Applications Open for IMPACT EdTech European Incubator-Accelerator Programme

Deadline: 30 June 2020

Applications are now open for the IMPACT EdTech European Incubator-Accelerator programme that helps EdTech start-ups/SMEs turn ideas into market-ready products.

IMPACT EdTech aims to contribute to the digital transformation of education by creating a vehicle for disruptive education technology, a catalyst designed to help user in a new era of human-centred digital education.

IMPACT EdTech will strategically focus on the testing and validation of pre-existing prototypes of digital education solutions, which serve to make education more inclusive, support personalised learning or support the skills development of children, teachers and/or other learners. In addition to these, solutions which facilitate remote and mobile learning in periods of severe educational disruption applied to school education or general users will also be considered. At the application stage, startups/SMEs are asked to make a number of claims on the social and educational impact of their solutions, which will be tested during the trials, allowing them to collect preliminary evidence to measure to what extent those claims have been met.

IMPACT EdTech will support 42 European start-ups/SMEs with almost €6M equityfree funding plus acceleration and mentoring services to bring their digital education innovations into the market, focusing on those solutions that can contribute to extending personalised, inclusive educational models and/or support the development of the skills relevant in today’s world. These promising EdTech prototypes shall progress from at least TRL5 to reach TRL7 or beyond.

Strands

Applicants will be requested to select in their application one of the following strands:

STRAND A: School EdTech solutions
- Strand A aims to support solutions which demonstrate a clear vision for the pedagogical use of ICT aimed at transforming education models at the level of formal (school-based) compulsory education, from early childhood up to secondary general and vocational education (commonly referred to as K12), notwithstanding that their potential application may reach other target users and educational markets. The solutions selected must serve to make education more inclusive, support personalised learning or support skills development of children and/or teachers. Solutions aiming at supporting schools in ensuring the pedagogical continuity with pupils through online education will also be considered under this strand.
STRAND B: EdTech solutions for any age group and/or level of education
- Strand B targets Business to Consumer (B2C) content-based solutions open to any age group and level of education. Strand B is looking for solutions that can disrupt the current EdTech market patterns and break the barriers to any learners through emerging technologies. Strand B solutions will be tackling the three IMPACT EdTech challenges (inclusive education, personalised learning or skills development) addressing any type of learners through formal and/or informal education outside the early childhood up to secondary general/vocational education systems. Learning solutions which facilitate remote and mobile learning will also be considered.
- Regardless of the strand, selected start-ups/SMEs will be incubated under similar funding and service-support conditions but seek a ‘pull effect’ from fairly different market actors within the common incubation framework. The same incubation services and resources will be allocated in Stage 1. The differentiation will come in Stage 2, where Strand A and Strand B will have divergent piloting pathways and resources adapted to the functional characteristics of their products.

Challenges Targeted

IMPACT EdTech is looking for start-ups/SMEs to address one or more of the following challenges faced by the educational systems, that can be tackled by digital technology:

Inclusive education, targeting specific underserved or vulnerable groups (socially disadvantaged persons, immigrants or minority groups, special educational needs students or other groups), address early school leavers or support the improvement of educational attainment for all.
Personalised learning, (based e.g. on Artificial Intelligence (AI), learning analytics, and other technologies) with a focus on supporting new, research based pedagogical approaches for in-classroom education and encouraging life-long learning.
Skills development of children, teachers and other types of learners with a focus on, but not limited to, the development of STEM, Computational Thinking and 21st century skills such as critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication.

In addition to these, solutions which facilitate remote and mobile learning aimed at ensuring educational continuity for school education or general users during periods of severe educational disruption will also be considered.

Stages

The IMPACT EdTech incubation and acceleration programme will be divided in two stages:

Stage 1: MVP Validation – Incubation: 21 selected EdTech trials will be supported by business and educational mentors and other digital learning specialists to define and undergo a validation and testing road map for their solutions. Selected companies will need to develop an MVP based on their prototype within 4 months, at the end of which their prototypes will need to undergo Live Testing by a pool of experts in education. Companies undergoing this stage will receive up to €83,500 of EU Grant – up to €73,500 as a lump sum equity-free funding and up to €10,000 to access business and educational mentoring support services in the form of vouchers).
Stage 2: Proof of Market – Acceleration: Up to 11 start-ups/SMEs with the best performing MVPs will receive additional support to test materials and assess the impact and performance of their solutions. This stage will include short cycle piloting in real educational environments. Out of the up to 21 start-ups/SMEs participating in Stage 1, up to 11 will pass to Stage 2 and receive up to €110,000 of EU Grant (up to €90,000 as a lump sum and up to €20,000 to access business and educational mentoring support services as well as other specific resources and services to pilot solutions in the form of vouchers).

Eligibility Criteria

The 1 st IMPACT EdTech Open Call welcomes applications from SMEs [legal person] (including start-ups) legally established in one of the Eligible countries. Only one start-up/SME per application is allowed, which includes a team of at least two persons with complementary business and technical capabilities.
Teams of at least two individuals with complementary business and technical capabilities can also submit their applications, but they will be required to establish a company (legal person) in any of the European Union member countries or an H2020 associated country before the start of the Incubation programme. In this case, individuals will be required to provide a written commitment stating they will establish a legally registered company during the Sub-Grant Agreement.
All applicants who have applied before setting up a company, will be required to incorporate a company in order to benefit from any of the IMPACT EdTech grants (from their participation to the Pitch Training and Jury Day event on 2-3 September onwards).

Eligible Countries

Only start-ups/SMEs legally established in the following countries (hereafter collectively identified as the ‘Eligible Countries’) will be eligible for the IMPACT EdTech Programme: