Call for Applications: East Coast Innovation Tour (IT) Greater Boston & Greater New York

Deadline: Mar 30, 2018  
CALL EXPIRED

Services offered in this specific call

ENRICH in the USA, through partner - the American European Enterprise Council (EAEC, www.eaecouncil.com) - organizes its first East Coast Innovation Tour as vehicle for commercialising promising EU research and technologies. Join us to discover the Greater Boston and Greater New York in June 10th – 15th, 2018. This first East Coast Innovation Tour is open to EU Member States and Associated Countries[1] early stage entrepreneurs, researchers, research organizations, and clusters looking for market information, partners, investment opportunities and feedbacks for their for their life science innovations; special focus on innovations in cancer research, diagnostics and treatments, and drug discovery.

This service gives you the opportunity to:

• Understand the local US ecosystem (East Coast focus) that supports Innovation;
• Have live feedbacks on your project(s)/prototype/business plan;
• Explore opportunities of funding in the US;
• Meet potential partners;
• Understand & better leverage ENRICH in the USA support.

The tour will introduce 10 selected participants to accelerators, renowned US university research gems, and successful US and EU scale-ups and unicorns located in Greater Boston and in Greater New York. Participants will receive guidance on visa/immigration/IP/pitch support and will be introduced to potential partners including corporations and potential investors.

Additionally, state and city officials will be visited that can provide EU participants with soft-landing solutions and future guidance on local business trends practices and programs.

Tentative schedule

• Sunday, June 10th afternoon: Boston
  • Welcome and cultural activity
• Monday, June 11th: Boston
  • Welcome and Introduction of Participants
  • Organizational Issues for the Week
  • Workshop on the North East and Business Culture
  • Workshop on Pitches for innovators and clusters
  • Presentation of local funding mechanisms, from Federal programs (SBIR/STTR) to equity based incubators, angel investors and VCs
  • Meeting with the local SBA &SelectUSA team
  • Welcome and Networking Party
• Tuesday, June 12th: Greater Boston
  • Tour of a research hospital, such as Mass General Hospital, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and Brigham and Women's Hospital, and presentation of Harvard & MIT’s R&I ecosystems
  • Tour and pitching session at a local Equity based accelerator
  • Individual Meetings
  • Transfer to New York City by train
• Wednesday, June 13th: New York City
  • Introduction of the New York R&I ecosystem
  • Tour of research labs at research organizations such as NYU, Columbia or MSKCC
  • Meeting with a European Scale-up or Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company – Do’s and Don’ts
  • Tour and pitching session at a local Equity based accelerator
  • Networking Event in New York City
• Thursday, June 14th: Greater New York
  • Transfer by regional train to New Brunswick, NJ
  • Welcome at ENRICH in USA Soft-Landing Hub at Rutgers’ University
  • Pitch and individual meetings with Rutgers’ researchers and local Life Science ecosystem
  • Meeting with NJ State officials and presentation of their incentive programs
  • Meeting with a local Fortune 500 company, such as J&J or BMS
  • Back to New York City
• Friday, June 15th: Greater New York
  • Visits either in Long Island or in Brooklyn
  • Meeting with NY State officials and presentation of their incentive programs
  • Back to New York City
  • Debriefing

Expected outcomes and impact per participant

Average per participant

• ≥ 5 meetings/discussions with potential partners
• ≥ 3 meetings/discussions with top research universities
• ≥ 1 Follow up calls/meetings that same week/month for expression/validation of interest
• ≥ 3 next meetings/calls in the next twelve months

Target Group of this Call

ENRICH in the USA is looking for individual research actors from EU Member States or Associated Countries (EU MS/AC) who are highly interested in exploring the US market as middle to long-term vehicle for commercializing promising EU research:

• Early stage start-up founders spun out of universities or research labs or licensing related technologies;
• Researchers looking for market opportunities and funding for their R&D project;
• Representatives of a research organization looking for market opportunities for a specific portfolio of R&D projects;
• Representatives of research ecosystems looking for market opportunities for a specific portfolio of R&D projects; including cluster managers, research lab managers, tech transfer office managers, etc.

Eligibility Criteria

In order to qualify for the provided service, applicants have to meet the following requirements:

• If an individual, applicant must be a tax payer in an EU MS/AC AND/OR be an EU MS/AC passport holder
• If incorporated, applicant must pay taxes in an EU MS/AC AND/OR have as the majority of shareholders EU MS/AC passport holder
• Applicant must be able to communicate (read and speak) in English;

Funding Principle

This call will fund 10 participants. The costs for the venue, materials, guest speakers, catering during the event and transportation within the US are covered.

Participants will however have to cover the costs for flights to and from the United States, as well as other costs not mentioned above (e.g. ESTA/VISA application costs, health insurance, accommodation, dinners, etc.) by themselves.

Please note: Only one participant can be covered for the same technology/start-up. Additional participants of selected technologies/start-ups may attend, but must cover all costs by themselves.

Submission Procedure

All applicants must register at the electronic submission tool F6S under https://www.f6s.com/eastcoastinnovationtour/apply  (if you are an innovator) and under https://www.f6s.com/eastcoastinnovationtour-multipliers/apply  (if you are a multiplier). It is highly advised that applicants submit no later than two days before the submission deadline. ENRICH in the USA staff will assist with questions or portal issues for applicants. Besides basic information, applicants must mark a checklist for actual criteria and must complete each section of the application.

In F6S, the applicant is asked to register themselves and fill in general information, personal information (such as name, institution, organization type, contact details, and specific questions referring to the organization type). All applicants must acknowledge that they are made aware that some costs have to be covered individually.

You will need to complete all required questions in the F6S application form before you are allowed to submit. This includes all uploads and attachments in the last section of the application form.

Required uploads/attachments include: Short Pitch Deck

Depending on whether you are an innovator (entrepreneur, researcher etc.) or a multiplier (cluster, research organisations etc.) please follow the framework for the pitch deck outlined below:

1. Please follow this framework if you are an innovator (entrepreneur, researcher etc.) - 8 slides max:

• Slide #1: Project's / Organization's Name
  • The idea: Summarize it in one sentence (max 20 words)
• Slide #2: The Problem
  • Define the problem (need) being addressed by your project. What are you trying to solve, for whom?
  • The current solutions: Who else is already doing and why there is an opportunity
• Slide #3: Market Opportunity
  • Define Your Market: What space you are in
  • Total Market Size, Your niche, and US market potential
  • Trends
• Slide #4: Your Solution / Technology
  • Presentation
  • Competitive advantage
  • Scalability
• Slide #5: Revenue Model 
  • Please describe how your are planning to make money
  • Funding Strategy
• Slide #6: Achievements
  • Show your timeline and milestones to date
  • Existing Customers and Other Partnerships
  • $ funding obtained
  • IP protection
• Slide #7: Next steps 
  • In general and for the US market if you are selected
• Slide #8: Team & Contact info

2. Please follow this framework if you are amultiplier (cluster, research organisations etc.) - 7 slides max - see details:

• Slide #1: Organization's Name + Your mission statement summarized in one sentence (max 20 words)
• Slide #2: Who you Are 
  • Present your organization, location, size
  • Experience/Achievements/Expertise
  • Services you provide 
  • How you are funded (private, public, ppp, fee for service)
• Slide #3: Who you serve
  • Present your members / companies / researchers you serve
  • Main sub-sectors / research areas they work on / specialties
• Slide #4: Who you work with • Present your ecosystem, local and international partners (including in the US if any)
  • How you work with them, achievements
• Slide #5: Technology 1 (optional)
  • Present of one of the technology you represent
  • Competitive advantage
  • Scalability
  • Needs, what the company/entrepreneur/researcher #1 is looking for
• Slide #6: Technology 2 (optional)
  • Present of one of the technology you represent
  • Competitive advantage
  • Scalability
  • Needs, what the company/entrepreneur/researcher #2 is looking for
• Slide #7: Next steps & Contact info

Note that all application responses and pitch decks have to be submitted in English.

Evaluation and Selection Procedure

The fundamental principles governing the evaluation of the applications are:

• Transparency: The process for selecting applicants will be clearly described and made available to any interested party.
• Fairness and Equality of treatment: All applications shall be treated alike, irrespective of where they originate or the identity of the applicants.
• Ethical and Legal considerations: Any application that contravenes ethical principles and legal regulations may be excluded from being evaluated and rejected at any time.

The evaluation process involves four steps:

Step 1: Eligibility Check: Will be done by the ENRICH in the USA staff following the criteria defined in section 4:

1. If they meet the respective IT eligibility criteria (outlined above)
2. If they meet the respective IT target group for this call (outlined above)

Step 2: Scoring: Once the eligibility check is conducted and complete, eligible applications will be reviewed by a panel consisting of people with a range of business, commercialization and/or investment experience in the US. Applications will be evaluated according to the following criteria.

Criteria for innovators (entrepreneur, researcher etc.):

1. Demonstrate a business/licensing model in place (or soon in place)
2. Demonstrate the actions taken to fund / start / grow the business idea (i.e. already talking to their government for funding, and/or banks for guaranteed loans, and/or to investors)
3. Demonstrate an interest in the US Market itself even if long term.
4. Have an understanding of the competition landscape, the US market and the opportunity

Criteria for multipliers (cluster, research organisations etc.):

1. Demonstrate a pipeline of projects / technologies with some interest in the US Market itself even if long term
2. Demonstrate a process to share the contacts and lessons learned during the tour to researchers or entrepreneurs
3. Have a first understanding of the US market, and of the opportunities for themselves and for their entrepreneurs / researchers

All these four/three criteria will be scored from 1-5 (5 being the highest score).

Step 3: Ranking of applications and pre-selection. The evaluation panel will rank all eligible proposals by the scores they achieved through evaluation and pre-select 20 applicants.

Step 4: Interviews and final selection: the 20 pre-selected candidates will be interviewed to present their submitted pitch deck (30 min web-conference) for the final selection of 10 participants

Time Schedule

February 22, 2018
Call opens

March 30, 2018 (at 23h59 CET)
Submission of application and call closes

April 11, 2018
Selection of 20 applicants

April 11 - 17, 2018
30-minutes interviews

April 18, 2018
Selection of 10 funded participants

April 18 - 25, 2018
Selection of potential 10 non-funded additional participants

June 10 - 15, 2018
Innovation Tour

Contacts

For questions regarding the Innovation Tour, please contact:

Contact Details

Blandine Chantepie-Kari
blandine@eaecouncil.com

Sebastien Torre
storre@eaecouncil.com