Frequently Asked Questions: S3E Charge

S3E – Southern European Entrepreneurship Engine is a consortium that is run by HiSeedTech, the Institute for Sustainable Development of the European Public Law Organization, International Development Ireland, and Australo.

• HiSeedTech - A not-for-profit association founded by private companies that came together with the purpose of enabling the creation of value from knowledge through technology entrepreneurship and open innovation.
• EPLO Institute for Sustainable Development – part of an international organization dedicated to mainstreaming the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the EU Green Deal, providing capacity building, policy work and educational programs.
• IDI (International Development Ireland) specialises in practical day-to-day implementation for Government agencies in economies which are growing and changing rapidly
• Australo Interinnov Marketing Lab Sl - is a marketing agency specializing in growth hacking for research and innovation. 

S3E Start is a European program whose main objective is to provide mentoring and networking for growth start-ups with deep tech products, services, or process concepts, grounded in a scientific discovery or meaningful engineering innovation and at a growth development stage, that are already in the market, thus bridging the gap between the scientific-technological landscape and the market.

S3E Charge is the perfect program for growth start-ups who are looking to become investment ready through mentoring and networking and creating a business plan and a pitch deck, ready to present to investors.

S3E Charge offers you a 14-week tailor-made program that involves mentoring (by pan-European industry experts) that will guide each growth start-up through the validation of the project, the development of the investment-ready business plan and the investment process. The mentors supporting the S3E Charge edition are individuals who are connected to deep tech and entrepreneurship, and who are prepared to help start-ups solve problems that arise throughout the program. Meetings with mentors last 1,5 hours and are held every two weeks (7 meetings in total). The program also offers networking with industry leaders and investors and showcase opportunities at the S3E Open day in which the teams will give a 7-minute pitch followed by a 10-minute Q&A period to investors. Post Open Day the project will have a mechanism to facilitate one-on-one meetings between investors and start-ups.

Each growth start-up will be assigned one mentor. The mentors present in the S3E edition are individuals who are somehow connected to the area of deep tech and entrepreneurship, and who are prepared to help teams solve problems that arise throughout the program. You can check the mentors on https://south3e.eu. The list will be updated until the call closes. 

The outcome of the S3E Charge will better position you to apply for public or private funding and programs, because it will help you link your business offerings to market needs and become market ready to pitch and attract investments whilst having validated and honed your business plan and your value proposition. It will also offer networking opportunities and access to funding. 

S3E will target deep tech projects from the following science fields: agricultural sciences, engineering and technology, medical and health sciences, and natural sciences. If you still have doubts, please check the full sub-categories here. The proposed projects must envisage to provide an impact in one (or more) SDGs.

For the scope of S3E, Southern European countries include the following European

countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Cyprus, Romania, Slovenia and Spain. And the following Associated countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey.

The S3E Charge team applicants may include 1 to 5 team members, whereby one member of the team is designated as the Principal Applicant and the others as Co-Applicants. 

All applications MUST be submitted via the F6S Platform (https://www.f6s.com/s3e-charge/apply). If you are a growth start-up, you need to fill in the following information on the application form.

• Identification of the team members,
• A short description of the start-up and activities,
• A video presentation of a pitch deck focused on sustaining the value proposition for the proposed product, service or process concept,
• A written business case characterizing the product concept and the opportunity (market need), the technology and the development plan, intellectual property status and strategy, the market and the first customer, the competitive advantage and the funding needs,
• The SDGs the project aims to address, and
• A statement of the motivation of the team to participate. 

Submission to the Open Call #1 Economic and Social impact for growth start-ups will be launched on September 18, 2023 (12:00 CET) and the deadline for applications is on December 15, 2023 at 17:00 CET.

The evaluation committee interviews & screening results announcement will run between the middle of February 2023. The final decision about the 30 start-ups that get accepted will be communicated by the end of March. If you are accepted into the S3E Charge, you are expected to attend the hands-on program that will be helped online from January 18 - April 26, 2024, culminating with an Open Day online event. Please download Annex 2 – S3E Charge: Guidelines for Applicants

English is the official language for S3E open calls. Submissions done in any other language will not be evaluated. English is also the only official language during the whole execution of the S3E Charge programme. This means any requested submission of deliverables will be done in English to be eligible.

S3E Charge does not involve any fees to participating teams because it is co-funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 European innovation ecosystems under the grant agreement ID: 101072135 (see here the Cordis fact sheet).

However, before you apply, you should bear in mind that there is a cost for organizing the Program and you need to assure us that you will have the time and willingness to fully participate in the S3E Charge throughout its duration. There is a 'moral' penalty for teams that withdraw from the Program once it has started, which is related to the fact that you have left out another team that was willing to participate. 

To support applicants, S3E Charge will organize two Q&A Webinars on the following dates:

• 28 September | 13:00 CET
• 30 October | 13:00 CET
• 21 November | 13:00 CET
• 13 December | 13:00 CET

Save your seat at https://south3e.eu/

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No.

Growth start-ups are considered eligible for S3E Charge Open Call #1 if complying with ALL the following rules:

• Must be established as a start-up in the following science fields: agricultural sciences, engineering and technology, medical and health sciences, and natural sciences. Please check the full categories here.
• The deep tech solution project must envisage to provide an impact on one (or more) UN SDGs for this call.
• Must submit a short description of the start-up and activities; a video presentation of a pitch deck focused on sustaining the value proposition for the proposed product, service or process concept; a written business case characterizing the product concept and the opportunity (market need), the technology and the development plan, intellectual property status and strategy, the market and the first customer, the competitive advantage and the funding needs, and a statement of the motivation of the team to participate in the call.
• Must be established in one (or more) of these countries: Croatia, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Cyprus, Slovenia, Spain, Bulgaria, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia, Turkey, and Albania.

The criteria to rank the applications from growth start-ups will include the:

value proposition for the proposed product, service, or process concept, and

the unique market opportunity that the product covers,

motivation to participate in the training program and the entrepreneurial spirit of the team will also contribute to the applications ranking

The F6S platform will be the entry point for all proposals’ submissions to S3E Open Calls, which is directly linked from S3E website (https://south3e.eu/). Submissions received by any other channel and after the open call deadline will be automatically discarded. 

No. S3E Charge will be online.

Absolutely not. All the proposals are confidential and each person involved in the program will sign and non-disclosure agreement, namely the reviewers of the proposals.

S3E partners will act as Data Controllers of data submitted through the F6S platform for these purposes. The F6S platform’s system design and operational procedures ensure that data is managed in compliance with The General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR). Each applicant will accept the F6S terms to ensure coverage.

Please refer to https://www.f6s.com/privacy-policy to check F6S platform data privacy policy and security measures and to https://south3e.eu/privacy-policy/ to get informed about the S3E Charge Privacy Policy.