On 5 October, EU4Digital Facility will invite EaP stakeholders to a virtual session to hear ‘Journeys of EU organisations in building and developing start-up ecosystems’. The meeting will be held remotely in the form of a virtual session with representatives of organisations from Spain and Lithuania. 

The session aims to provide a better understanding of the composition and functioning of the start-up ecosystem, as well as practical steps leading to ecosystems’ maturity, which could potentially inspire opportunities for boosting local start-up ecosystems in Eastern partner countries. 

The main target audience of the event is ministerial level representatives and agencies coordinating the development of innovation ecosystems, as well as other ecosystem players such as innovation, financial support and consultancy organisations empowering ecosystems in the Eastern partner countries.

The study visit will be opened by a keynote speech by Mr. Jesus Lozano, ICT Strategic Advisor at European Innovation, EU4Digital Facility ICT Innovation Stream Senior Expert and ICT Ecosystem Builder, presenting the importance of the initiative in developing start-up ecosystems. It will be followed by panel sessions with ecosystem builders from Lithuania and Spain. The first session with Lithuanian stakeholders will be moderated by EU4Digital Facility Deptuty Team Leader Rūta Šalvytė-Tamošiūnienė. This part will provide a holistic overview of creating and developing a start-up ecosystem with a deep dive into rapid FinTech start-ups’ market development, including the regulatory framework behind it. The session will be built around the presentations and panel discussion of the following organisations and speakers:

• Roberta Rudokienė, Head of Startup Lithuania;
• Ričardas Valančiauskas, Director of the Innovation and Industry Department of the Ministry of Economy and Innovation of the Republic of Lithuania.
• Rūta Merkevičiūtė, Director of Financial Services and Markets Supervision Department at Bank of Lithuania.

The second session on the Spanish start-up ecosystem will be moderated by EU4Digital Facility ICT Innovation Stream Senior Expert Mr. Jesus Lazano. It will be built around experience sharing and lessons learnt on developing different structural fields of the ecosystem such as access to education, finance and resources (facilities). The session will have the following organisations and dedicated speakers:

• Dr. Álvaro Simón de Blas, President of National Association of European Business and Innovation Centres (ANCES);
• Dr. Juan Manuel Corchado Rodríguez, Director of Research Group on Bioinformatics, Intelligent Computer Systems and Educational Technology (BISITE) at University of Salamanca;
• Jordi García, Chief Operations and Strategy Officer at National Innovation Enterprise Inc (Empresa Nacional de Innovación, Sociedad Anonima – ENISA).

If you are interested in participating in the event or have any questions, please refer to ICT Innovation stream Lead Anna Pobol (anna.pobol@gmail.com).

You can download the agenda below.

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EU4Digital guide for building and boosting the growth of ICT entrepreneurial ecosystems in Eastern partner countries

Other ICT Innovation events:

• ICT Innovation first networking event on blockchain
• ICT Innovation second networking event on alternative finance
• ICT Innovation third networking event on ICT clusters development
• ICT Innovation fourth networking event on intellectual property management
• ICT Innovation fifth networking event on DIHs development
• ICT Innovation sixth networking event on startup ecosystems development