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AEDIB|NET Africa-Europe Partnership Programme Call for African Start-Ups

Application Deadline: January 29, 2023

AEDIB|NET: Bridging Digital Innovation Ecosystems across Africa and Europeis the first step of aย broaderย approachย to theย Africanโ€“Europeanย collaboration on digitalisation and innovation. The project was launched under the broader political initiative AEDIB. Initiated by EU Member States (France, Belgium, and Germany) and the European Commission to the ECโ€™s Digital 4 Development process (D4D).

Funded by the European Commissionโ€™s Horizon 2020 programme and coordinated byย GIZย in Germany,ย ย AEDIB|NET brings together a network of strong partners from the African and European innovation ecosystem with the ambition to:

  • Inspireย the ecosystem actors by developing a supportive innovation policy framework for innovation, building the capacity of marginalised groups and enhancing digital and entrepreneurship skills via a โ€˜Digital Entrepreneur Skills Academyโ€™.
  • Createย Digital Innovation by establishing African Digital Innovation Hubs (ADIHs), a Digital Hubย Lab,ย onlineย marketplacesย with virtual communities and investor networks. The ADIHs will focus on four topics: Climate Smart Agriculture, Smart Cities, Digital Trade and Clean Tech.
  • Connectย start-ups, SMEs, DIHs, diaspora and other African and European ecosystem players in trans-continental partnerships to facilitate inter-continental collaboration and the creation of a common digital innovation ecosystem.

On behalf of the AEDIB|NET consortium, theย European Business and Innovation Centre Networkย (EBN)ย is looking forย 100 startโ€“up (50 in Africa and 50 in Europe) to participate in one of the two Virtual Partnership Programmes managed by two innovation centres (1 in Africa and 1 in Europe) within the framework of AEDIB|NET project.

The virtual partnership programme will be designed with core shared elements for all the 50 start-ups in each area, and tailor-made components meeting specific needs detected in the companies within each group. The duration of the programme is designed to be 6 months. The common sessions will be focused on topics such as:

  • Business development
  • Start-up management
  • Strategic planning
  • Access to finance/credit and fundraising
  • Networking sessions
  • Sustainability
  • Internationalisation
  • EU funding
  • IPR, patent, certification
  • Culture training

There will be specific sessions dedicated to small groups focused onย Sector specific topics, trends, best practices, main stakeholders and sessions with DIHs specialised in each of the AEDIB|NET sectors.

The Virtual Partnership Programme will be designed around the following pillars:

  • Capacity-building
  • Peer-learning
  • Problem-solving
  • Learning-by-doing
  • For each block, different innovation stakeholders, including more experienced entrepreneurs, second-chance entrepreneurs, and successful start-ups, will be invited to share their experiences and best practices favouring exchanges between the participating start-ups and guest innovation stakeholders established/operating in the region.

The final aim of the programmes will be to allow start-ups to engage in learning and knowledge exchange exercises. Moreover, linking and matchmaking of tech entrepreneurs, innovation partners and intermediaries (i.e., hubs, entrepreneurship supporters, networks, academia) will be fostered to raise the capacity of tech start-upsย and to support the linkages between the Digital Innovation Ecosystems in Europe and Africa.

Eligibility Requirements

The start-ups should be legally established in accordance with their countryโ€™s current legislation and have the capacity to prove it, if necessary. They also must be related to one of the groups of specialisation of the project or in the process of developing a product or service applicable to any of these sectors:

  • Climate Smart Agriculture
  • Smart Cities
  • Digital Trade
  • Clean Tech

AFRICAN START-UPS

African start-ups have to be based in some of the countries where some of the DIHs already selected in the project are located:

  1. Cameroon
  2. Cรดte Dโ€™Ivoire
  3. Egypt
  4. Kenya
  5. Morocco
  6. Rwanda
  7. Senegal
  8. South Africa
  9. Tanzania
  10. Tunisia
  11. Uganda

LANGUAGE

All the contents both, both in the Partnership Programme and in the Bootcamps, will be in English.

Selection Process:

  • Please complete the following questionnaireย https://forms.gle/nfM98d6kuWFooenu9ย in as much detail as possible before theย 29thย of January 2023 at 23:59h.
  • A committee will evaluate the proposals and on the week of the 13thย of February, those selected to participate in the programme will be announced. The first session will be a kick-off meeting, on the 1stย of March, where all the details of the programme that will run for 6 months will be explained.

For More Information:

Apply Here

 

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