GRBossible: A Festival dedicated to young entrepreneurship

On 8 & 9 November 2022, the GRBossible Startup Entrepreneurship Festival ‘In Action’ brought to the forefront Greek entrepreneurs and the challenges they face in the modern era such as environmental innovation, climate-neutral economy, green and sustainable development, digital reform, technocratic transformation, virtual reality and artificial intelligence, elements that together compose the future, shaping a new technological revolution, the 4th Industrial Revolution.

The GRBossible Festival was held this year under the auspices of the Ministry of Development and Investments and the Region of Attica, at the National Research Foundation by skywalker.gr with free admission and which was aimed at the diffusion of know-how and the networking of young entrepreneurs operating in a constantly evolving environment.

Activities covered topics in many areas of interest such as new technologies, including artificial intelligence and virtual reality, environmental innovation, green and sustainable development and digital transformation etc.

During the event, attendees visited the start-ups in the exhibition area, attended and actively participated in the experiential entrepreneurship workshops, in individual sessions at the startup support corner, the two sessions ‘In Action onlife’ on green and sustainable development and ‘In Action online’ on new business perspectives in the light of the 4th Industrial Revolution, as well as the awarding of prizes and the GRBossible 2022 Startup Entrepreneurship Awards.

Participants learned about and explored business and research funding opportunities;  receiving personal business mentoring and coaching; networking with organisations that support start-up entrepreneurship in Greece and abroad and interacting with the business ecosystem.

EKT was dynamically represented at the Festival, participating in speeches on both days of the conference, organising and co-ordinating a workshop on the role of cutting-edge technologies and the Metaverse in health care. The workshop was attended by the most dynamic startups in the field of eHealth and telemedicine as well as representatives of university clinics.

All speakers in the workshop participate in the pioneering SymbIASIS project of EITHealth HUB that aims to connect start-ups with hospitals and clinics and to co-create solutions with collaboration between all involved members (Startups-Hospitals-Patients-Society).

EKT was not only a supporter of the event but its representatives gave information about its actions for the research and business community at its booth throughout the two-day event its EKT.

EKT in the innovation ecosystem

EKT has a long-standing strategical link to the actors of the domestic innovation system. In this context, it supports the digital transformation and the enhancement of the development dynamics of the ecosystem, providing integrated services aimed at meeting specialised development needs and connecting research with entrepreneurship. Businesses, academic institutions, research and development organisations have access to networking, mentoring, information and education services.

With combined value-added services, EKT supports the Greek research and business community to excel and grow internationally. As National Contact Point for Horizon Europe, for the  clusters 'Health', 'Digital, Industry and Space' and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), and for the EU Mission Cancer ), supports organisations, businesses, academic and research bodies from identifying funding opportunities to drafting and submitting proposals, implementing projects and exploiting research results.

As co-ordinator of the Enterprise Europe Network Hellas, the Greek node of the Enterprise Europe Network, the largest business support network in the world, he provides services complementary to those of the National Contact Points, for international networking and search for business and technological collaborations, technology transfer and innovation, access to European funding and finding partners to participate in research proposals. Also, EKT is the hub in Greece of EIT Health, one of the largest European public-private partnerships for health innovation.