ClimAccelerator launches new programme and consortia of partners
Over the past 10 years, the EIT Climate-KIC’s accelerator programme has been the main climate innovation solution provider, with over 1,500 solutions supported and nearly €1 billion of capital secured.
Capitalising on a decade of success, the revamped ClimAccelerator programme has assembled a consortium of strategic partners to scale climate-positive solutions globally.
Now it’s time to reach new heights with ClimAccelerator by fusing the expertise of new partners and creating a fertile ground for collaboration and the co-funding of innovation addressing climate change and its effects. Breakthrough businesses with proven climate impact technologies and partners now have one powerful platform where they can connect and scale towards true industry transformation.
With the European Green Deal and Paris Agreement as north stars, start-ups, partners, local governments, and other cleantech industry experts can join forces to innovate, catalyse, and scale the power of their climate-positive solutions. This programme goes beyond the European borders, building a bridge between our world’s industry experts and systems to break new ground in carbon reduction.
The programme is formed by consortia of partners and focused on the following strategic themes:
ClimAccelerator Cities
Cities face an enormous challenge in becoming resilient, healthy places to live while reaching net-zero emissions in just a few short years. EIT Climate-KIC is working with 15 of the most ambitious mayors, municipalities and city communities in Europe to design portfolios of joined-up innovations capable of unlocking wholesale transformation across all city systems – from mobility to waste, from energy to health, and the built environment.
Our first cohort of city partners includes Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Kraków, Križevci, Leuven, Madrid, Malmö, Maribor, Milan, Niš, Orléans, Sarajevo, Skopje and Vienna.
ClimAccelerator Carbon Removal
Removing and storing more carbon dioxide from the air than we put into the atmosphere brings us one step closer to reaching net-zero emissions. Carbon Removal has two sub-categories, nature-based carbon removal (e.g. tree planting) and tech-based carbon removal (e.g. carbon capture and storage), with lead partners ETH Zürich and TU Delft.
ClimAccelerator Maritime
The maritime sector accounts for 90 per cent of global trade and 2.2 per cent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions – a figure projected to increase threefold by 2050. We are working with partners on land (ports) and at sea (the shipping industry) who share our ambition to create a circular, inclusive and net-zero-emission maritime sector.
These include lead partner Cyprus University of Technology and key partners Chrysalis Leap, Cyprus Energy Agency, Port and University of Valencia, Port of Hamburg, Digital Hub Logistics Hamburg, unifund and ATHENA; and the ports of Piraeus, Valencia, Cyprus, Hamburg and Tel Aviv.
ClimAccelerator in the EIT Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS)
Accelerators operating in 14 RIS countries across Europe nurture a green start-up ecosystem grounded in low carbon innovation. The aim is to significantly boost local capacity to implement the highest impact ideas.
Our lead partners include BGI Building Global Innovators and a consortium covering Portugal, Malta and Cyprus; Riga Technical University and a consortium covering Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Slovakia; Impact Hub Czechia and a consortium covering Croatia, the Czech Republic, Greece, Serbia and Slovenia; And Impact Hub Bucharest and a consortium covering Romania and Bulgaria.
ClimAccelerator Community
EIT Climate-KIC is curating an operating system that enables different local acceleration initiatives to design and run effectively, as well as attract more resources and improve the impact of their start-ups. Organisers of acceleration programmes around the world can apply for a license in their jurisdiction and on a theme of their choosing.
So far, the programme has received expressions of interest from Berlin, Vienna, Montreal, Gabarone, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Bogota, Valencia, Barcelona, Sevilla, Bologna, London, Cairo and Karachi.
Interested in joining the Open Accelerator? Contact entrepreneurship@climate-kic.org or fill out this form.