Danube Energy+

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Boost potential of Young Innovators
to pioneer change in energy efficiency inside
Danube Macro Region

Danube Energy+ tackles the need for change in regional ecosystems to support Young Innovators in transforming their disruptive ideas into ventures.
Project´s general objective is to create an enabling environment, which will support Young innovators to pioneer a change in the energy efficiency area by setting up highly innovative startups in the Danube macro-region.

In the first phase of the project, 9 international project partners were focused on delivering a Danube Energy+ ecosystem Package as an innovative learning system for key regional ecosystem actors. It is uniquely composed of two main elements – (1) best practices, models and experience in identification and motivation of individual Young Innovators in regional ecosystems and their connection to ecosystem actors, and (2) developed Danube Energy+ Tool as a pre-acceleration learning scheme for Young Innovators boosting their competences to start successful ventures.

Our partners in the project are: 

  • InnoEnergyGmbH, Karlsruhe – Germany
  • Cleantech Bulgaria Foundation, Sofia – Bulgaria
  • ABC Accelerator, Ljubljana – Slovenia
  • Optimization, Zagreb – Croatia
  • E-KLASTR, Prague – Czech Republi
  • Civitta Slovakia, Bratislava – Slovakia
  • SEE ICT, Belgrade – Serbia
  • European Initiatives Center, Ukraine

Danube Energy+ Tool

The Danube Energy+ Tool was the most exciting part of the project as we got to work hands on with 8 teams, during two weeks of pre-acceleration. The teams were trained on three main learning blocks:

  • Idea Generation;
  • Business Model Development;
  • Sales and Pitching.

Discover their ideas and see them pitch in the video below.

Danube Energy+ Hub

The final stage of the project is the establishment of a Danube Energy+ Hub through which to continue the best practices and models learned in three years of cooperation with our 8 international partners.
Our vision for the Danube Energy+ Hub is aligned with our vision for ROTSA: to keep the national ecosystem connected to relevant international stakeholders and partners and to offer incubation to aspiring startupers, either through our own program, or in partnership with others.

To finetune our curricula and learnings from the Danube Energy+ Tool, we already started offering business mentorship and incubation to teams from the following projects:

  • In partnership with Babeș-Bolyai University, within the project “Entrepreneurship for innovation through Entrepreneurship for innovation through doctoral and postdoctoral research” we offer 4 months of mentorship (30 hours per month) to teams of researchers
  • EduHack – 3 teams with EdTech solutions are mentored for 6 months
  • REplastic Hack – 3 teams with solutions to reduce plastic consumption are mentored for 3 months