FAQ

You can apply if you are either a single entrepreneur, a startup or an SME representative or an aspiring deep-tech innovator (including students or researchers), located in one of the EU Member States or Horizon 2020 Associated Countries:

• One of the Member States of the European Union: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom*.
• One of the Outermost regions or the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT) linked to the EU Member States.
• One of the Horizon 2020 associated countries: Iceland, Norway, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey, Israel, Moldova, Switzerland, Faroe Islands, Ukraine, Tunisia, Georgia and Armenia.

*UK participation in Horizon 2020 from 1st February, 2020: The Withdrawal Agreement provides for the implementation of Union programmes and activities committed under the MFF for the years 2014-2020 and previous financial perspectives. As a consequence, UK entities remain eligible for grants and procurement procedures as if the UK was a member state for the entirety of the Horizon 2020 framework programme and previous framework programmes. This also applies to financial support to third parties according to Article 204 FR (cascading grants), and applies for the duration of H2020 projects.

Further information: https://www.ukri.org/research/international/ukri-eu-exit/

For details and eligibility criteria to participate in the accelerator read the Guide for Applicants.

Yes, you can apply as a single entrepreneur or researcher or as a natural person. If chosen to participate in the Programme, you’ll need to register (create a legal entity) in order to sign a contract with us and become a STARTUP3 Accelerator beneficiary.

Yes. If you are selected as one of the 25 winners of Open Call, it would be necessary to register as a single entrepreneur or an SME in one of the eligible countries, in order to sign a contract with the STARTUP3 Accelerator.

You need to respect the deadlines for application. By applying you consent to becoming an evaluator of other applications through the peer-to-peer evaluation platform. Evaluation is a mandatory process for all applicants. If for any reason you cannot fulfil this commitment within the deadlines set by the STARTUP3 Project management team, your application will not be considered. We recommend that you carefully read and understand the Guide for Applicants before applying.

Your application video will be evaluated and ranked through the peer-to-peer evaluation platform by other applicants. An algorithm will evaluate the quality of the evaluations you submit on the videos of other applicants. Your final application ranking will depend on both of these aspects. Your application has to be ranked among the 25 best applications in order to access to the benefits of the first stage of the STARTUP3 Accelerator.

For technical assistance, you should refer to the STARTUP3 Open Call platform FAQs (link) in the first instance. If you continue experiencing issues with your submission, please contact the STARTUP3 Accelerator Open Call evaluation team at evaluation@startup3.eu.

The results will be available on the STARTUP3 website after the evaluation process is finalised.

On-site presence is not mandatory during the acceleration programme, as it will be delivered via Founder Studio – a one-stop-shop platform, providing tools and high-value contents to facilitate startups building, piloting and growing. The presence of selected participants is only needed at pitching events organised as the entry-point between two stages.