Open Calls and Business Opportunities
The 2022 YTILI Fellowship Application, the U.S. Department of State’s flagship programme for emerging entrepreneurs from Europeq is now open. You can apply for the Young Transatlantic Innovation Leaders Initiative Fellowship Program – YTILI until March 15 if you are a business or social entrepreneur under teh age of 35. The YTILI Fellowship Programme will empower a new cohort of young Europeans to grow their ventures, foster global partnerships, and positively impact the economic development of their communities.
YTILI is a two-way exchange program designed to strengthen the transatlantic relationship, develop sustainable partnerships between U.S. and European entrepreneurs and innovators, promote regional integration and cooperation in Europe, and encourage European businesses, governments and civil society to develop their innovation ecosystems. The program includes a customized virtual YTILI entrepreneurial curriculum; a fellowship with a business or organization in one of nine U.S. cities; opening and closing conferences; and alumni engagement opportunities. Apply here: https://ytili.org/.
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Six new challenges have benn published on the BIA platform for open innovations, that connects companies and institutions with startups for solving specific challenges or developing new solutions in a certain field. The current challenges concern topics related to packaging safety and quality, bioplastics, packaging innovations, recycling and more. To access the full description of the topics and apply, you must first register in the BIA’s platform here – https://scalingup.wixsite.com/website.
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SMEs interested in testing and validating AI resources can now apply in StairwAI first open call. The project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and is looking for low-tech SMEs from any industry ready to test and validate AI resources to improve their products, services, or value chains focusing on one of the call-specific challenges: Rethinking and visibility of supply chains, Human resources , Management of data generated by the internet of things, Predictive maintenance, Zero defect manufacturing, Environmental issues, Logistics, Chatbots. StairwAI considers low-tech SMEs as any company that is unaware of AI applications or is a savvy consumer of AI solutions and is capable of identifying use cases for AI applications. Apply before 15th March 2022 here.
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If you are looking for new customers, suppliers or research and development partners in green energy and decarbonization technologies, you can register for participation in the virtual B2B meetings within the EU-Japan Green Transition 2022. Participation is free and the registration deadline is March 17. Companies willing to join will be contacted by the Enterprise Europe Network’s support offices by country. For Bulgaria, this is the Bulgarian Industrial Association. Find out more details here.
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The Chamber offers assistance for yet another business forum – the B2B meetings during InnoElectro – a technology event for large companies and SMEs. The forum is suitable for companies looking for suppliers, customers, or joint project partners in the field of electronic components, production equipment and materials, IoT, 5G robotics, medical electronics, security and AI. The registration deadline for participation in the event is March 29. For more information click here.
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The initiaitve NGI (Next Generation Internet), funded by the European Commission, as part of the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, announced an open call for deep tech developments in the Next Generation Internet. NGI Assure is looking for the so-called reusable building blocks available under free and open source licenses. The call is seeking project proposals between 5 000 and 50 000 Euro – with the potential to scale them up if there is proven potential.
The deadline for submitting project proposals is April 1. Detailed information about NGI Assure’s open call is available here: https://ngi-assure-opencall.fundingbox.com/.
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Bulgaria Innovation Hub, Inc. opened applications for the Spring 2022 US market entry acceleration programme. Bulgarian founders with aspirations for US market expansion can apply by April 1 for the equity-free programme that starts at the end of April. Bulgaria Innovation Hub strives to foster collaboration between the entrepreneurial communities in the US and Bulgaria to drive innovation and growth and help Bulgarian technology startups become competitive global leaders. Mission-driven tech founders from Bulgaria, who have the ambition to scale globally, are invited to submit applications here.
