CIRCLES - Creating Innovative Regional Cooperation by Leveraging European (or Entrepreneurial) Strengths: improving the access to international validation and a centralized pipeline to foreign markets across the Danube region

Priority

Innovative and socially responsible Danube region - Increase competences for business and social innovation

Project Idea Promoter
(name of the institution)

Hungarian National Trading House (http://tradehouse.hu)

Needs and challenges
(Needs, main problems or challenges to be addressed)

Enterprises that prove high potential for growth, like startups and scale-ups, university spinoffs and fast growing innovative SME's provide unique answers to today’s challenging technological problems and have a great potential to create jobs and foster economic growth in regions. But these young enterprises are frequently faced with the difficulty of validation, reaching international markets and raising capital in order to grow further. On the other hand capital providers and private investors are increasingly seeking investment opportunities in innovative, high potential technologies that have been validated on different international markets. Often the two have a difficulty in meeting and engaging, in spite of all the investor and business angel network events. As a result investors are often left still looking and expecting to find the right startup for them to invest in. Thus the main challenge today is not the lack of funding, but the access to validation on global markets. Several studies confirm tha

Objectives
(main and specific objectives to be achieved)

The main objective of this project is to boost validation (not only on local but also on international markets), investment readiness and strength of interregional public-private cooperation in the Danube region. Startups and SMEs have the best chance (and lowest cost) to validate and grow first on nearby international markets (Danube Region) and then with these experience to penetrate further markets, like Western Europe, USA, Asia, etc. The project encourages and facilitates co-operation between innovative partners in smart specialized regions, by exchanging innovative product knowledge, expertise in R&D processes, best practices in validation and business development, and coaching the innovative entrepreneurship of its members (SME's). Our project would further help entrepreneurs to find investors located in their target markets. The project will increase the cooperation and linkage between high potential enterprises, innovation actors, exportation support entities, public and research sector, financial in

Main results and core outputs

Challenges of validation are important throughout the Danube Region. To tackle them adequately, they should be addressed at both the local level and in a broader interregional context. For this project, we propose to organize a series of Camps for Societal Innovation (CSI) on an interregional scale, bringing together diverse stakeholders to address issues of validation and the need of a centralized pipeline to foreign markets in a hand-on and entrepreneurial way.
The Camps are an instrument to bridge cultural and geographical borders, and engage people from different regions and sectors in tackling the challenges in their work within the framework of regional and interregional cooperation. During the Camps, participants from partner countries – representing diverse expertise, age groups and disciplines – people who would normally never meet – are brought together to address the challenges of validation brought to the camp by project partners and their cities and regions, industry, universities and NGOs. The

Main foreseen activities

• Instead of start-up pitches, existing enterprises, investors, multinational corporations should pitch for entrepreneurs, since they are the ones who are familiar with the current challenges and demands (reverse pitches are elements of the demand-driven innovation model)
• While senior professionals have essential knowledge regarding the industry, young entrepreneurs also have important entrepreneurial skills which their older colleagues may lack, thus there should be a two-way interaction in order to spread the start-up approach throughout the whole industry
• Instead of programs developed at policy level, there should be a demand-driven innovation model, where start-ups define the relevant programs that reflect their needs and challenges
• Instead of innovative SME’s competing for capital, capital providers should compete for innovative SME’s
• Instead of focusing on stopping brain drain, fostering brain circulation / high-skilled immigration that increasingly benefits both sides
• Instead of focusing on t

Innovative character of the project idea

Developing new and interregional methods

Estimated Total Budget
(in EUR)

1.950.000 EUR

Estimated duration
(in months)

24/36 months

ERDF Partners

Lead partner: Hungarian National Trading House
www.tradehouse.hu
Budapest, Hungary
ERDF PP1: DBH Investment Venture Capital Fund Management Plc.
www.dbh-group.com
Budapest, Hungary
ERDF

PP2:
ERDF PP3:
ERDF
PP4: Czech National Cluster Association
www.nca.cz
Prague, Czechia
ERDF PP5: MEPCO, s.r.o.
http://www.mepco.cz
Praha, Czechia
ERDF
PP6: INOVA-DE
http://inova-de.eu
Heidelberg, Germany
ERDF PP7: Heidelberg University
http://www.uni-heidelberg.de/index_e.html
Heidelberg, Germany
ERDF
PP8: Romanian Cluster Association
www.clustero.eu
Bucharest, Romania
ERDF PP9:
ERDF
PP10 - Public Institution RERA SD for coordination and development of Split Dalmatia County
http://www.defishgear.net/index.php
Split, Croatia
ERDF PP11 –
ERDF

IPA Partners

PP12: Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Banja Luka Region
Sarajevo, Bosnia Herzegovina
IPA PP13: Municipality Old Town Sarajevo
Sarajevo, Bosnia Herzegovina
IPA

Associated Strategic Partners

HU Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Budapest, HU Budapest University of Technology and Economics

ERDF Partners

tbd.

IPA Partners

tbd.

Associated Strategic Partners

tbd.

Name

Dénes VÍG

Address

H-1095 Budapest, Ipar u.5.

Country

Hungary

Telephone number

+36 (20) 237-25-34

E-mail address

vig.denes@tradehouse.hu

Is the applicant the project's potential Lead Partner?

If not, is the potential Lead Partner already being chosen?