NEX-LABS Innovation Vouchers Italy: Free Expertise for your startup/SME!

These vouchers are mainly directed at acquiring the services of external experts for startups and SMEs to gain access to knowhow and expertise.

What this voucher can cover:

Granting startups/SMEs access to external potential expertise in:

  • Process development
  • Business modeling
  • Technology
  • IPR
  • Strategy
  • Marketing
  • Industry linkages
  • Exporting
  • Regulations

What this voucher will not cover:

  • Retaining staff or directors
  • R&D costs
  • Software licenses or development

Target Audience:

Entrepreneurs and SMEs operating in the following eligible regions in Italy: Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Lazio, Liguria, Puglia, Sardegna, Sicilia, Toscana. Adjoining regions: Abruzzo, Emilia Romagna, Marche, Molise, Piemonte, Umbria

Duration:

The applications will be opened until 30th of September, terminated upon successfully awarding all available vouchers. Awarding will be on a first come, first serve basis.

Eligibility criteria:

  1. You are in an eligible area
  2. You represent a startup/SME, or an early-stage project that is anticipated to become a startup/spinout in the future
  3. The voucher, if awarded, is aligned with NEX-LABS objectives
  4. Your product/service is in the fields of water, energy, or food
  5. Your product/service represents a clear or potential NEXUS approach
  6. Your product/service addresses an important economic, environmental, or social need in the WEF-NEXUS context (e.g., resource efficiency, gender empowerment, resource allocation, community inclusion, yield increase, etc.)
  7. Your business appears credible with growth potential
  8. Your product/service represents added value
  9. Your product/service represents an actual product or service that is already offered to the market or is near commercialization
  10. The proposed consulting service appears to be attainable within the budget allocated
  11. The implementing partner can procure the proposed consulting service through the applicable procurement processes
  12. Implementing the consulting service is likely to have an impact in the business by promoting growth, exports, partnership formation, capital injection, academia collaboration, or commercialization
Apply Now!

For enquiry you may reach out to:

Gianluca Palomba

Centro Servizi Promozionali per le Imprese

e-mail: gianluca.palomba@csimprese.it 

About NEX-LABS

NEX-LABS targeted territories, characterized by water scarcity/irregular rainfall/population distribution, reflect agriculture as largest user of water (70-90%) while future global warming projections (≈2ºC) involve summer precipitation (-10/-30%) threatening water availability (-2/-15%) and agricultural productivity (-12/-40%). The latent conflict between energy efficiency (≈60%) and water production is also increasing energy footprint/m 3 of water used to produce food. The predicted future shortfalls in Water/Energy/Food (WEF) requires a NEXUS approach.

In this context, NEX-LABS aims to support the implementation of clean technologies for sustainable and resilient increase of agri-food sector production based on a more efficient use of energy (renewable/solar solutions) and water (wastewater treatment, water harvesting or reuse solutions) in MPC region thanks to the contributions of ICT such as blockchain technology, Internet of the Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning and Big Data.

NEX-LABS will contribute to the creation of a sustainable and resilient agro food sector based on NEXUS driven Open Living Labs (NDOLL) approach, thus strengthening technology transfer, cooperation industry-academia, increasing commercialization opportunities and innovation-driven growth.

For more information visit the project website.