Open call: Join the Challenger Urban:Creative acceleration program
The City of Košice, together with Creative Industry Košice and CIVITTA Slovakia, is announcing an open call for Challenger Urban:Creative acceleration program within the Košice 2.0 project to support innovation and entrepreneurial potential.
The open call is intended for teams and young companies developing an innovative product or service, aiming to improve the quality of life of the city’s inhabitants.
What is the Challenger Urban:Creative acceleration program?
The Challenger Urban:Creative acceleration program is a tool that will provide business education to up-and-becoming teams and companies and at the same time bring an opportunity for a community of young companies – startups to work with the city of Košice on solving urban challenges.
Program duration: 10 weeks
Selection Bootcamp: April 7, 2022 (online / 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.)
Program Kick-off: April 20, 2022 (online / 4:00 p.m. -6:30 p.m.)
Sprint 1: May 2 -6, 2022 (online / MON – THU 4:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.)
Sprint 2: May 23 – 27, 2022 (online / MON – THU 4:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.)
Or 2-day event in Kosice within the same week*
Sprint 3: June 13 – 17, 2022 (online / MON – THU 4:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.)
Individual mentoring and coaching: based on agreement with mentors
Demo day: June 28, 2022 (taking place in Kosice / 8:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.)
(*Finalists will be informed at least 3 weeks in advance whether the events will be held online or in-person in Košice.)
Who is the acceleration program for?
Challenger Urban:Creative is designed for teams and starting businesses that deliver innovative solutions to improve the quality of life and services in the city. A separate team can also apply to the program as a group of employees of a company developing a new product or service.
Only teams, not individuals, can apply to the acceleration program. For the purposes of this call, a team is defined as a collaborative group of people (at least 2) who jointly develop a new product or service for the purpose of commercialization. Teams can also be understood as a unit within a larger company that develops a new product or service that the company has not yet commercialized, and its development is still ongoing.
Applicants from abroad (outside Slovakia) can also participate in the current call.
Entities participating in the first round of the Challenger Urban:Creative acceleration program are eligible applicants only if they apply within the current call with a new product/service.
What does the acceleration program offer to participants?
- Participation in group workshops and subsequent individual consultations on the following topics:
- Presentation and public speaking skills
- Customer discovery and segmentation
- Business hypothesis validation techniques
- Piloting
- Needs and possibilities for cooperation in the City of Kosice
- Sales and marketing techniques
- Market entry strategies
- Financial planning
- Sources of financial support and preparation for investment
- Legal bases of companies and foundations for the Intellectual Property protection
- Individual mentoring with experts in two selected areas, determined based on an initial interview / 6 hours per company.
- Individual coaching from organizers of the program / 6 hours per company.
- Possibility to publicly present your product or service during the public finale of the “Demo Day” program.
- The winner of the acceleration program will receive a cash prize of 10,000 Euros.
Submission of applications
The application is registered electronically through this registration form. The application is submitted no later than April 3, 2022.
Applications submitted after the deadline shall not be considered for the selection process.
Contact
E-mail: challenger@kosice2.sk
Further information can be found in this document.