Climate-KIC brings Portugal opportunities to work against climate change

Climate-KIC, the main initiative of the European Union in innovation against climate change, has presented in Lisbon its programs to attract start-ups and entrepreneurs to innovate in order to contribute to a more sustainable world. Valencia is one of the European headquarters of Climate-KIC and coordinates some of the programs of this initiative in Europe.

The programs presented are Pioneers into Practice and Climate-KIC Accelerator Portugal, which is managed in Europe partially from Valencia. The latter program is open to start-ups of up to three years, or pre start- ups willing to form a company or existing companies that have new product lines or business models in place.

The Climate-KIC Accelerator provides funding, training, counseling and stays in countries and companies closely linked to innovation. The participants can collect up to 60,000 €, get training by leading professionals and be constantly advised by world-class  mentors.  The entrepreneurs were excited to learn about the Accelerator program. A. Pedro Barreira (start-up entrepreneur) stated: “A well-organized and informative conference. After the event we knew for sure that we wanted to apply to such a challenging program”

Pioneers into practice

The other program is the PiP (Pioneers into Practice). It is open to professionals, entrepreneurs, officials or businessmen with knowledge on climate change, proactive and good English attitude.

The PiP provides funding, advice and placements in enterprises or institutions, national and international. Celsa Monrós, regional manager, presented the initiative at the University of Lisbon. The goal of the program is to encourage PiP “innovation to meet the challenges associated with climate change, through the creation not only of products and services, but experts who understand the socio-technological change that is occurring.”

Valencia is one of the European headquarters of Climate-KIC. The partnership between the European Union, the Generalitat Valenciana, the University of Valencia, the Polytechnic University of Valencia and two dozen partners have turned the city into the Spanish capital of this initiative.

Climate-KIC’s centre in Valencia, Spain has been collaborating intensively with the regions North Portugal and Lisbon this year as part of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology’s (EIT) Regional Innovation Scheme.

For more information visit the website of Climate-KIC in Valencia or contact Celsa Monrós on 96 162 25880 or celsa.monros@climate-kic.org

About Climate-KIC

Climate-KIC is the EU’s main climate innovation initiative. It is Europe’s largest public-private innovation partnership focused on mitigating and adapting to climate change. Climate-KIC consists of companies, academic institutions and the public sector.

The organisation has its headquarters in London, UK, and leverages its centres across Europe to support start-up companies, to bring together partners on innovation projects and to educate students to bring about a connected, creative transformation of knowledge and ideas into products and services that help mitigate and adapt to climate change.

Climate-KIC currently has centres in France, Germany, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark and the UK and is represented in the regions of Valencia, Central Hungary, Emilia Romagna, Lower Silesia, Hessen and the West Midlands.

Climate-KIC is one of the Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) created in 2010 by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), the EU body tasked with creating sustainable European growth while dealing with the global challenges of our time.

www.climate-kic.org