Support for startups in Central Europe

Wroclaw, 29. November 2018

As part of the Digital Life Project, supported by Interreg Europa Central with the participation of partners from Poland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia and Italy, Wroclaw Technology Park organizes on 13 December 2018 in the city of Wroclaw in Poland, together with the Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, a public event dedicated to supporting startups.  The goal of the event is to present the ecosystem of supporting startups in Wroclaw and in the regions of project partners. Our intention is to exchange good practices in the field of support for young technology companies in the field of medicine, telemedicine, preventive care and nutrition. These industries require constant development of innovation and offering more and more modern technological solutions, products and services on

 As in all activities under the Digital Life project, the primary goal is to avoid fragmentation of the approach to issues in the field of digitalization in the health care sector and transfer of best practices, tested elsewhere in the Central Europe region. During the event in Wroclaw, we will present proven solutions for university support for the academic entrepreneurship of its students, graduates and researchers. Possibilities of incubation and acceleration of startups. Support them through mentoring, training and networking among themselves, as well as facilitating contact with mature enterprises and access to private and public investors. Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences is a positive example of supporting the business orientation of students and academics. The university attaches great importance to the commercialization of research results and effective cooperation with business. Good practices in this area will be presented during the event.

 Wroclaw Technology Park runs a Lower Silesian Academic Business Incubator, which has 25 places for the incubation of startups set up by the academic community. WPT has signed agreements with 14 universities in the city. On the basis of a cooperation agreement, universities recommend startups or ideas created at a given university for incubation. A board composed of representatives of all universities and the WPT assesses all ideas and jointly selects those that will be accepted into the incubator and give a chance for success. University of Life Sciences is an active participant in the system and recommends many effective startups.

In addition, during the event, we want to present support models for startups and cooperation between science and business in other Central European countries that are involved in the implementation of the project. The goal is to exchange good, tested practices and be able to implement them in other regions. We expect that the created cooperation network will facilitate start-ups from our countries to cooperate and enter markets and develop in other countries of the Central Europe region.

by Bartek Ostrowski