EIT Food Innovator Fellowship

We are happy to announce the new edition of the EIT Food Innovator Fellowship 2022.

Global challenges in the Agri-Food systems require a mind-shift and a thrilling change in the awareness and competencies of talents: the new generation of entrepreneurs are asked to play a crucial role in solving the planet’s food-related issues.

The future leaders of the Agri-Food system need a new set of competencies beyond those acquired in research and academic environments – they require a proficiency that allows them to propose, manage, implement, and lead interdisciplinary/multidisciplinary research and innovation projects, to be able to transform lab-ideas into business ideas.

For this reason, EIT Food offers to you the Innovator Fellowship, a programme designed for Postdoctoral Fellows and Young Professionals wishing to impact the Agri-Food systems

EIT Food Innovator Fellowship aims to identify talents worldwide with creative and innovative potential, wishing to expand their skill repertoire through advanced training to develop an innovative idea with a significant impact on the agri-food sector.

The critical feature of the Innovator Fellowship programme is the creation of strong and multidisciplinary working teams, beginning with a Hackathon and continuing with two cornerstones of the programme:

• One-to-one support to the teams by expert mentors to turn initial ideas into mature business propositions.
• Two advanced training boot camps aimed to provide entrepreneurial competences and skills delivered by high-level trainers.

If you want to put your talent to the test and you’d like to know more about this programme, please find the details below. More information can be found on the Innovator Fellowship page. An upcoming webinar will provide further insights into the programme.

Should you need further clarification, do not hesitate to get in touch with us at innovator@eitfood.eu .

Programme Structure

After an evaluation step aiming to select the best talents/ideas, the talents will be invited to the programme and will participate in a series of training sessions aiming to form teams and to develop a business idea.

The talent selection will be communicated with an invitation letter on June 10 2022.

Step 1 – COLLABORATE2INNOVATE – June 23 and 24 – 2022 | ONLINE |

To move from individuals to a community, it is essential to connect on a personal level before you make commitments, form teams, and work together. People who complement, challenge, and support one another make fantastic teams. In this training, we form a community so you can make informed choices about who enables you to truly innovate.

Step 2 – FOODATHON – from July 22 to July 23 – 2022 – | ONLINE |

The Foodathon: an immersive, competitive, and stimulating experience where you will co-create and further develop the best ideas proposed by you in a multi/interdisciplinary setting, with one-to-one mentoring. The best teams will be selected at the Foodathon after pitching their initial business proposition in front of an evaluation committee for the next step of the journey.

Step3. TWO ADVANCED TRAINING – from Sept. to Oct. 2022. The winning teams will gain high-level complementary skills training. The training will cover areas designed to acquire entrepreneurial skills and specific transversal skills to further develop and implement their ideas. Scheduled workshops will be accompanied by structured mentoring to advance the team’s original project via a real working viability frame.

First Training

BUSINESS4GROWTH2022 | ONLINE |

– Business Planning September 9 and 10.

– Business Model & Design Thinking September 13 and 14.

Second Training

ENGAGE2INNOVATE2022 | BLENDED |

– Intellectual Property Rights & Leadership and Organisational Skills October 14 and 15 | ONLINE |.

– Communication and Pitch Skills October 22 to 23 | IN PRESENCE | (location to be confirmed).

Per Diem support is foreseen for travel and subsistence.

Step 4. Final Pitch Event – December 16 – 2022 duration 4 hours | ONLINE |

The final event is where the teams will present the fully developed business idea in front of experts and venture capitalists. Winners of this programme will have access to services for prototyping and/or market analysis and fine-tuning business planning.

Duration

Innovator Fellowship programme runs for about 6 months with intermittent commitments as shown in the programme structure.

Eligibility