Special Interest Groups

BRING TOGETHER BUSINESS INNOVATION STAKEHOLDERS

Special Interest Groups (SIGs) bring together a wide variety of business innovation stakeholders that are part of the EU|BIC community. For over 160 members and 650 business experts, we seek to facilitate collaboration, funding opportunities, and knowledge exchange on sectorial and cross-cutting thematic topics.

 

Led by a SIG Chair, its members share, create and participate in relevant opportunities committed to the acceleration of both your and your client companies’ growth journey.

 

SIGs take Europe’s key industrial value chains as a starting point.  We believe that the updated SIG structure better facilitates the sharing of funding opportunities, knowledge exchange, and collaboration on sectorial and cross-cutting thematic topics. To further increase interaction among experts in the sub-communities, the renewed SIGs also combine industry value chains that are closely related, interdependent or contributing to each other’s growth and invite greater collaboration of members.

 

Ultimately we seek to tap into the innovation potential of startups, SMEs and industries embedded in the regions where EU|BIC community members operate – and beyond.

SIG themes

Members can join, start sharing best-practices and connect within the following SIG sub-communities:

Sustainability, Agrifood and Health
Social Economy
Digital, Creative, and Cultural Industries
Space, Mobility and Defence
Energy, Manufacturing, and Electronics

Sustainability, Agrifood and Health SIG

The Sustainability, Agrifood and Health SIG was created in 2019 combining the Bioeconomy and Green SIGs and widening the former ECO-innovation SIG. Currently, around 70 members from 19 different countries meet and connect on sub-themes such as Health, Sustainability, Blue Economy, Circular Economy, Agrifood and Smart Mobility.

 

The SIG sub-community acts as an interactive platform where members can share new collaboration opportunities and events, and exchange best practices from a local and European level. It explores how these opportunities can be replicated and implemented in new and unique realities of other members. In addition to this approach, SIG members actively identify new and relevant actors emerging in the sustainability, agrifood and health fields.

SIG Co-chairs

Boris Teillant
BLUE ECONOMY
Project Developer at Atlanpole
Homero Cardoso
CIRCULAR ECONOMY & SUSTAINABILITY
Project Manager at Tagusvalley
Pietro De Martino
FI.LS.E S.p.A.
Representative of Italian EU|BICs
To learn more and join the SIG contact Livia Marcantonio
Contact

Social Economy SIG

Since its creation in 2015, the members of the Social Economy SIG seek to raise visibility on social innovation incubation initiatives, support incubators and accelerators to shape and run programmes maximising the social and environmental impact of their impact startups and SMEs (impact enterprises, in short).

 

The sub-community bringing together 36 incubators and accelerators, 60 experts from 16 countries, also aims to better provide incubation and acceleration support services for underrepresented entrepreneurs. It does so by sharing opportunities and new collaboration possibilities, facilitating the exchange of best practices between social and inclusive incubators across Europe. It constantly explores how these practices can be replicated elsewhere and seek to identify new and relevant actors in the Social Economy field.

 

The SIG has established strong partnerships and collaborations with key actors in the social impact ecosystem networks, such as the European Venture Philanthropy Association (EVPA) and Impact Hub. Why impact-driven entrepreneurship is more and more important in Europe? And what is the role of EU|BICs and BSOs in this area? Please read our latest Technical Note #11 ‘Untapped Innovation Potential’ – contact EBN’s Chiara Davalli to receive the publication.

SIG chair

Rosa Mendez

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Kristian Mancinone
ART-ER
Social Innovation Expert at EU|BIC Associate
To learn more and join the SIG contact Chiara Davalli
Contact

Digital, Creative, and Cultural Industries SIG

The SIG gathers circa 60 experts and leaders from incubators and business support organisations who offer activities in the digital, creative, and cultural industries.

 

Members of the group are invited to share and discuss mutual initiatives, approaches and interests in developing a more vital innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem for creative and digital companies. The group aims to foster mutual know-how and create synergies and collaboration opportunities among its participants.

 

For more than 20 years now, Laval has developed an internationally recognised cluster around Virtual & Augmented Reality and Immersive Technologies, with a yearly international event, Laval Virtual, gathering the VR/AR community as well as a network of companies, research labs and higher education institutes specialised in VR and AR. This entire ecosystem contributes to the reputation and dynamism of the region. At the heart of this network, Laval Mayenne Technopole has developed tailor-made services to support local companies and entrepreneurs in developing innovative services and products. To do this, LMT has developed expertise in facilitating creativity sessions and implementing cross-sector actions, such as projects between creative and traditional companies.

SIG chair

Valerie Moreau
Laval Mayenne Technopole
To learn more and join the SIG contact Covadonga Rayon
Contact

Space, Mobility and Defence SIG

The youngest addition to the big EBN SIG sub-community. Thanks to a long and fruitful close cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA), we started the Space SIG in 2017, answering the request of many of our members to be informed, interconnected and active in the larger space industrial ecosystem. Intersecting several different industries, the Space, Mobility and Defence SIG group members are active directly in their industries and also in ICT, Green Energy, Maritime, and Automotive sectors.

 

Its main aim is to support EU|BIC managers and business support experts to run key actions shaping the space, mobility and defence industries while assisting their entrepreneurs at any stage of development to effectively operate in the global ecosystem. As a secondary result, the SIG’s activities aim to serve the European Union and all its citizens while supporting the space, mobility and defence industry powering the European Green Deal and the Digital Economy.

 

Operationally, the SIG provides a commonly shared platform where to collect first-hand information on new potential development in this industry together with a continual flow of news concerning EU programmes and projects. At present, the Space SIG connects 36+ members among ESA BICs, EU|BICs and other important continental organisations with 90 different contacts, being one of the largest of its kind among the SIGs.

SIG chair

Raffaele Buompane
Senior Advisor
To learn more and join the SIG contact Raffaele Buompane
Contact

Energy, Manufacturing, and Electronics SIG

The Energy, Manufacturing and Electronics SIG gathers around 36 EU|BIC members and 50 experts specialised in areas such ase Industry 4.0, IoT, AI, Robotics, blockchain or new materials.

 

The main areas of interest for this SIG are:

  • Benchmarking and promoting good practices to the entire group, working on relevant trends related to Energy, Manufacturing and Electronics industries.
  • Positioning EU|BIC community members as experts on different initiatives and projects led by EBN in the sector.
  • Collective work on attracting EU and non-EU funds/ projects.
  • Sharing and mapping facilities for other companies in the EU|BIC community, e.g. receiving and sending companies to use facilities from the network.
  • Workshops or webinars organized by EBN to members and their companies on specific topics related to the SIG.

SIG chair

Frédéric Daumas
To learn more and join the SIG contact Joanna Abi Abdallah
Contact

Interested to join a SIG?

SIGs are open to all persons active within an EU|BIC and Associate Member organisation.

 

Reach out to the dedicated EBN team member to receive more information and start the onboarding to your new group of like-minded experts and top-class of all sorts.

Not a member, find out more here