New accelerator programme geared towards systemic change secures key partners

Following its Open Call, the New Accelerator programme has assembled a consortium of new and current EIT Climate-KIC partners to foster European entrepreneurship to tackle climate change.

Over the last ten years, the EIT Climate-KIC Accelerator programme has supported over 2,000 start-ups in 32 locations across Europe with access to resources, tools, mentoring and networks. Along with 33 EIT Climate-KIC partners, it’s helped climate positive ventures mature into scalable businesses that have contributed to climate change mitigation and adaptation in Europe. 

EIT Climate-KIC’s 2019-2022 strategy, Transformation, in Time, highlights the need for systemic change in order to adequately respond to the urgent and broad nature of the challenge of climate change. EIT Climate-KIC’s approach to entrepreneurship has thus changed as well, shifting from a focus on disconnected, individual projects towards a connected, multi-stakeholder approach.

Half the New Accelerator programme consortium are new while the other half is composed of current EIT Climate-KIC partners, creating fertile ground for collaboration and the co-funding of innovation addressing climate change and its effects.

The New Accelerator is divided into three pillars.

Pillar one: Themed Accelerator

• An accelerator servicing high-demand and high-impact themes such as Healthy, Clean Cities (aligned with EIT Climate-KIC’s Healthy, Clean Cities Deep Demonstration), with lead partners the Technical University of Madrid and Impact Hub Vienna, and key partners La Pinada, ZubiLabs, Ferrovial, Vienna Business Agency and Wien Energie;
• Carbon Removal, which has two sub-categories, nature-based carbon removal (e.g. tree planting) and tech-based carbon removal (e.g. carbon capture and storage), with lead partners ETH Zürich and TU Delft;
• And Maritime (aligned with EIT Climate-KIC’s Resilient, Net-Zero-Emissions Maritime Hubs Deep Demonstration), with lead partner Cyprus University of Technology and key partners Chrysalis Leap, Cyprus Energy Agency, Port and University of Valencia, Port of Hamburg, Digital Hub Logistics Hamburg, unifund and ATHENA. The ports included so far are Piraeus, Valencia, Cyprus, Hamburg and Tel Aviv

Pillar two: Place-based Accelerator

• Accelerators operating in 14 EIT Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS) countries to nurture a green start-up ecosystem with lead partners BGI Building Global Innovators and a consortium covering Portugal, Malta and Cyprus; 
• Riga Technical University and a consortium covering Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Slovakia;
• Impact Hub Czechia and a consortium covering Croatia, the Czech Republic, Greece, Serbia and Slovenia;
• And Impact Hub Bucharest and a consortium covering Romania and Bulgaria

Pillar three: Open Accelerator

• On-demand accelerators developed with partners and run by local organisers with a launch planned for March 2021;
• Expressions of interest so far from Berlin, Dublin, Copenhagen, Zurich, Gabarone, Hyderabad, Delhi, Bogota, Barcelona, Birmingham, Cairo, Columbia (USA), Melbourne, Santiago and Karachi

Interested in joining the Open Accelerator? Contact entrepreneurship@climate-kic.org or by filling out this form.