Your Start-up or an SME offers sustainable solutions for the raw materials sector? Apply for the RM Booster to get financial support and access to the EIT RawMaterials partner network to scale up your business!
Sponsoring Agency: EIT RawMaterials
Type of Fund: Events, Workshops and Conferences
Deadline Available: Available
Deadline Date (mm/dd/yyyy): 05/28/2021
Size of the Fund: USD $50,000 to $500,000
Your Start-up or an SME offers sustainable solutions for the raw materials sector? Apply for the RM Booster to get financial support and access to the EIT RawMaterials partner network to scale up your business!
RM Booster programme provides support to start-ups and SMEs to develop innovative products and services that can produce an impact in the raw materials sector or benefit partners.
Besides funding and customised services, the selected start-ups and SMEs will also get access to the EIT RawMaterials partner network, participating in the networking events, as well as gain visibility through EIT RawMaterials network channels. Supported start-ups and SMEs may join the network as an associate or full member to benefit from the ecosystem fully.
Start-up and SME Booster provides established companies with support to:
• speed up a technology challenge resulting in a higher TRL, bringing the technology closer to the market
• accelerate market penetration by dedicating financial resources for a specific segment or target market
• facilitate product portfolio diversification, enabling product adaption or new product features to address a concrete market need
Topics of interest
The “Start-up & SME Booster Programme” supports new businesses that contribute to the EIT RawMaterials vision to develop raw materials into a major strength for Europe. This includes activities along the whole materials value chain:
• Exploration and raw materials resource assessment
• Mining in challenging environments
• Increased resource efficiency in mineral and metallurgical processes
• Recycling and material chain optimisation for End-of-Life products
• Substitution of critical and toxic materials in products and for optimised performance
• Design of products and services for the circular economy
Grant Amount
The support scheme will be as follows:
• Financial support of up to a maximum amount of EUR 60,000.
• As a general principle, the financial support is granted to selected beneficiaries based on a realistic cost estimate, and is paid as a lump sum.
• Start-ups and SMEs who are partners of EIT RawMaterials will have to report actual costs.
• The maximum amount of EUR 60,000 corresponds to the total cumulative amount that a single beneficiary (start-up or SME) can receive during a calendar year for any activity supported by EIT RawMaterials.
• Funding will be attributed based on the proposed activities and budget submitted by the startup and checked during the evaluation process. The final allocated amount will depend on the convincing justification of the costs and on the available budget of the corresponding Innovation Hub at the cut-off date. The amount allocated might differ from the amount initially requested by the start-up.
Eligibility Criteria
The “Start-up & SME Booster Programme” is open to the following participants who have an operative branch in one of the EU member countries or Countries Associated to HorizonEurope:
• Raw materials relevant start-up or spin-off companies at least registered at the time of application (registration certificate to be provided at the grant signature);
• Raw materials innovation- and technology-related SMEs (according to European Commission’s definitions) willing to boost their business through the introduction of new and innovative products and/or services.
The Projects supported by the “Start-up & SME Booster Programme” could have one of the following targets:
• Increasing the TRL (from at least TRL);
• Building or expanding the Intellectual Property (IP) portfolio;
• Carrying out customer validation or pilot testing. The programme also supports initiatives to find potential customers among EIT RawMaterials partners.
• Expanding the market and reaching global scale.
The maximum duration of projects is set to 12 months. The milestones to be achieved within the project duration should be clearly indicated and preferably spread over the calendar year 2021. Should the project require extension to the next calendar year for completion of the milestones, specific agreements need to be discussed with the local Innovation Hub.
NB: EIT RawMaterials offers several programmes targeting entrepreneurs, start-ups and SMEs at various stages of maturity.
EIT RawMaterials encourages projects at idea/concept stage, without a registered company, to consider applying for the “Jumpstarter”.
• Start-ups looking for specific support in accelerating market uptake may consider threestage “Accelerator programme”.
• SMEs with more advanced product(s)/service(s) are recommended to contact us, to find out about opportunities to join consortium projects with their partners (upscaling projects) or to apply to a specific SME call.
More information at: https://eitrawmaterials.eu/booster-call-2021-is-open-for-start-ups-and-smes-in-the-raw-materials-sector/
