Funding

What are the alternative ways of funding climate innovations?

Bronagh Loughlin — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 09:26:51 +0000

What are the alternative ways of funding climate innovations?

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Climate technologies and purpose-driven enterprises can help us to rapidly curb greenhouse gas emissions to achieve net zero by 2050.

However, to scale and deliver these solutions, climate tech companies and purpose-driven enterprises need to be able to access funding opportunities.

One of the biggest hurdles for impact entrepreneurs is securing adequate funding for their initiatives.

They may face challenges with having to pay higher upfront costs but also many investors can still be unfamiliar with or sceptical of the potential and impact of sustainable businesses.

With this in mind, many impact entrepreneurs find they must develop innovative business models, demonstrate their value proposition, and look for alternative sources of finance such as impact investing, green bonds, or crowdfunding.

They may also lack knowledge concerning climate finance, and this lack of education can act as a significant barrier.

It was for these reasons that Esme Verity, a Fundraising and Alternative Funding Expert, set up Considered Capital, a hub of empowerment and education.

Having worked with thousands of founders to connect them with the right sources of funding and support, Esme found early on that when founders are not shown all funding options, they hit a brick wall with their business.

Esme says: “I’ve personally coached over 100 purpose-led founders over the past 12 months to raise funding, and one of the biggest challenges I see is that most founders do not understand what type of funding is best for their business.

Esme Verity, Founder of Considered Capital

The funding landscape can be very difficult to navigate; it’s complex, time-consuming, and vast.

Part of our work at Considered Capital focuses on this issue, recognising that accessing funding is challenging and purpose-led founders need tailored support.”

She adds: “I built Considered Capital to support founders in feeling more confident and thinking outside the box when going after what they need to build a successful business.

Raising money can feel like a long, complicated slog. However, with education, and a community of brilliant minds and supportive energy, founders feel like they are in this together and reinforce one another’s confidence.”

So far, Considered Capital has empowered thousands of founders to think beyond VC-style funding and consider other funding routes.

They are determined to challenge the notion that venture capital is the only way to fund your business and to find a funding fit that aligns with your values.

Esme explains: “Our mission is to open up alternative funding and the world of funding options available for startups, founders, and socially-led businesses.

We’re educating people across the globe on all of the alternative routes to funding businesses through our free events, workshops, and our flagship programme, the Alternative Funding School.”

The Alt Funding School aims to support purpose-led founders to get funded, helping entrepreneurs explore the full range of funding options, which allows them to select a route to funding and build a fundraising strategy that best aligns with their business and values.

According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Risk Report 2023, the leading risk facing the world over the next decade is failing to mitigate the environmental crisis.

Climate technologies and purpose-driven enterprises could play a massive role in helping us achieve global climate goals.

However, without investment and funding opportunities, these trailblazing initiatives and solutions cannot take their wings and fly.

Climate incubators and accelerators have an important and multidimensional role to play in supporting new low-emission and climate-resilient technologies to be developed, embraced, and utilised by society.

Beyond helping entrepreneurs access funding, accelerators can provide an environment to test innovations besides getting quality advice and guidance. Image: Canva

One of the most well-known global programme for start-ups to catalyse, innovate, and scale the potential for their climate solutions is the ClimAccelerator from Climate-KIC .

This accelerator has been running for the past 10 years and is being scaled to break new groups in areas such as carbon reduction, resilience and adaptation, and more.

Ireland is one of the countries that offers entrepreneurs more options to choose from to embrace climate innovation.

The 2050 Accelerator powered by Dogpatch Labs and supported by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications is helping to make Ireland the leading platform for sustainability innovation.

The Green for Business program is run by the Local Enterprise Offices (LEO) in Ireland and offers practical mentoring and other support for SMEs to integrate sustainability into their businesses.

Accelerate Green is an executive accelerator designed to help entrepreneurs scale their purpose-driven businesses, supported by Bord na Móna in conjunction with Resolve Partners.

Recently, Trinity College Dublin launched a brand new accelerator programme for SMEs focusing on the built environment. This six-month virtual programme enables businesses to scale up innovations that can decarbonise the sector.

The number of green accelerators and supports is rising across Europe and beyond; however, more accessible funding is needed to ensure we can achieve a net-zero economy by 2050.

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The state of Circular Economy in EU Research and Innovation projects

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Oct 2023 14:47:44 +0000

The state of Circular Economy in EU Research and Innovation projects

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The European Union invests about 10 billion euros annually into more than 4,000 research and innovation projects.

Circular Economy plays an increasingly vital role in these projects, leading to an emerging community of businesses, research organisations, and NGOs collaborating on a broad diversity of topics, such as food, waste, plastics, construction, manufacturing, biotechnology, product innovation and design, and circular business model development.

A recent research project carried out by Anja Grüll and Dr André Martinuzzi at the Vienna University of Economics and Business explored the characteristics of organisations within this community while analysing trends and assessing collaboration patterns.

One increasingly prominent topic in these funding programs is the Circular Economy due to its potential to mitigate climate change, promote sustainability initiatives and boost economic growth and competitiveness by creating business opportunities, jobs, and technological innovations.

Dr André Martinuzzi, Head of the Institute for Managing Sustainability, Vienna University of Economics and Business

Anja Grül, Researcher and PhD Candidate, Vienna University of Economics and Business

The Circular Economy is now part of all major EU strategies like the European Green Deal and driving transition through numerous policies and regulations, including the Circular Economy Action Plan, Waste Framework Directive, Eco-design Directive or the Bioeconomy Strategy, and Plastics Strategy.

For its last Framework Programme, Horizon 2020, the EU distributed a budget of nearly €80 billion over seven years between 2014- 2021.

This resulted in over 35,000 projects and involved almost 18,000 organisations from 177 countries.

In search of data

The European Union Open Data portal, CORDIS, has been the primary source for this research.

One of the main challenges was to identify Circular Economy projects partly because initially, the term Circular Economy was not widely recognised, though its goals (e.g., waste reduction, resource efficiency) correspond strongly with the concept.

As the concept and term of Circular Economy became more established, the EU created a dedicated Focus Area as an overarching topic across numerous themes in its third funding round.

Who is involved with EU-funded circular economy projects?

In terms of nations, the Circular Economy Network includes 92 countries, of which the following ones received 78% of the project funding budget: Spain, Germany, Italy, France, Netherlands, Belgium, United Kingdom, Sweden, Norway and Finland.

The top 20 most prominent players in the Circular Economy Network come from the EU-15 countries, while Norway, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, as non-EU countries, also play an essential role.

The EU invested €4.8 billion into almost 990 Circular Economy projects, involving 13,300 organisations from 92 countries.

Figure 1: Based on research project carried out at the Vienna University of Economics and Business.

Looking at the organisational level, the recipients of almost half of the EU budget for Circular Economy projects have been for-profit businesses, followed by research institutions, then higher education establishments and public bodies, who take the smallest share.

Even though research institutions only make up 10% of all participants in the Circular Economy Network, they are by far the best connected, taking 70% of the Top 20 player positions.

They possess substantial resources and capabilities, participate in numerous projects and are, therefore, dominant in the network, serving as connectors and knowledge disseminators or knowledge hubs.

Meanwhile, the private for-profit businesses show contrasting results since they comprise 66% of all participants but are only represented by one organisation in the Top 20 most prominent organisations.

Due to data privacy issues, intellectual property concerns, and fear of losing a competitive advantage, private for-profit businesses are not as willing to collaborate with other private companies and prefer to work with research or higher education institutions.

Private for-profit businesses generally have a high participation rate and obtain a significant share of EU funds. However, they are not as well-connected and less likely to collaborate with other private for-profit businesses.

Collaboration Networks

By incentivising different organisations to collaborate on projects, the EU supports the emergence of networks around different themes, which is crucial for developing technological innovation and designing socially desirable products and services.

These networks develop dynamically and are shaped by different actors. Participating organisations may form stronger bonds and stay connected for several projects.

The more often actors work together, the stronger their relationship grows alongside the willingness to embark on future collaborative journeys.

Building solid relationships brings mutual support, improved reputation, access to resources, and increased collaboration opportunities.

The more connections an organisation has, the more it obtains a central position in the network, leading to increased visibility, influence, and competitiveness. Organisations that don’t have strong ties or a good relationship with at least one significant player will have a hard time creating successful project proposals.

The emergence of the Circular Economy community

Circular Economy projects in Horizon 2020 steadily increased each year in terms of EU funding, number of active projects and participants, and budget per project – in other words, the projects grew, and more organisations got involved, showing the uptake of the program.

However, there was a downward trend in the number of new players joining.

According to the interim evaluation of Horizon 2020, this may be due to a lack of awareness about the funding program, the application process's complexity besides intellectual property concerns, or a lack of resources or capacity.

In 2021, there were still 474 active projects, and all 9,000 involved organisations were linked to at least one participant in the main component, resulting in one entirely connected network.

Figure 2: Circular Economy Network Development

Network Centralization shows the existence of dominant actors who have a disproportionate number of collaborations compared to others. A small, strong core of highly collaborative organisations tended to expand their network, while the majority participated only in a few projects.

Hot topics in funding circularity

Circular Economy can be found in nine funding call themes, which differ in topic focus, action area, and approaches to circular solutions. Some are focused on forwarding industry-oriented solutions, while others are open to a broader range of diverse activities.

The biggest variety can be found in the EU Call themes CLIMATE and CROSS-CUTTING actions, which include multiple areas of activity:

urban waste management, housing solutions, creation of new technologies, development of circular business models, the establishment of circular supply chains and industrial symbiosis, design and innovation of circular products, promotion of sustainable consumption, stakeholder platforms, and advancement in knowledge and research for a circular economy.

These efforts expand over numerous value chains and industries, including manufacturing, construction, bioeconomy, electronics, water, batteries, packaging, critical raw materials, textiles and food.

The theme of Leadership in Enabling and Industrial Technologies (LEIT) includes the parts of Horizon 2020 providing new opportunities for industrial leadership in Key Enabling Technologies (KETs), Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and Space.

These are areas of key industrial competencies determining Europe’s global competitiveness and providing key components and systems needed for solutions to Societal Challenges.

This is now split into two areas.

In LEIT ICT, many projects aim to forward digital solutions across different sectors and manufacturing industries, especially platform solutions. Deliverables include dissemination of knowledge, the connection of actors across supply chains, and optimisation of processes.

Additionally, the focus of LEIT NMP* is the advancement of key enabling technologies. Its activities range from (re-)manufacturing and processing to creating sustainable materials and product life cycle enhancement. Included sectors are electronics, intensive industries, nanotechnologies, and biotechnologies.

Waste and waste management are paired with multiple areas like urban waste solutions, food, plastics and packaging, water, and agriculture, as these value chains are closely related.

*Nanotechnologies, Advanced Material and Advanced Manufacturing and Processing

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4 ways to fund your green business idea

Collaborative Content Studio — Tue, 07 Sep 2021 15:34:47 +0000

4 ways to fund your green business idea

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How to unlock funding opportunties to turn a green business idea into a reality?

An increasing number of entrepreneurs feel more empowered to launch their green businesses.

In essence, a “green” company strives to positively impact the environment and community besides generating profit.

The strategies and practices developed by green businesses are committed to lowering their overall environmental impact and building a more sustainable future.

Aside from putting forward their sustainable beliefs and advocacies, green business owners are also tapping into a rapidly growing market.

In fact, Markets and Markets note that the environmental technology market is expected to reach £502.94 billion by 2029, thanks to a compound annual growth rate of 4.6%.

Besides, the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Global Biodiversity Outlook 5 notes that businesses that recognise the importance of nature and protect it tend to perform better on the market.

If green businesses are indeed the future and you have an idea that fits here, you would still need to know how to find funding for it. Here, we list four ways you can raise capital for your green business.

Take out a small business loan ⁠

The first option that most startups or early-stage businesses go for is to take out a small business loan.

For one, small business loans have lower interest rates and more flexible terms than credit cards and other loans.

What’s more, you can take out a small business loan from a variety of financial institutions ⁠— from respected national banks to friendly credit unions.

And many of these institutions offer loans to encourage small businesses.

For example, HSBC launched a green loan in excess of £300,000 for companies that put sustainability first. To be eligible, they need to provide green credentials.

Small business loans are probably the easiest and fastest way you can access funding.

Small business loans could help green businesses. Image: Unsplash

Look for investors

If you’re confident with your green business idea and it has the potential to scale, you should look for investors who can provide you with the necessary capital.

The great thing about being funded by investors is that there are many ways people can support your business idea.

For one, you can start a crowdfunding campaign where you bring awareness to your business idea and potentially gain numerous investors to pitch for your capital.

You can also look for angel investors to fund your business idea as these individuals have a strong interest in innovative and transformative businesses.

With a great pitch and robust business model, you will have a great chance of attracting suitable investors.

Bootstrapping through investment opportunities

If you don't have a good credit history, it can be challenging to get loans from banks or funding from investors, especially if you are a new business.

If a financial institution or investor has turned you down, you can choose to finance your green business by looking for investment opportunities with high returns.

For one, you can earn business capital by doing forex.

Looking for investment opportunities with high returns is one option to kick-start a green business. Image: Unsplash

Small Biz Club highlights how forex trading can help you save a nest egg to fund your business, as long as you take the time to learn the ins and outs of this investment opportunity.

Thankfully, getting started with forex is easy since reliable trading platforms are available that will ease you into investing.

FXCM’s MetaTrader 4 can be easily downloaded and allows users to use a demo account to gain confidence before making any actual money trades.

Forex is a good way to create passive income that you can funnel into your green business.

Another investment opportunity that can provide quick and high returns are short-term corporate bonds.

Simply put, these are bonds issued by major corporations and pay interest at regular intervals every year.

In addition, corporate bonds are incredibly liquid.

They can be sold at any point before their maturity date ⁠— making them the perfect high-return investments for those who want to bootstrap their business.

Open a high-yield savings account

If you don’t want to go through impressing investors and are wary of taking out loans, you can save up your green business’s capital in a high-yield savings account.

The interest you earn in a high yield savings account can be as much as 10 times the interest you earn with a traditional savings account.

This makes high-yield savings account the perfect place to store your money when saving up for business capital.

What’s more, the arrival of internet-only banks has raised the competition on savings rates, so you now have more choices when saving up capital for your green business.

The only downside is that you will have to already have a large sum of initial funds for this to work.

Looking into trends and markets, there is no doubt that green businesses will grow stronger and gain more ground.

Finding the right funding is critical for entrepreneurs to start and scale their sustainable business ideas.

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September 2021

Open calls for proposals on Gender Equality research with cash grants

Business Spirit News reporting — Mon, 09 Aug 2021 11:19:51 +0000

Open calls for proposals on Gender Equality research with cash grants

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Citizen Social Science projects on Gender Equality are invited to submit applications to receive up to €20,000 grant and other supports.

Civil society initiatives can apply for a grant of up to €20,000 to conduct Citizen Social Science research on the topic of Gender Equality as part of the Co-designing Citizen Social Science for Collective Action (CoAct) research project.

Three open calls for proposals are available for non-profit organisations registered in the EU until September 30th 2021, with specific topics and regional focus.

“The CoAct Open Calls on Gender Equality are a way for us to both share our findings with the civic sector and learn from their feedback, ensuring that our research stays closely connected and responsive to the needs of civic actors," said Cédric Lombion, Data and Innovation Lead at Open Knowledge Foundation, a member organisation of the CoAct consortium.

"Gender Equality is an ongoing major societal issue that constantly affects our daily life."

Cédric Lombion, Data and Innovation Lead at Open Knowledge Foundation

The first call is for projects addressing initiatives on “Sustainable cities and communities” in the Berlin-Brandenburg region in Germany that aim for making cities and villages inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable for all their inhabitants.

The second call is focusing on “Decent work and economic growth”.

It is open for organisations from Eastern Europe, and projects from Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia are invited to apply for support.

The third call is open to international civic organisations operating within the European Union working on topics related to “Opportunities and risks of digitalisation”.

Proposals under this call should address issues relevant to gender inequalities in online spaces, such as gender dynamics of online platforms and exposure to online harassment.

Applications from a broad range of backgrounds are welcome, including feminist, LGTBQ+, none-binary and critical masculinity perspectives that tackle gender inequalities in their various manifestations.

Besides the maximum of €20,000 cash grant, selected projects will benefit from other supports provided by CoAct, like research mentoring program, peer networking and access to tools and resources.

CoAct is a research project exploring Citizen Social Science and started in January 2020, funded by the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.

CoAct is a Horizon 2020 research project exploring Citizen Social Science

This project seeks to move beyond its own co-research activities and invite other actors to benefit from the project and its support mechanisms by connecting with experts at the grassroots level while exploring the opportunities and challenges of citizen-led research.

A transdisciplinary consortium of nine research institutions and civil society organisations from Barcelona, Wien, London, Buenos Aires, Berlin, and Potsdam is collaborating to achieve the project's objectives.

According to Cédric Lombion consortium partner, the CoAct project aims to contribute to the field of Citizen Social Science by implementing research programmes dealing with various social issues, from youth unemployment to mental health to environmental justice.

“We believe that Citizen Social Science is not just a research field: it is also a set of strategies and practices developed within activist communities and civic organisations to support citizen mobilisation and community building projects,”

Lombion adds.

Citizen Social Science combines collaboration between citizen groups and academic researchers to address pressing social issues from the bottom up, finding solutions embedded in their social contexts, building on robust research methods.

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August 2021

€800,000 Social Enterprise Start-up Fund is open for innovative projects in Ireland

Business Spirit News reporting — Mon, 19 Jul 2021 15:55:27 +0000

€800,000 Social Enterprise Start-up Fund is open for innovative projects in Ireland

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social enterprise

Social Innovation

Social Entrepreneurship

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A new support package with grants and training is available for early-stage social enterprises with a clear ambition to address a critical social issue in Ireland.

Minister for Rural and Community Development in Ireland, Heather Humphreys, TD, announced the launch of the €800,000 Social Enterprise Start-up Fund on July 15th 2021.

The purpose of this specific support package is to offer cash and training programmes for social enterprises to realise their potential, expand their businesses and create jobs.

Minister Humphreys said at the launch that the Fund would have a two-year lifespan to provide small grants and other business supports tailored to help early-stage social enterprises overcome challenges when they are starting their projects.

“Twenty-five social enterprises from across Ireland will receive cash grants of between €9,500 and €12,000, as well as access to a six-month tailored training programme.”

“The programme itself comes under the Dormant Accounts Fund in my Department. It will be delivered by Rethink Ireland, who have a great track record in administering supports to social enterprises.”

Deirdre Mortell, CEO of Rethink Ireland, a national organisation supporting Ireland’s best social innovations through various financial and business supports, welcomed the announcement.

Deirdre Mortell, CEO of Rethink Ireland; Image: Rethink Ireland

''At Rethink Ireland we believe that social enterprises can play a pivotal role in supporting the transition to a more inclusive, sustainable and green economy.

We're delighted to be partnering with the Department of Rural and Community Development to provide much-needed start-up funding and supports as part of today's commitment to the Social Enterprise sector in Ireland,” adds Mortell.

Up to 25 social enterprises will receive cash grants of €9,000 each in 2021, and all successful applicants will win a place on the National Accelerator Programme managed by Rethink Ireland.

The programme will empower the most innovative and impactful start-up social enterprises across Ireland to design a competitive business plan, expand their network, increase financial sustainability and communicate their vision and mission to a broader audience.

Applicants must address a critical social issue with an innovative solution in an Irish context and have the potential and a desire to scale or replicate in Ireland.

Ideally, projects should be beyond the idea phase, presenting some market research, at least a prototype, and a minimum amount of sales activity.

Applications are open from July 15th until August 3rd 2021, to not-for-profit nature organisations based in Ireland.

Applicants are invited to complete a short online application form.

An application webinar clinic is held to support potential applicants with any questions they may have on Tuesday, July 20th, from 11 am to 12 pm.

Awardees will be selected from the shortlist of projects which have met the required criteria.

Rethink Ireland created the Fund in partnership with the Department of Rural and Community Development via the Dormant Accounts Fund.

According to Rethink Ireland’s research, this type of funding and support is critical to ensuring social enterprises have the best chance of reaching sustainability and maximising impact in their communities.

Headline image: Annie Spratt on Unsplash

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July 2021

Open call for funding: Medical Diagnostics and related value chains

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 12:44:43 +0000

Open call for funding: Medical Diagnostics and related value chains

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Digital technology

Disruption

Funding

Date

22nd April 2020 - 29th July 2020

Venue

European Union

Funding for digital innovations and disruptive technologies across the Medical Diagnostics and related value chains

An open call for funding was launched by DIGI-B-CUBE project, to support projects focusing on integrating digital innovations and disruptive technologies across the Medical Diagnostics and related value chains.

The DIGI-B-CUBE project is funded under the European Union´s Horizon 2020 Programme to support SMEs in the development and delivery of new market-sensitive disruptive technologies and key digital innovations to reconfigure patient-centred diagnostics towards a Health Economy 4.0.

The DIGI-B-CUBE project aims to unlock the cross-sectoral collaborative potential of SMEs by combining Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cognitive Computing Digital Technologies (CCDT) with the Bioimaging-Biosensing-Biobanking (B-CUBE).

What is B-CUBE?

Bioimaging, or biological imaging, refers to when creating images of the human body or parts of it to diagnose or examine disease.
Biosensing is the measurement of a chemical substance, for example, glucose monitoring in diabetes patients or other medical health-related targets.
Biobanking is the storing of human biological samples so that they can be used for medical research later.

Small and Medium Enterprises (including new start-ups) operating in the health, medicine, biotech, biopharma, IT or related sectors (robotics, automation, electronics, nanotech etc.) can apply for equity-free funding.

Application is open for:

Prototyping Voucher - up to €20,000 per SME / up to €60,000 per project
Customised Solution Innovation Voucher - up to €50,000 per SME up to €150,000 per project

Image: Pexels

Who can apply?

SMEs established in one of the EU Member States or H2020 associated countries are eligible to apply for DIGI-B-CUBE vouchers. The sectors of focus include healthcare / medicine / biotech / biopharma, and IT and related (robotics, automation, electronics, nanotech etc).

Application deadline: 29th July 2020.

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Growth Fund for social entrepreneurs is open for applications

Szilvia Szabó — Fri, 05 Jul 2019 09:44:21 +0000

Growth Fund for social entrepreneurs is open for applications

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Funding

Social Innovation

Date

1st July 2019 - 31st July 2019

Venue

Ireland

Growth Fund for social entrepreneurs is open until 31th July

Applications to the Growth Fund are open to existing Social Innovation Fund Ireland Awardees.

Successful applicants will partner with the Social Innovation Fund Ireland’s Business Development Team to secure private funds for an agreed growth capital fundraising target. If this is achieved, Social Innovation Fund Ireland will then provide an uplift on the capital secured, non-financial supports budget, and assign a dedicated team to support the organisation to achieve targets for scale and impact.

To be eligible to apply for the Growth Fund your organisation must:

Have graduated from a Social Innovation Fund Ireland Accelerator programme or completed 1 year of a Social Innovation Fund Ireland Gamechanger programme
Have received a single Social Innovation Fund Ireland cash grant investment of at least €50,000 or have received any Social Innovation Fund Ireland cash grant investment with follow-on funding of at least €50,000
Aim to secure funding of at least €150,000 per annum for 3 years.

More information about Growth Fund

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