19 March 2018
The IMT School supports the OpenMaker project and its consortium partners that today become "Startup Europe Ambassadors" in Italy. Start-up Europe Ambassadors are a group of key influencers in the European start-up ecosystems aiming to provide information and advice about the European Commission's Startup Europe initiative. The goal is to democratise the start-up phenomenon so that every citizen has a fair chance to become a successful entrepreneur wherever they are located in Europe. The ambassadors will also help start-ups in their growth process, in order to have access to the full range of opportunities offered on a European level. All Startup Europe Ambassadors are being presented today at the "Startup Europe Campfire" held in Paris.
Throughout the years, the European Commission's Startup Europe initiative has become a top reference in the European start-up related field, by directly supporting around 60 local ecosystems and over 750 start-ups to grow beyond borders. The mission of Startup Europe is to build a Startup Continent by connecting pools of talent. The initiative encourages entrepreneurship, start-up creation and growth; and connects start-ups, investors, accelerators, corporates, universities and the media through an array of grassroots initiatives or networks.
The OpenMaker initiative is a pan-European project aiming to seed and accelerate the 4th Industrial Revolution by bringing together makers and traditional manufacturers in both physical and digital environments and unlock their disruptive potential for social change. In a nutshell, the initiative seeks to foster tech-driven and socially-oriented innovation by driving the radical distribution, decentralisation and mass collaboration between manufacturers and makers. More specifically, it aims to create a transformational ecosystem that fosters collective innovation and drives the manufacturing sector towards more sustainable business models, production processes, products, and governance systems.
In an ever-changing European start-up ecosystem, the Startup Europe initiative has designed the group of its Ambassadors to democratise the start-up phenomenon so that every citizen has a fair chance to become successful entrepreneurs wherever they are located in Europe. The role of the ambassadors is to provide information and advice about the European Commission's Startup Europe initiative. The objective is that every European entrepreneur has access to all the opportunities offered at European level. In addition, the ambassadors will also help start-ups in their growth phase to have access to all the opportunities offered at European level.
The Startup Europe Ambassadors will actively contribute to the visibility of Startup Europe activities at the local level by acting as a key information point in their countries and also as connector for the local ecosystem with the other start-ups ecosystems across Europe. The first members of this group are the organisations who have been selected through the evaluation of proposals of European Commission's Horizon 2020 ICT 32 call, as well as partners of European funded projects WEB UP or OpenMaker.
The complete list of Startup Europe Ambassadors is published here: http://startupeuropeclub.eu/startup-europe-ambassadors/
The IMT School will join the EUROPEAN MAKER WEEK 2018 (18-27 May, 300 maker events in 28 countries).
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About Startup Europe
Startup Europe is an initiative of the European Commission which falls under its priority of the "Digital Single Market". Startup Europe's goal is to democratise the startup phenomenon so that every citizen has a fair chance to become successful entrepreneurs wherever they are located in Europe. In addition, Startup Europe helps start-ups in their growth phase to scale-up across Europe and internationalise worldwide. Startup Europe's first priority is to develop high quality ecosystems based on talent and high level of connectedness among the players of the ecosystems at EU level.
The Startup Europe has mobilised the tech entrepreneurship ecosystem and helped them to have their voice heard at the EU institutions. It has helped to get a better understanding of this environment and has raised political awareness on the subject. Within the Horizon 2020 framework, 2018-2020 timeframe, 7 projects are working together in terms of financing, skills, entrepreneurial events and growth advice. Startup Europe's programmes focus on helping start-up communities, increase collaborations between start-up ecosystems, encouraging entrepreneurship, start-up creation and scaling business.
Learn more on the single point for start-ups (One Stop Shop) to access all the information start-ups need to grow and thrive: http://startupeuropeclub.eu/