European Pre-acceleration Program for Young People with Innovative Ideas in the Energy Area
The Transylvania Start-up Centre Association invites all young people under 35 from Romania, with innovative ideas in the field of green energy, to apply to the European pre-acceleration program Danube Energy + which will allow them to turn these ideas into sustainable businesses. Registrations can be made here until May 6.
Eligible for this program are people or teams who apply with solutions in areas such as energy storage, smart grids, energy for transport and mobility, smart cities and buildings, energy efficiency, renewable energy or integrated in the circular economy.
The proposed ideas must have the potential to be scaled internationally and to solve a current energy challenge. According to the evaluation grid of the European project, ideas that have a scientific basis and have not already been integrated into a commercial product or service obtain additional points.
Candidates’ applications will be evaluated by a team of experts who will select 10 of them for the pre-acceleration program. It will start on May 13, will take place online for two weeks and will include business mentoring sessions with focus on the development of a business model, sales and pitching. The program will end with a Demo Day session in which participants will pitch their business ideas.
“We have limited energy resources, and more and more companies are focusing their efforts on sustainability programs in this field, which is more than reassuring. However, there are still unexplored areas, such as ideas generated by young enthusiasts, which are just as valuable, but are not visible on the market just because they have no business experience and have not found a way to translate them into a project of this kind. Danube Energy +, a pre-acceleration project rolled out in Romania, too, provides them with the resources to make the leap from an idea to a potential successful business. We encourage students, even high school students, but also other people up to the age of 35 who want to contribute to the sustainable energy transformation to enrol in the program,” says Marian Rusu, Program Coordinator.
About Danube Energy +
Danube Energy + is a project that takes place in 9 European countries (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Germany, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine) and targets any enthusiast up to 35 years with ideas to transform the energy system into a green one. The 3-year project aims to accelerate the development of innovative start-ups in the region that will contribute to sustainable transformations of the energy system.
In each of the 9 countries, there were selected program partners in order to create a system of learning and cooperation between regional public administrations, universities, SMEs and energy companies. A set of good practices, business models and case studies from the region will form the basis of the learning scheme of the pre-acceleration program for young people admitted to the program. At regional level, 90 young energy innovators will be selected (individually or as teams).
The Transylvania Start-up Centre Association is the Danube Energy + partner in Romania. Together with 8 other European entities and 7 associated strategic partners – strategic bodies for cooperation with regional public administrations, Start-up Transilvania has the mission to coordinate the evolution of selected young innovators, to develop and implement the pre-acceleration program at national level, to cooperate with regional ecosystem stakeholders to support European policies.
