Call for Applications: Research Commercialization (RC) Bootcamp

Deadline: Mar 30, 2018  
CALL EXPIRED

Services offered in this specific call

ENRICH in the USA, through partner - the International Business Innovation Association (InBIA, www.inbia.org) - organizes two-week Boot Camps in the United Sates and provides participants with perspectives on their market in various US regions. All Boot Camp participants will start and end the program in Boston where they will receive an introductory course in “Conducting Business in the US” (see detailed schedule below) and engage in unique networking opportunities with local innovation experts. In between, participants will each be hosted for up to 10 days by a certified Soft Landing site in the US which will provide programming/services especially themed to the various industry sectors and matched to the needs of each applicant.

In preparation for the Boot Camps, a pre-departure workshop will be provided to ensure the participants make the most of their two weeks in the US.

This call will fund 10 participants for the Research Commercialization (RC) Bootcamp taking place in October 2018 in the USA.

Tentative schedule:

Day 1 – 2: This course covers two days of corporate culture, US-based resources for product development, legal matters, human resources and other basics leading to successful commercialization in the USA.

Day 3 – 12: By Day 3 of the program, participants will then travel to a Soft Landing site (participant must arrange and cover their own travel) that has been assigned to them based on their US market of interest and that site’s particular resources available to entrepreneurs within the US ecosystem. Each day, regardless of which site participants are assigned to, InBIA staff will host or arrange a one to two hour course on relevant business and/or product development topics, including, but not limited to:

• Early stage research and commercialization funding options in the US
• Identifying and developing research and/or startup partnerships
• Intellectual property strategies
• Market research and business plan development
• Other topics relevant to successful commercialization of research and technology from early stage start-ups in the US.

Day 13 – 14: On the last two days of the Boot Camp, participants will come back to Boston for a pitch event their idea/demonstrate their product to strategic corporate partners and investors from renowned firms throughout New England and the US.

Target Group of this Call

ENRICH in the USA is looking for competitively selected EU Research & Innovation (R&I) actors that are in the early stages of commercializing EU research and have either technology development and/or business opportunities in the US. The following are targeted for this call:

• 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
• Established pre-revenue start-ups from EU Member States or Associated Countries

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 for the RC Boot Camp. The costs for the venues, materials, guest speakers, some meals during Boot Camp, and transportation in the US Associated Hubs cities are covered by grants provided to ENRICH in the USA selected participants. Participants will however have to cover the costs for flights to and from the United States, travel from Boston to the US Associated Hubs, and their accommodations, as well as other costs not mentioned above (e.g. ESTA/VISA application costs, health insurance, 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/researchcommercializationbootcamp 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 if it is a SME). 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:

• YouTube Video link (more information below)

Optional uploads/attachments include:

• A one page document with additional information related to your technology/product in either Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF format.
• Short Pitch Deck of no more than 10 slides describing your company/technology

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

YouTube Video Instructions

The application requires a weblink for a 90 second video to be created and uploaded to YouTube. ONLY YOUTUBE LINKED videos will be considered meeting eligibility requirements for the application process. There is a field designated in the application form on F6S to include a link to your YouTube video. Please review these video guidelines for more information on how to create and upload the video to obtain a link for your application:

The video must contain an interview of the founder/majority stakeholder and any other company representative who will be attending the Boot Camp. The video should show the founder clearly facing the camera answering the below questions. The video should NOT have any images, animations, or video footage of any products/technologies/etc. It MUST only be the potential Boot Camp attendee explaining the following in 90 seconds or less:

• Please state your company name, industry you serve, and the name of your product or the type of technology you produce/serve
• Please state your name, title, responsibilities for the company
• Please provide a short pitch as to why your company and/or product is competitive and any successes with that product/technology to date

Video Specific Details (applicants MUST ADHERE TO THE FOLLOWING):

• Video cannot exceed 90 seconds of content
• Video cannot exceed 2 GB in file size
• Video must be compliant with YouTube acceptable formats such as MOV, MP4 (MPEG4), AVI, WMV, FLV, 3GP, MPEGPS, WebM (see below for additional help)
• Do not post any video content you are not comfortable posting as PUBLIC
• You do not need to upgrade to a paid version of YouTube
• Ensure the video has audio and addresses the above required content

Guidelines for Creating and Uploading a Successful YouTube Video:

Youtube’s Guidelines: https://support.google.com/youtube/topic/16547?hl=en&ref_topic=4355169

Helpful Tips for a Strong Video from your Smart Phone (or a video camera): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpZvc8vtHvo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j685NaMDVYE

Detailed Upload Instructions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9w-gQAwS2uc

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 three 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 RC eligibility criteria (outlined above)
2. If they meet the respective RC 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:

1. Commercial Potential
2. Technology Progress and Scale up Potential
3. Competitiveness
4. Funding Potential and Execution
5. Commitment and Resources (whether or not the applicant has the ability to develop the technology/product into a commercially available product).
6. If they can benefit most from the Boot Camps of ENRICH in the USA

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

Step 3: Ranking of applications and final selection: The evaluation panel will rank all eligible proposals by the scores they achieved through evaluation.

Time Schedule

February 22, 2018
Call opens

June 29, 2018 (at 23h59 CET)
Submission of application and call closes

July 31, 2018
Selection of the applicants

July 31, 2018
Information for the applicants if they were chosen or not

September 2018
Pre-departure workshop

October 2018 
Boot Camps in Boston (including travel to a Soft Landing site that
has been assigned to them based on their US market of interest)

Contacts

For questions regarding the Boot Camp, please contact:

Contact Details

Jack Henkel
jhenkel@inbia.org