Based on a detailed analysis of the situation of UA Innovation Ecosystem after Russian invasion, partners (6 Ukrainian partners and 11 partners from 11 other EU member States with an extensive outreach capacity spanning across key EU and global markets) have put together a proposal aimed at providing support to counteract the harm done to Ukrainian startups and deep tech SMEs in the short term, building a framework that supports the Ukrainian Government’s goal of becoming a ‘start-up nation’, and increasing the role of innovators and the deep tech industry in driving growth. This will be achieved through a comprehensive portfolio of support services that combine cascade funding (10k-25k-50k grants), access to finance actions (connecting to public funds and private investors, training on EIC, EIT and other cascading opportunities etc.), deep-tech-focused incubation and acceleration programmes, and market access initiatives (targeting 10+ countries, soft landing in 10 key sectors/verticals, and working spaces in 50+ locations across Europe). Pan-European integration – which brings UA innovation closer to investors, accelerators, potential buyers, innovation agencies and peers - will also be a key component of this project. The Consortium is led by FBA (PL-based and leader of FSTP management) with key support from USF, Ukraine’s public agency to support SMEs, which will invest its own resources and guarantee synergies with UA. Other partners key to guarantee services delivery and wide impact are: EITH (KICs), PNP (investors), LXI (EU innovation stakeholders), CORKBIC (BIC network), IHS (Impact Hub Network), IOP (EEN in UA). Circa 1,000 innovators, start-ups and deep tech SMEs located in UA or created by Ukrainian citizens in other EU countries after 24.02.2022 will benefit from said support, with at least 400 expected to gain a mix of financial and non-financial support, and many others expected to access non-financial support while seeking other sources of funding.

BEYOND aims to achieve a more interconnected European business acceleration industry in between ‘modest’ or ‘moderate’ and ‘strong’ or ‘leading’ acceleration ecosystems in Europe, and therefore directly contribute to foster the rise of investment flows from net contributor regions (leaders) towards ‘modest’ and ‘moderate’ regions as net beneficiaries, which might provide one effective solution against the above referred undesired geographical gap. BEYOND project will focus on: 1.- Testing a Self-Sovereign Digital Identity scheme (funding passport) that start-ups get no matter what accelerator they join. Through the funding passport start-ups can document their journey and get access to additional funding; 2.- Building a joint platform for the core acceleration enabling online acceleration and a joint framework for how start-ups are most efficiently developed; 3.- Sharing specific offers from the different project participants and resources to increase the value for start-ups; 4.- Developing an incentive structure where all partners benefit from providing high quality start-ups and develop their services; 5.- Creating a cross-region marketplace for raising funding to start-ups so start-ups are not as dependent on the local investor landscape. These 5 elements constitute the backbone of BEYOND’s Virtual Accelerator Marketplace (VAM) a trust framework to support joint business acceleration activities that will contribute in a sustainable manner to enhance a balanced interconnectedness of private investment flows and thus, contribute to dramatically improve quality and outreach of business acceleration services in developing innovation ecosystems. The VAM will be tested through 2 editions of a joint acceleration program co-designed by 5 business accelerators backed on their own VC Funds, representing moderate (BG, LT, PL) and leading regions (DK, ES), that will select and support 2 cohorts of 20 Startups that will receive access to mentoring and VC investors.