Teams of Ukrainian business, scientists and innovators will be able to take part in a project competition with Singapore and another 14 countries – Ukraine has joined the EUREKA Globalstars initiative

For the first time, Ukraine joins the EUREKA Globalstars initiative as part of the EUREKA international innovation program. This will allow teams of Ukrainian business, scientific institutions and universities to take part in a joint competition of projects between EUREKA member countries and Singapore: “Call for Joint R & D Projects under EUREKA between Singapore and the EUREKA member countries”.

The official announcement of its launch and the conditions for participation were published on June 8, 2020 on the official website of “EUREKA”. Now Singapore and 14 program countries have joined the competition: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Great Britain, South Korea.

To take part in the competition, it is necessary to create a consortium, which will include at least 2 countries (Ukraine and Singapore). Other participants from the above countries can join the consortium at will.

Submission and evaluation of the project take place in 2 stages.

At the first stage, after the creation of the consortium, the project coordinating country is determined among the participants. Next, a joint application is formed from all member countries of the consortium. It is submitted by the online coordinator on the EUREKA platform. Deadline Submission – October 15, 2020.

If the application is checked for compliance with the criteria, the next stage begins.

At the second stage, each consortium participant separately submits an online application for the platform of the national institute in order to receive funding for the implementation of its part of the project. From Ukraine, applications should be accepted by the Ukrainian Startup Fund. The selection of projects for financing in the form of grants will be on a competitive basis, the work will be evaluated and chosen by a board of independent investment experts.

After an assessment at the national level, a list is compiled from the country with a rating of participating projects. It is transferred to the EUREKA Program Association for the formation of a general rating of competition projects. Based on this rating, at a multilateral conciliation meeting between all national institutions of the EUREKA Globalstars initiative and representatives of the EUREKA program, a final decision will be made on the winners of the competition and the provision of financial support to them.

Projects that will have a positive decision from all participants in the conciliation meeting will be nominated for the EUREKA label.

The start of accepting applications at the national level in Ukraine will be announced separately on the official websites of the Ministry of Education and Science and the Ukrainian Startup Fund. For more information, you can contact Elena Kharina, coordinator of national projects of the EUREKA program from Ukraine, via e-mail olena.kharina@gmail.com or via phone 8 (044) 287 82 16.

We note that the Ukrainian Startup Fund provides support only to Ukrainian business, namely, projects at the early stages of development (pre-seed and seed). At the same time, higher education institutions and scientific institutions can take part in the competition as co-executors.

If the tender committee of the fund approves the project and provides confirmation of its financing, then co-executors (ZVO and scientific institutions) will be able to contact the Ministry of Education and Science with a request for financial support for the project.

The approval of the projects based on the results of the competition is scheduled for the end of January 2021, the start of financing for the finalists is scheduled for April 2021.

Please note: in order to improve communication between potential participants of the EUREKA Globalstars Singapore Call initiative, the EUREKA program is scheduled to hold two virtual pitching sessions between Singapore companies and companies from participating countries:

• July 15, 2020 – presentations of Singapore companies;
• July 16, 2020 – presentations of other countries, in particular Ukraine.

For more information about participating in virtual pitching sessions, see via link.

Source: МESU