The HUBiquitous Accelerator

About the call

The HUBIQUITOUS is launching a call for Startups & SMEs with proven expertise in the joint Africa-Europe Startup & Innovation Ecosystem. The Accelerator Program will support a total of least 50 innovative application solutions through two open calls during the course of the project. Each round we select the 25 most talented ideas to be part of a six-month program, in which the selected innovators will develop its idea/solution (concept prototype, MVP). After the selection process, the entrepreneurs will receive an application business box provided by the HUBiquitous project. The entrepreneurs will get access to the facilities of the Solution Lab for prototyping and testing. During the six-month program, the entrepreneurs will also receive the design-thinking guidelines, entrepreneurial coaching, and support from the project partners as well as from external mentors(coming from the DIHs and ESN’s network)

Aiming at:

• improving the innovation creation capacity for entrepreneurs and startups,
• supporting the African-EU joint innovation project ideas and ventures
• increasing investment opportunities in African startups. The program will foster the creation of new application solutions by providing technical and business support for successful entrepreneurs and startups.

Entrepreneurs and startups from both Africa and Europe are the main target group of this program. The project will also target the entrepreneurs from the African Diaspora in Europe, who would like, to set up joint ventures in Africa.

The challenges

Agri-Food: Agriculture is a driver of growth for any economy. Digitalization can enhance processes in these sectors involving material flow, information flow, or financial capital flow, managed via supply chain management.

Smart Cities: Digitalization has enormous potential to modernize the government and public sector, e.g. by protecting sensitive citizen and government data, increasing trust in government systems, or by developing smart city applications.

Health: Digital solutions are necessary to improve primary care assistance, prevent diseases and disabilities, cover the specific needs of vulnerable communities, make the national healthcare systems more efficient and resilient, and improve the patient experience.

INDUSTRY 4.0: Different smart technologies are helping to speed up the digital transformation of manufacturing and enable a decisive move towards industry 4.0. The smart factories of the future will organize themselves and enable production that is collaborative, customer-specific, and individualized.

Green Economy: To reach climate goals, the digital sector has to contribute its share and embrace sustainability in all its facets: circular economy models for hardware, climate-neutral CPUs and server centers, software advancements to reduce energy consumption, and many more.

Who can participate?

Eligible applicants:

• Entrepreneurs
• Startups
• Scaleups
• SMEs

Eligible African countries:

• Egypt
• Ghana
• Nigeria
• Tanzania

We especially encourage application from women and young talents, as well as African-European partnerships. Applicants from EU27 countries may submit applications jointly with an African partner if:

• The lead applicant is the African partner.
• The IoT solutions will be physically deployed in Africa (prototyping and testing activities).

How to apply?

A complete submission includes the following documents:

• Part 1: Proposal Template (max. 6 pages) (download here)
• Part 2: Administrative Data Sheet (to be completed on the platform)

Proposals must be submitted by Thursday, 30th June 2022, 5:00 PM CET through the dedicated platform. Download here the guide for applicants for more information about the submission procedure and the awarding criteria

What will you get?

Application Business Box
A “ready-to-use” technical and business support package to entrepreneurs and startups, consisting of 3 essential elements:

• Prototyping kits & software templates,
• Training courses (both technical and business-oriented content)
• Business support templates.

Solution Lab facilities
The Solution Lab provides startups with the capacity to develop, test, experiment, and pilot innovative products, using IoT, AI, and Big Data technologies. Furthermore, the selected projects will have access to the “Prototyping and Learning Centre”, a platform allowing the startupers to quickly design and create a prototype while learning on the way.

Help desk and Mentoring
The participants will have access to a permanent service (from Monday to Friday) to receive assistance and information. Furthermore, they will have the chance to connect with a network of Mentors and receive support from them on specific issues upon request.

Access to the learning area
Selected participants will have access to the training materials, courses, webinars, bootcamps and hackathons covering, among others:

• Fundamentals of IoT.
• Introduction to Basic Electronics.
• Development Boards and Sensors.
• Getting started with Waziup technologies.
• IoT Cloud platform.

The MeetHub platform
A platform for IoT stakeholders to collaborate in Europe and Africa. It encourages networking and learning between professionals, enthusiasts, individuals and businesses. The platform allows to search for DIHs, startups and developers in IoT, and to promote innovative IoT solutions.

Growth and investment readiness
The Program foresees 2 interactive online workshops on Investor Readiness, covering topics like:

• Planning for Fundraising.
• Preparing Fundraising Materials.
• The Fundraising Process.
• The Human Element.
• What to Look for in an Investor.
• Startup Valuation.

Awards

• Overall winner of the 1st Accelerator Program: 1.000 €
• Winner in Nigeria: 1.000 €
• Winner in Egypt: 1.000 €
• Winner in Tanzania: 1.000 €
• Winner in Ghana: 1.000 €