Deadline: 11-Jul-21
Revive Deep Tech Accelerator for Assistive Technologies, designed and implemented jointly with Foundation for Armenian Science and Technology (FAST), is part of UNDP’s larger work on veteran support, designed to leverage a network of local and international growth stage companies working on assistive technologies.
The companies will develop and deploy their products into successful commercially viable projects to help ease the life of veterans with disabilities. This process will be directed towards providing opportunity to military veterans of Armenia, particularly those who have been displaced geographically, with disabilities, or require up/re-skilling.
A deep research and mapping of existing needs of assistive technologies will be done jointly with Armenian hospitals and rehab centers. Based on the research results, specific need-based challenges will be formulated and a global call for solutions will be announced. Successful solutions will be selected for an intensive 4-week acceleration program and 1-year relocation and support program to adapt and locally pilot the solutions (ranging from software systems to 3D-printed prosthesis).
Phases
Deep tech accelerator will consist of 5 interconnected phases:
- Research and challenge design: During this phase, FAST, along with partner organizations and the UNDP, will conduct interdisciplinary research to map existing needs and challenges of accessibility technologies via close collaboration with Armenian relevant ministries, hospitals and rehab centers. Based on conducted research, specific challenges will be formalized and partner networks will be developed for deployment of the solutions addressing the challenges.
- Recruitment: The program seeks to recruit growth stage startups offering solutions in assistive tech.
- Acceleration program: During this phase, an intensive 3-week mentorship and coaching program will be conducted for selected growth stage startups. For delivering valuable content high-level coaches and experts will be engaged both from Armenia and the globe. The sessions will provide opportunities to interact and learn from international domain experts, highlight scale-up opportunities as well as introduce opportunities of further acceleration, business and legal support, human resources, funding etc.
- Winner selection: After the acceleration program, a thorough screening will be conducted ensuring that the winning candidates have viable technologies and are committed to work on building the products in and for Armenia.
- Operations in Armenia and solution deployment: At this stage the selected startups will be granted a support package which will include a monetary grant, tailored mentorship and business development support, access to partner networks, including governmental, international organizations and corporations.
Criteria
- The program targets growth-stage startups that have a ready scalable solution and aims to provide intensive mentorship, incentivized grants and relocation assistance to these startups.
- The startups will launch their products in Armenia and scale in the global market utilizing UNDP’s, FAST’s and partners’ networks.
For more information, visit https://www.revive.am/deep-tech