information on the event here.
EIT Alumni Startup Days in Six European locations - 2016
Taking place in six cities, two hundred EIT Alumni and Students united on the weekend of 2 to 4 December 2016 to create a positive impact through innovation and entrepreneurship. By bringing together graduates, researchers, developers, young professionals and start-up enthusiasts in 6 cities across Europe for a 54 hour event, a global network of entrepreneurs and innovators were connected.
The event took place in Barcelona, Berlin, Eindhoven, Lisbon, Paris and Stockholm. Challenges addressed by the participants came from corporate sponsors, companies within the local innovation ecosystem or EIT Alumni members wanting to expand and seek help for their start-up propositions.
The second edition of this pan-European event built on the successes of the inaugural Startup Days, which saw 170 participants develop concepts, network and enhance vital cognitive and team working skills. From the 2015 event, ideas were conceptualised such as; bridging gaps between farmers and people who live in the city; a dictionary for hand gestures; to solving water pollution by utilising micro-algae.