“X2.0 – Driving deep-tech growth’ (X2.0 project) is a new project, funded by the Horizon Europe Programme under Grant Agreement nº 101073781 and led by F6S, the leading platform for application management for commercial, corporate, government, university, and other accelerator programmes.
X2.0 aims to ensure the scaling up of EU deep-tech startups by providing custom, industry-focused 5 months programmes that will act as a catalyst in delivering market-ready applications and technology solutions in 5 key impact areas: Manufacturing & Circular Economy, AgriTech, Healthtech & BioTech, Smart Cities and Sustainability, and Data & AI. The project will last 2 years and will have a budget of 2 million euros.
The project will distribute 1.5 million euros in innovation and scaling up services to 50 deep-tech startups and will contribute to the offering of the EIC program over the start period of two years. X2.0 will launch five open calls, one for each key impact area. The scaling up services will be delivered by external service providers, the identified industry impact builders with capacity to support the different as per the needs of each individual startup.
To carry out this project, an international consortium collaborates, including companies from three European countries: Ireland (F6S), Spain (Zabala Innovation), Serbia (ICT Hub).
Zabala Innovation is the responsible of two different Work Packages, the one focused on Management, and the second one in Promotion, which includes communication and dissemination activities. The project is part of the entrepreneurship area and is a strategic project for European innovation and aims to have a global impact.
Origin of X2.0 Project
X2.0 is a sustainable legacy project of X-Europe and aims to leverage its predecessors’ established ecosystem, network, proven information Startup Europe methodology, and learnings, to generate a next-gen coordination action mechanism.
To compete in global markets, increasingly defined by new technologies, Europe needs to capitalise on its excellent research and startup ecosystem. There exists an important investment gap for digital innovations and startups, especially in Central, SEE region and other Widening Countries.
How will the project be implemented
X2.0 project will upscale and enable growth of promising deeptech startups, connect more and less innovative ecosystems, and establish a greater connection between the Startup Europe programme and that of the EIC.
Impact: What is expected to achieve
X2.0 responds to the European challenge of capitalise on its excellent research and startup ecosystem and reduce the gap for digital innovations and startups, especially between Central, SEE region and other Widening Countries.
X2.0 aims to achieve a triple impact: technology, social and economy impact. Technology impact will be achieved by boosting the skills of 50 startups with needed technical knowledge and resources and enabling partnering for R&D projects; Social impact, boosting the deeptech ecosystems of widening countries ensuring equal opportunity for development, especially support of women-led SMEs, and economic impact, offering opportunities, developing ecosystems and boosting local economies allow startups to receive funding and support, with a knock-on effect on the job market and wider economic vitality.
Kick Off Meeting and next steps
An online meeting of this project took place on 24th November. Each partner was given the opportunity to present how they would contribute to the overall objective of the project. While this project is only at the beginning, some important milestones are expected for the coming months.
Soon, X2.0 project website will be available, and the first call launched. So don’t lose all the details about this new project.
