A hybrid programme for European startup programme managers and their portfolio startups to scale to Latin-America’s #1 innovation ecosystem.
Bootcamp for Startup Programme Managers & Their Startups (Online, September)
Intensive 5-Day In-Person Immersion Lab in São Paulo, Brazil (19–24 October) ONLY for Startup Programme Managers and Selected Startups
For Startup Programme Managers & Their Portfolio Startups (Post-Immersion Lab)
For example: Accelerator and Incubator Managers, VCs, Technology Transfer Officers (TTOs), Portfolio Managers, Chief Innovation Officers, Business Development Managers, Investment Associates and other startup programme managers who oversee startups beyond the early stage and are prepared to scale their business.
Participation Requirement:
*Including Horizon Europe Associated countries
The selection will be competitive and based upon excellence and the above noted criteria. The final selection will be made by the EIT Global Outreach Working Group
Gain access to the Brazilian market for you and your portfolio startups
Build strategic partnerships with the Brazilian industry, VCs and innovation leaders
Equip your startups for international growth
Join a vibrant European innovation network
GLOBALLY IN FINTECH (SAO PAULO)
TOTAL FUNDING IN 2024
RENEWABLE ENERGY USAGE
ANNUAL ECOSYSTEM GROWTH
AI INVESTMENT PLAN
UNICORS IN BRAZIL
(11 IN SAO PAULO)
Strong Global Links – Over 150 Brazilian startups expanded abroad in 2024, with growing ties to Europe and global programmes.
*Source of data: Startup Genome, SratupBlink, Stats and Market Insights
*The below agenda is subject to change
Welcome to Brazil
Arrival, orientation, and cultural immersion. Participants will be welcomed with an introduction to Brazil’s human, cultural, and geographical landscape to ease local navigation and spark early connections.
São Paulo: Brazil’s Innovation Powerhouse
Startups and managers will dive deep into São Paulo’s innovation ecosystem through curated visits to leading hubs, accelerators, and corporates. The day includes:
One hybrid session with Europe-based startups still participating online
Split Workshops: Startup Programme Managers & Startups
For Startup Programme Managers
“Brazil as a Gateway to LATAM” – A hands-on workshop to co-design better startup support strategies. Topics include:
For Startups
“Doing Business in Brazil” – A practical workshop featuring:
Evening:
VIP Networking Reception
Increase EU-Brazil innovation with ecosystem leaders, corporates, investors, and government stakeholders.
Districts of Innovation: São Paulo’s Tech Infrastructure
Joint visits to Brazil’s most impactful innovation districts, where academia, startups, and corporates intersect. Participants will engage in:
Campinas: Scientific Excellence Meets Startup Growth
Explore Campinas, a rising R&D and deep-tech hub with strong university-industry ties. The day includes:
Consolidation, Matchmaking & What’s Next
Time to reflect, connect, and plan for what comes next:
The full cost of the programme is 6,000 EUR, however EIT Global Outreach 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, KIC cooperating entities & their Immersion Lab selected startups | 6 KIC’s: EIT Climate- KIC, EIT Culture & Creativity, EIT Digital, EIT Food, EIT Health and EIT Manufacturing. | Fully funded | Reimbursement up to €2,000 per participant per module |
2 | KIC Staff & their Immersion Lab selected startups | 6 KIC’s: EIT Climate- KIC, EIT Culture & Creativity EIT Digital, EIT Food, EIT Health and EIT Manufacturing. | Fully funded | Programme Managers: No reimbursement applicable, financed by the KIC’s resources
Startups: Reimbursement up to €2,000 per participant per module
|
3
| Partner/Staff from other KIC’s & their Immersion Lab selected startups
| EIT InnoEnergy, EIT RawMaterials, and EIT Urban Mobility. | 85% Funded; Price: €1,000 | Programme Managers: No reimbursement applicable, financed by the KIC’s resources
Startups: Reimbursement up to €2,000 per participant per module |
4 | Programme Managers (Non EIT) & their Immersion Lab selected startups | Any individual professional can apply. |
75% Funded; Price: €1.500 | Reimbursement up to €2,000 per participant per module |
Yes, participation in Brazil is required, and the core element of the programme that provides you with professional training and builds an active community of like-minded peers. You will have the chance to meet Brazilian innovation players and learn from one of the world’s leading innovation ecosystems.
OPEN builds on the success of Connect & Experience but takes a more hands-on, scalable approach. While Connect & Experience focused on exposing programme managers to global markets, OPEN brings both startup programme managers and their startups into the experience. With a 5-day in-person Immersion Lab in Brazil and extended online support, OPEN empowers programme managers with the tools to support international growth—while giving startups direct access to new opportunities and key ecosystem players.
The cohort will comprise Startup Programme Managers and startups from all over Europe that were carefully selected to join the programme. You’ll meet peers (Startup Programme Managers and Startups) and ecosystem leaders from Brazil, top speakers and lecturers on several topics, executives from global companies active in Brazil, and many more.
A startup programme manager is an executive or experienced professional responsible for designing, managing, and overseeing programmes that support the growth and development of startups. These individuals typically work within innovation hubs, accelerators, incubators, venture capital firms, or technology transfer offices (TTOs), providing resources such as mentorship, funding opportunities, training, and access to networks. Their role is to guide startups in scaling their businesses, entering new markets, and achieving sustainable growth.
The programme is designed for startups that are beyond the early stage (pre-seed to post A round), having secured at least one round of funding, developed at least a prototype product, and demonstrated readiness and actively looking to scale in the Brazilian market. Participating startups should be part of the portfolio of a Startup Programme Manager joining ‘OPEN: Brazil’ and will be selected by them. Ideal candidates include those operating in EIT’s core and strategic fields, focusing on innovation, scalability, and tackling societal challenges.
‘OPEN: Brazil’ is a hybrid programme running from September to November 2025, designed for European Startup Programme Managers and their portfolio startups. The programme begins with a series of curated online sessions that introduce the Brazilian innovation landscape, legal and regulatory insights, and go-to-market strategies. The online phase culminates in a storytelling workshop to help startups tailor their pitches to the Brazilian context. Selected startups will then accompany their managers on a five-day mission to Brazil, where they will jointly engage with local stakeholders, followed by a final online session in November focused on funding and partnership opportunities.
The five-day Immersion Lab in São Paulo and Campinas will provide immersive exposure to Brazil’s most vibrant tech ecosystems. The agenda is carefully structured to benefit both Startup Programme Managers and their selected startups. Participants will engage in a mix of joint and audience-specific sessions, including ecosystem deep dives, practical workshops on doing business in Brazil, and sector-focused roundtables. The visit includes strategic meetings with top VCs, innovation hubs, corporates, accelerators, and government agencies. Participants will also explore potential PoCs, talent collaboration, and co-funding opportunities. A cultural introduction to Brazil, a peer-learning component, and tailored matchmaking will further ensure a productive and high-impact experience. The programme will also feature a VIP networking event to strengthen EU-Brazil ties and facilitate valuable new partnerships for both startups and programme managers.
This depends on a financial category that varies from participant to participant depending on their organisation. Check out the finance section for more information.
Application Closes: 28th July, 2025 (11:00 AM, CET)
The applicants will be ranked according to the criteria noted here, and the Global Outreach steering committee will make the final decision regarding the participants. Applicants will receive responses by 4th August 2025.
If you wish to submit a complaint about the answer you got following the selection process, you can email Ido: [email protected]
Please explain your complaint as clearly as possible; the deadline is 2nd September 2025.
Past participants have established long-standing collaborations with experts they met during the visit and cohort members. You can expect to be left with a change of mindset that will enable you to approach your day-to-day activities with a newfound sense of purpose, as well as a tangible toolkit to establish the best practices you were exposed to. The EIT Global Outreach Startup Programme Managers Community is extremely active, with joint ventures taking place weekly; you can expect to expand your network and be part of a supportive and professional group of people.
Discover the immense potential of Brazil, home to one of the fastest-growing tech ecosystems in the world and the leading innovation hub in Latin America. As the largest economy in the region, Brazil offers a vibrant and dynamic market with a diverse range of opportunities for startups and innovators. São Paulo, the country’s largest economic and industrial centre, is home to over 2,700 startups and 11 unicorns, offering a vibrant environment for innovation and growth. The city’s diverse population of more than 22 million people provides a substantial market and ample networking opportunities.
Leverage the country’s rapidly expanding tech landscape, fueled by strong government support, significant investment programmes, and thriving sectors such as FinTech, AgriTech, EdTech, AI and cleantech. Brazil serves as a gateway to the broader LATAM market, providing startups with a unique chance to scale and collaborate within a rapidly evolving ecosystem of global relevance.
Do you have any questions? Get in touch with us at
[email protected]
Receive the Global Outreach news and latest opportunities right to your inbox
The programme begins with a series of interactive online sessions designed for Startup Programme Managers and 2–3 of their portfolio startups. These sessions provide comprehensive insights into Brazil’s innovation ecosystem, covering topics such as market entry strategies, legal frameworks, product launch processes, pilot projects, fundraising, and effective storytelling tailored to the Brazilian market. Participants will also engage in curated content, including market deep dives, fundraising insights, and a hands-on storytelling workshop tailored to the Brazilian market.
Startup Programme Managers and selected startups* will embark on a five-day Immersion Lab in São Paulo to catalyse their entry into the Brazilian market. The agenda includes joint and audience-specific sessions, site visits to leading innovation hubs, domain-specific roundtables, and tailored matchmaking opportunities.
Participants will engage directly with Brazil’s top VCs, innovation hubs, government agencies, and tech leaders. The agenda blends peer learning, sector-specific roundtables, PoC and partnership opportunities, and exposure to Brazil’s dynamic talent and innovation landscape—creating a launchpad for scale, collaboration, and real market impact.
A dedicated Speed Dating event will also take place during the Immersion Lab, offering startups the opportunity to present their solutions and hold rapid one-on-one meetings with key Brazilian stakeholders.
*Immersion Lab Startup Selection Process:
Participation in the São Paulo Immersion Lab is limited to selected startups. The EIT Global Outreach, and other programme partners and leaders, will jointly select the startups based on a set of predefined criteria (elaborated on the Assessment Process & Selection Process section). The selection will take place at the pre-programme phase, during the Startup Programme Managers’ selection process.
After the Immersion Lab, Startup Programme
Managers and their startups will continue to benefit from ongoing online
support, including dedicated matchmaking sessions, webinars with Brazilian
stakeholders, and strategic networking opportunities.
Curious about OPEN: Brazil?
We invite you to a live online Q&A session where our team will provide key insights and answer any questions you may have about this new initiative.
🗓️ Date: 30 June 2025
🕚 Time: 12:00 AM (CET)
💻 Location: Online (shared after registration)
Don’t miss this opportunity to get informed and get involved.
Click below to secure your spot!
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]
OPEN: Brazil 2025 is a high-impact hybrid programme designed for European Startup Programme Managers and their portfolio startups aiming to explore and expand into Brazil—Latin America’s largest innovation market.
At the heart of the programme is a 5-day Immersion Lab in São Paulo, designed to facilitate meaningful engagement with Brazil’s leading VCs, corporates, innovation hubs, and public institutions through curated matchmaking, site visits, and roundtable discussions.
This in-market experience is complemented by:
🔹 A focused LATAM Market Readiness Bootcamp to support strategic preparation
🔹 Tailored follow-up activities to help turn connections into long-term partnerships
OPEN: Brazil 2025 is more than just a programme—it’s a launchpad for strategic internationalisation and sustainable growth.