Presentation of European funding opportunities for SMEs and Startups during Startup Europe Week in Athens

A series of events and activities took place this year in Greece as part of Startup Europe Week, an initiative created and promoted by Startup Europe and the European Commission, in order to include and bring together all European regions in a startup focused mindset, to celebrate entrepreneurship, showcase some of the best practices, the success stories and the support provided by the regions in favor of entrepreneurship.

In particular, in Athens two major events were organized in the context of Startup Europe Week: the Athens Center for Entrepreneurship organized the event “Startup your experience”, while Europe Direct – Municipality of Athens organized the info-day “Funding opportunities for Startups in Greece”, where Dr Herc. Agiovlasitis, National Contact Point for ICT in Horizon 2020 and Innovation Management Consultant at the National Documentation Centre, participated.

Dr Agiovlasitis presented the national and European funding schemes, starting with “Horizon 2020”, the new EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, which provides targeted funding for proposals with European added value and weighs the benefits of research, innovation, technological advancement and support of small and medium enterprises and startups.

Additionally, Dr Agiovlasitis, presented more European programmes and initiatives, such as Creative Europe for intercultural cooperation, Erasmus+ and Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs which foster young entrepreneurs’ skills, and COSME for funding small and medium enterprises with particular regard to Creative Industries.

Finally, Dr Agiovlasitis highlighted the benefits of SME Instrument, which, with a total budget of approximately 3 billion euros for 2014-2020, is intended exclusively for small and medium enterprises of high potential aiming at the development of innovative products, services and activities with great impact on the European and international market. With respect to funding, Dr Agiovlasitis stressed the significance of this highly competitive programme, while indicating that the National Documentation Centre, National Contact Point for Horizon 2020 and member of the Enterprise Europe Network-Hellas, supports the participation of Greek enterprises in the programme.