Cyprus Seeds will be opening its first call for applications to its Funding Programme on Wednesday, March 6.
Cyprus Seeds is a non-profit initiative with the aim to support the commercialisation of academic research in universities and research institutions in Cyprus.
It provides pre-seed funding, mentoring, networking and workshops “From the Lab to the Marketplace”.
Cyprus Seeds is the initiative of George David, Yiannis Monovoukas and Marina Hatzopoulou.
And the initial sponsors of the project are: The Hellenic Initiative, A. G. Leventis Foundation, Eurobank Cyprus, EY Cyprus and Cypriot and Greek individuals.
The initial amount raised is €500 thousand and the objective is to support 5-10 research teams for a period of one year with amounts ranging between 10-100 thousand euros.
Cyprus Seeds aims to raise and use an amount of €5 million over a five-year period.
The choice of programmes to be supported will be based on six key criteria: economic impact, market prospects, technological readiness and risk, market needs, the team that will evolve it, and existing or forthcoming intellectual rights.
Cyprus Seeds is the first but a necessary step of a long path towards building a sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem – an ecosystem that will leverage the high-quality research work being carried out in the universities and research institutions of Cyprus.
In addition to research funding, the task of Cyprus Seeds is to also lead research teams through mentoring, training and networking abroad (initially in the US and Greece) so that research enters the market from the laboratory.
In this context, academic research teams will provide guidance and support in business development issues so as to create successful spin offs.
MIT Enterprise Forum Greece (MITEF), the chapter of the International Network of MIT Enterprise Forum in Greece, will actively support Cyprus Seeds in the realization of its goals.
The groups to participate in the programme will be selected in May 2019 and about a year later, in June 2020, will have the opportunity to showcase their work in front of potential private sector investors.
Read More:
https://in-cyprus.com/research-and-innovation-can-boost-the-economy-president-says/
