26-30 November, 2023 – Silicon Valley & Bay Area An immersion bootcamp for European ecosystem leaders in the #1 innovation ecosystem in the world.
An immersion bootcamp to the Silicon Valley and Bay Area innovation ecosystem
Gain strategic and practical tools from top industry players to best develop and manage your innovation community
Get access to co-funding opportunities to launch your transatlantic activities.
Join an exclusive global network of like minded professionals.
For example: TTO’s, heads of: accelerators, innovation agencies, research centers, labs, incubators or other business creation activities from academia, industry
The programme is not suited for individual start-ups or consultants.
The selection will be competitive and based upon excellence and the above noted criteria. The final selection will be made by the Silicon Valley Cross KIC Steering Committee (with members representing the KICs: EIT Climate-KIC, EIT Culture & Creativity, EIT Digital, EIT Health, EIT Food, and EIT Manufacturing).
The full cost of the programme is 8,000 EUR, however EIT Hub Silicon Valley can offer partial funding of the programmes and/or Travel & Accommodation reimbursement based on the following categories:
Category Number | Participant Category | Eligible KIC’s | Eligibility for Programme Funding | Eligibility for Travel and Accommodation Reimbursement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | KIC Partners and KIC cooperating entities under the EIT Regional Innovation Scheme(RIS) | 6 KIC’s: EIT Climate- KIC, EIT Culture & Creativity, EIT Digital, EIT Food, EIT Health and EIT Manufacturing. | 75% Funded; Price: €2,000 | Reimbursement up to €2,800 per participant per module |
2 | KIC Staff | 6 KIC’s: EIT Climate- KIC, EIT Culture & Creativity EIT Digital, EIT Food, EIT Health and EIT Manufacturing. | Fully funded | Financed by the KIC’s own resources. Grants will be available for KIC staff under special conditions. |
3
| Partner/Staff from other KIC’s
| EIT InnoEnergy, EIT RawMaterials, and EIT Urban Mobility. | 75% Funded; Price: €2,000 | Financed by participant’s own resources |
4 | Ecosystem Manager (Non EIT) | Any individual professional can apply. | Early Bird 50% Funded; Price: €4,000 | Financed by participant’s own resources |
The EIT Hub Silicon Valley will award up to 4 “Golden Tickets” to exceptional Partner/Non-EIT organizations, making them eligible for higher discounts. The evaluation of applications will be conducted by the EIT Silicon Valley Cross KIC Steering Committee, focusing on organizations with strong business creation ideas or individuals with strong professional profiles. Additionally, the Early bird registration discount of Non -EIT participants is offered until 10th of September.
*The below agenda is subject to change
Welcome to Silicon Valley
Tour in San Francisco, followed by arrival to the Connect & Experience retreat, a unique experience that combines professional and mental growth to help you and your ecosystem thrive and a community to start forming.
Welcome Europeans to the Silicon Valley Ecosystem
Silicon Valley leaders will join the programme with the aim of fostering connections and collaboration between the Silicon Valley and European innovation ecosystems, by creating a platform for deepening relationships and forging meaningful partnerships. Through engaging panel discussions, interactive workshops, and networking sessions, you will have the opportunity to share insights, exchange ideas, and explore potential synergies.
Deep Dive into the Silicon Valley Innovation Ecosystem
The aim of the day is to expose the participants to the unique structure, key success factors and methods that created the Silicon Valley the capital of innovation. We will learn the deep connections and roots of the innovation landscape in the traditional economy and how incentivized innovation transformed the US industries and society.
Innovation & Business Leaders in Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is world’s leading hub of high-tech innovation, known for creating tech giants, and an ideal location to nurture and grow your fledgling startups. We will focus on Silicon Valley as a great learning ground for ecosystem development and learn from the people that have managed to create a supportive and nurturing environment against all odds. We will meet key organizations who will share how they build a successful, organic ecosystem by leveraging upon MNCs, start-ups and talents.
Education & Research Leaders in Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley, renowned for its technological innovation and world-class universities like Stanford and Berkeley, has established itself as a hub for cutting-edge research, transformative educational programs, and successful technology transfer initiatives. We will delve into innovation that arise from its unique blend of academic excellence and entrepreneurial spirit. We will have the chance to engage with key organizations and individuals who have harnessed the power of partnerships between universities, industry leaders, and talented individuals. Through these interactions, we will gain insights into the strategies employed to leverage the resources and expertise of major multinational corporations, startups, and exceptional talent, ultimately paving the way for future advancements in education, technology transfer, research, and innovation.
Building Bridges
After you were exposed to the Silicon Valley Ecosystem, it’s time to reflect and think of what’s next. On the last day, we will focus on externalizing your ecosystem and understanding your ecosystem UVP based. We will also discuss how we can tailor the lessons and opportunities learned in Silicon Valley to your unique ecosystem characteristics. During the day, you will have the opportunity to pitch your ideas on bridging your ecosystem with Silicon Valley and get up to EUR20,000 of co-funding to launch it in collaboration with EIT Hub Silicon Valley.
Finally you will join the C&E community to share future plans and events.
Yes, participation physically in Silicon Valley is required, and it is the core Connect & Experience event that provides you with professional training, and builds the community. You will have the chance to travel round the country, meet US peers and learn from one if the world’s leading innovation ecosystems.
The cohort will be comprised of ecosystem – innovation& education leaders from all over Europe that were carefully selected to join the programme. You will meet peers and innovation leaders from Silicon Valley, top speakers and lecturers on a number of different topics, executives from global companies active in Silicon Valley, and many more.Finally, you will have the opportunity to discuss with all key actors in the region including tech giants, VCs, startups, universities and accelerators ie from Apple, Microsoft, Plug & Play, MTB, Stanford University etc. (The agenda is tentative and subject to changes)
An ecosystem leader is an experienced senior professional, at management/decision-making level, in an organisation boosting European start-up growth, significantly impacting the European ecosystem. They should deal with innovation or business creation in any of the following sectors: industry, academia, government. For example, VCs, TTOs, Heads of: accelerators, Innovation agencies, Research Centers, incubators, or other business creation activities from academia, industry and government.
The programme encompasses a wide variety of subjects, including an overview of the Silicon Valley ecosystem and meetings with leading figures from the industry. You will have the chance to get your hands ‘dirty’ and delve into an ecosystem building workshop, learn best practices, become inspired by the many opportunities that will expose themselves and test your transatlantic business creation ideas.
This depends on a financial category that varies from participant to participant. Check out the finance section for more information.
The applicants will be ranked according to the criteria noted here and the final decision as to the participants will be made by the Global Outreach steering committee. Applicants will receive responses by 11th October. If you wish to submit a complaint about the answer you got following the selection process, you can email us: [email protected]
Please explain your complaint as clearly as possible, deadline: 15 October, 2023.
Past participants of EIT connect & experience programmes have established long standing collaborations with both local experts and members of the cohort. You can expect to be left with a change of mindset that will enable you to approach your future activities with a new found sense of purpose, a tangible pathway to establish the best practices you were exposed, as well as support to launch your transatlantic activities. The Connect & Experience community is extremely active with joint ventures taking place on a weekly basis, you can expect to expand your network and be part of a supportive and professional group of people.
The Silicon Valley ecosystem renowned as the Innovation Capital of the world is the global center for high technology and innovation. Silicon Valley has the highest number of scale-ups and capital raised in the world. The ecosystem has cultivated a culture of innovation, encouraged creativity and risk-taking, that supported early-stage startups, and encouraged collaboration. Silicon Valley is the global innovation trend seter as is home to some of the world’s most successful and innovative companies.
Do you have any questions? Get in touch with us at
[email protected]
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The programme is highlighted by the brand names of the Israeli ecosystem who will share their experience and describe their role in making Israel the innovation success it is today. The programme will leverage existing know-how and best practices, will provide a broad access to mentors, hands-on training and tools to commercialize ideas, research and IP to better support your start-ups. It will also focus on how to avoid common pitfalls of ecosystem building and how to build a sustainable system in the process.
The content will be delivered as a Mini-Conference – in addition to presentations by key Israeli players, participants will be expected to present their own challenges and initiatives in their home ecosystem. This knowledge-sharing amongst global peers will provide added value and enhance the overall experience.
The annual highlight of the C&E community network – the Playground is a professional follow up conference taking place at a different location in Europe each year, that offers practical tools and strategies. The playground
brings together global professionals and
provides a platform to develop and manage innovation communities and start-up support systems.
Members will be offered the opportunity to design and co-facilitate content and workshops with a peer who has experience in connecting the public and private sector, as well as start-ups and corporate players. As such, the playground can be used as a testbed for new ideas and initiatives, receiving real time feedback and potential collaborations from leading experts in the field.
Connect & Experience offers more than professional training. The C&E network is an active global online and offline community offering access to opportunities, curated content, matchmaking, soft landing services and support. The expansive network that grows from year to year offers a space for community builders from Israel and Europe to interact, share best practices and collaborate, with the common goal of enhancing your start-up community.
Connect & Experience offers more than training. The C&E community network is an active EU online and offline community offering easy access to opportunities, curated content, matchmaking, soft landing services, and support. The community provides a space for community builders from Europe and Horizon Europe associated countries to interact, share best practices, and collaborate to enhance your startup community.
The Health not The Death is a fundamental human right. A healthy population is not to be seen as human and social capital, an input, or by-product, towards economic growth. Alongside a healthy and sustainable environment, a solidarity, a healthy population must be the ultimate goal especially nowadays in helping Ukrainian migrants with cancer and their families.
Solidarity in health is a cornerstone of EU health policy. There are wide disparities in many health outcomes across the region and those outcomes. The access rules dramatically affect healthcare systems which are at the forefront of the migrant way, the people who are searching for help and the way how we could enhance and support their healthier and wellbeing status.
In order to ensure their access to care and continued cure in need, the probability of receiving a timely diagnosis and of surviving differs greatly from country to country where they are now. There is lack of information, help and inequalities in access. People need help in navigating cancer knowledge, diagnostics, secondary monitoring and prevention, way of treatments, and care.
Shifting our mindset, supporting healthcare connectivity, removing inequalities overall across Europe is our mission and even more now in a time of crisis, helping the Ukrainian people dealing with cancer is a good place to begin this transformative revolution.
1) Whether we have a chance to foster more holistic and integrated approaches to receive information and care, by supporting coordination and maximising an enabling and health-enhancing effect of care across services from different countries?
2) Whether actions should address the social determinants of health, the countries where they are now, the health need which they have, the social and language barriers are the conditions which have to be taken into consideration in a coordinated manner?
How might we improve patients and /or people who seek healthcare support, access to healthcare services at an EU & the Member States Healthcare systems level? Especially in a time of crisis in Europe.
How might we support refugees fleeing from their countries by navigating them to medical centres to receive best available care?
Precision medicine aims to personalise care for every individual. Nongenomic and genomic determinants, combined with information from patient symptoms, clinical history, and lifestyle (nutrition, physical activity, stress etc.), can facilitate personalised diagnosis and prognostics. Yet this goal requires access to massive amounts of data which may come from different structured and unstructured sources; these can be our medical records, laboratory testing, a range of medical devices as well as from the patient himself. AI & ML can combine input from these multiple sources, analyse them and identify biomarkers that can support health professionals make more informed decisions. The convergence of precision medicine with the advanced AI capabilities will improve the ability to personalise care – improve diagnosis, risk prediction as well as therapy planning.
HCPs want to better predict treatment response, given uncertainty around which treatment to prescribe to which patient and when to prescribe. How do we risk assess the patients, match them with the right treatment (personalised). How can we transform the wealth of data and link it to the predictive nature of how the patient will respond?
Being diagnosed with cancer is overwhelming and comes as a blow. Patients may feel on a roller coaster of emotions—they are scared, lost & confused not knowing what to expect, who to refer to, what to do and how to tell their loved ones. They directly refer to “Dr. Google” to look for information about their disease, possible treatments, QoL strategies with the aim to have better understanding of their disease and learn how to better cope with their disease & treatment, yet information is not always valid, accessible, nor personalised or tailored to the patient’s status and needs therefore left with huge amounts of non-relevant information. Coming to the doctor, the physician’s time is limited and mostly focusing on the physical aspects of the disease & treatment, not leaving much time to ask questions nor discuss more holistic aspects of the disease such as emotional, psychological, social aspects. The patient (& caregiver in many cases) leaves the room with unanswered questions, doesn’t remember much of what has been said, and feels he is not heard, nor seen as a whole.
The need for navigating this journey along the emotional psychological stress is overwhelming & patients and their caregivers look for support (case manager/companion/partner) to help manage their disease holistically – starting from having clarity around their disease and treatment by having access to reliable and personalised information during their journey as well as having an integrated holistic care system , supporting them and their loved ones to navigate through the different aspects of their disease – medical, emotional, logistical, psychological, social, rights.
How can we support patients to navigate through the complexity of their disease and treatment ensuring they have validated holistic information about their disease journey & treatment and be empowered to effectively manage their care
As medical events pivoted from conference centres and meeting rooms to the virtual settings, learning opportunities continue. Lectures and presentations are translated to the new digital world, yet the ability to connect and network is relatively lost. Peer interaction is essential not only for information exchange but to share practical insights, allows consultation & in-person experience cross country and across borders leading to better disease management.
This peer-based learning/ consultation is highly valued amongst practising clinicians and was generally achieved when HCPs and KOLs met their peers in national & Intl conferences, group debates, advisory boards and even during quick corridor conversations. Attempting to replicate these in-person experiences into the digital space creates challenges and are not effective nor impactful as face-to-face engagements.
How might we improve HCP medical exchange enabling physicians to easily communicate, consult, exchange opinions leveraging individual experts & centres of excellence knowledge, experiences, and practices?
How can we leverage the technological expertise to allow HCPs to connect with leading experts across countries to get advice / counselling for their cases?
Application for 2022Calling2Scale is closed.
Interested in participating in the next cohort?
Email [email protected]
