Black Sea Innovation Ecosystem

Our solution is the Black Sea Innovation Ecosystem.

- It focusses on the Blue Economy in the region.

- The Ecosystem is a structure with three key elements or entities.

(1) sandbox: for early innovators,

(2) accelerator: for startups,

(3) cluster: for young and old companies, financing institutions (VC, banks etc.), administration, NGO, e.a.

These key elements are aligned, but the innovators can choose one by one.

- The Black Sea Innovation Ecosystem invites R&D and startups from the region, but also from other neighbouring countries like Turkey or Georgia and also from all parts of the world. Because we can offer something, other ecosystems can't offer: We can guide innovators to improve their innovations so they can stand the threats posed by hybrid or real warfare. If you want to go to market with a resilient offer - our Ecosystem is the place to bring you there.

- The three key elements are aligned to support innovators at every stage of their business journey. However, they are also based on three cross-cutting subjects that provide the optimal knowledge for the innovators:

(1) Security & Resilience: We will work with the founders, innovators or businesses on the answer of a very simple question: Does the product or service work if any other hybrid intervention takes places, e.g. the digital communication lines are interrupted?

(2) Sustainability & Regenerative Economy: The supported innovators should go beyond EU regulation and implement strong sustainable measurements or KPIs. This includes divers teams, circular processes, and more.

(3) AI & Robotics: As we can see, many startups are working on a business case for AI or robotics. But AI is something which has to be implemented in all processes of a business. What sounds like a matter of course, is often forgotten in other contexts. We will keep a focus on this business case with AI.

- In order to coordinate the activities in the three entities and ensure the most successful market presence possible for the companies, we work together with experts from Strategic Foresight. We want to enable companies to develop and analyse different scenarios so that they can make informed decisions.

To sum it up: The Black Sea Innovation Ecosystem will focus to align the necessities of innovators and businesses and the challenges of the region and partners.