SCALE(up)ALPS
Accelerate and promote the Alpine Start-up Ecosystem
The Alpine Space includes top innovative area in Europe with great potential to grow an innovative entrepreneurship. Yet, as a transregional space, it is not living up to its potential – in terms of competitiveness, it lags behind other EU hubs. By establishing the Alpine Space (AS) as an innovative hub on the international level, the AS will attract startups, and through this, the economy in the AS will be improved.
The main aims of the SCALE(up)ALPS project are to foster the scaling up of Alpine Space (AS) startups and to brand the AS as a cooperative area for innovative businesses and job creation. The project is about improving funding opportunities, finding the talent and a skilled workforce, developing leadership and facilitating access to markets.
The project’s main outputs will be:
1) connecting AS ecosystem policies & communities of practice;
2) selecting policies that expand the quantity and the quality of AS serial entrepreneurs and fast-growing scalable ventures;
3) producing a mid-level feasibility plan with high level recommendations on start-up ecosystems’ growth and reducing fragmentation and therefore increasing collaboration across disciplines & stakeholders;
4) designing & testing innovative public-private support schemes, matching corporates and capital, attracting talent, opening up market access and improving innovation within the entrepreneurial life cycle.
SCALE(up)ALPS uses an innovative, integrated approach derived from START UP GENOME and lean start up methodologies to scale business ventures. The project draws inspiration from the action plan already developed by the Piemonte region in Italy. A dedicated, cooperative, participatory, inclusive workflow based on the EU Start up Manifesto will be produced in an open AS web platform.
Optimal framework conditions that will support startups on a practical level in the following areas will be developed:
1) Attracting talent
2) Taking advantage of market opportunities
3) Obtaining funding
The AS will arise out of this project as an ecosystem with a systematic way of supporting scaleups and act as a best practice model.
Veneto Innovazione is partner of the project together with Torino Chamber of commerce (coordinator), Metropolitan City of Turin, Torino, Italy, Institut “Jožef Stefan”, Ljubljana, Slovenia, Tehnološki park Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia, UnternehmerTUM GmbH, Garching, Germany, Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland, KWF Kärntner Wirtschaftsförderungs Fonds, Klagenfurt am Wörthersee, Austria, IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems, Krems, Austria, French Riviera Chamber of Commerce and Industry, France, Regional Agency for Innovation and Internationalisation of companies in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Region, France.
SCALE(up)ALPS is funded by the European Union in the frame of Interreg “Alpine Space” 2014-2020. The project budget, lasting 30 months, amounts to € 1.793.944 (€ 1.424.602 ERDF).
More information: http://www.alpine-space.eu/projects/scale-up-alps/en/home
17/10/2019 SCALE(up)ALPS FINAL CONFERENCE: Regional innovation through startup growth
SCALE(up)ALPS is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund via Interreg Alpine Space.