Aims and objectives: The project aimed at adapting and transferring to Poland, Belgium and Bulgaria an existing and successful training path developed in Italy, for would-be-entrepreneurs looking for start-up money. The practice, based on both a self assessment tool and training/coaching sessions, will increase the capacities and skills of innovation intermediaries in connecting with and supporting would-be-entrepreneurs in developing a reliable business proposition and effectively presenting it to potential Early Stage Investors The project will also contribute to the skills of would-be-entrepreneurs and their success rates in obtaining early stage capital.

Therefore the project will positively impact on the Polish, Belgium and Bulgarian emerging pre-seed/seed capital market by providing a new training programme for facilitating the match making between entrepreneurs and investors and increasing their changes of accessing risk capital.

Main tasks and results:

To transfer the existing knowledge base developed by META Group in supporting would-be-entrepreneurs and companies in preparing a “bankable” business proposition;
To develop a training manual and guidelines for the delivery of the investment readiness programme in the transferee regions;
To create training toolkit composed of:
1. Regional curricula;
2. Delivery and teaching method/materials and tools and related teaching notes;
3. Assessment methods and tools.
To train the trainers/coaches in the transferee regions in order to create the skills for the delivery;
To develop a clear and detailed valorization plan that will enhance the inclusion of the transferred practice within the regional Innovation support offer, including secondary education institutions of the programme.

Target groups:

Intermediaries such as RDAs, BICs and Innovation Agencies and and early stage financers (BANs, Seed Funds); would be entrepreneurs and Knowledge based businesses looking for early stage investment.

Location: Poland, Belgium and Bulgaria.

Project partners:

Agencja Rozwoju Regionalnego S.A. w Bielsku-Białej - Poland; Meta Group – Italy; Zernike Group Holding – Netherlands; European Business & Innovation Centre Network (EBN) – Belgium; Ruse Chamber of Commerce and Industry – Bulgaria.

Project Donor(s): Lifelong Learning Programme, Leonardo da Vinci - Transfer of Innovation.