Call for Expression of Interest for Companies working with Innovative Mobile Services to apply for Innovation Vouchers

Vouchers can be exchanged for Business and Innovation Support from “Copernicus and GNSS Business & Innovation” Experts

We have “ free of charge”  Innovation Vouchers to exchange for business support

What’s it all about?

We are looking for companies working with innovative mobile services who are interested to apply for the opportunity to receive innovative business support (free of charge) delivered by innovation experts across Europe. The business support is up to a value of € 5,000 and delivered via a pilot Innovation Voucher Scheme.

The experts who deliver the support are Individuals, companies and support organisations; knowledge providers with demonstrable experience of assisting companies from a broad range of Copernicus (Earth observation) and Galileo/EGNOS (satellite navigation) domains.

Innovation Vouchers

Innovation voucher schemes can be considered as the delivery of innovation support services by third parties to innovators through grants, with reduced administrative burden for recipients and providers of the service.

European Innovation voucher schemes should allow innovators or users to receive diverse services according to their needs, building upon the professional expertise from different regions in different CIP participating countries.
To fully unlock the transformative potential of innovative services based on Copernicus (formally known as GMES) and GNSS, voucher schemes may play an important role. Such voucher schemes could help raise the demand for Copernicus and GNSS based services and thus contribute to better exploiting the investments made in the two systems. Furthermore, they could stimulate entrepreneurship in this new technological field and contribute to the emergence of new industries driven by service innovation based on Copernicus and GNSS. Such innovative mobile services could also be used to better address a number of societal challenges identified in the Europe 2020 strategy and support the EU Innovation Partnerships.
This is a Pan European Call for Expression of Interest aimed at companies(start-ups and SMEs) across Europe who are interested in receiving business and innovation support from a broad range of Copernicus (Earth observation) and Galileo/EGNOS (satellite navigation) domains.

The services will be delivered via a pilot Innovation Voucher scheme, managed by the S2G2M2 Project Team. The S2G2M2 project S2G2M2 is led by NSO (Netherlands Space Office), with the support of EBN (European Business & Innovation Centre Network) and AZO (Anwendungszentrum GmbH Oberpfaffenhofen).

The  project  is  co-financed  by  the  European  Commission  and  is  part  of  the  EMMIA  platform  -
European Mobile and Mobility Industry Alliance.

If you are interested please fill in the online application form at http://ebnprojects.eu/s2g2m2/ , and if you are selected to receive a voucher and after consultation with you, you will be matched with an expert from the S2G2M2 Expert Pool who will deliver the services free of charge.

It is anticipated that the S2G2M2 Expert Pool will feature approximately 50 to 75 pan European innovation experts and knowledge providers.

S2G2M2

What’s it all about?

The ‘Sustainable Services for GMES/Copernicus and GNSS in Mobile and Mobility (S2G2M2)’ project aims to accelerate the growth and competitiveness of European innovative mobile services providers including those without a background in using space signals.

This main goal is to provide companies with tools, methodologies, support and advice they really need which will delivered via the voucher scheme by the most relevant experts selected for their skills and expertise. The focus is to deliver business and innovation support in a broad range of Copernicus (Earth observation) and Galileo/EGNOS (satellite navigation) application domains.

More information on link: S2G2M2

Innovation Support Services to Companies – what sort of services will be delivered?

Some examples of services that companies have already expressed interest for are listed below; but there could be others, based on what you really need in terms of innovation and business support!

• Support to strategic planning – identification of critical issues for growth
• Introduction to Copernicus or EGNOS service providers
• Market analysis
• Market positioning
• Product Branding
• Search  and  introduction  to  strategic  partners  (commercial  distributors,  service  enablers, R&D)
• Access to finance
• Support to internationalisation
• Support to IPR protection and for contractual issues (licensing, partnerships ...)
• Support to the management of liability and individual freedom issues
• Provision of testing facilities
• Provision of demonstration capabilities (living labs, demonstrators)

Innovation Vouchers

How do they work?

The S2G2M2 project is launching 2 Calls for Expression of Interest to identify entrepreneurs, start-ups and companies working in the Mobile and Mobility sectors around Europe who could potentially benefit from business and technical innovation support.

his first one will close end December 2013, and another one will be launched in Spring 2014.

The companies’ requests will be evaluated and an independent panel (Advisory Board of the S2G2M2 project) will select the companies to be supported via the voucher scheme.

These projects will receive a voucher up to the value of € 5,000

This voucher will be exchanged for business/technical support to be delivered by an expert/consultant from the S2G2M2 Expert Pool.

After discussions between the company and the Project team the companies will therefore be matched with the most relevant expert from the S2G2M2 Expert Pool, who could be based anywhere in Europe.

Once the nature of the service has been agreed by both parties the expert/consultant will deliver the business/technical support and once approved, they will invoice one of the project partners- NSO EBN, or AZO.

The company will complete a brief “satisfaction survey” and thus will validate the successful delivery of the business support service. The project partners will pay directly the expert/consultant/knowledge provider up to the maximum amount of the received Voucher.

Interested?

Please complete the application at http://ebnprojects.eu/s2g2m2 
Please address any questions to Robert Sanders, rsa@ebn.eu