EQUALS-EUIncubator Program
World’s only incubator program with inclusion baked into business design.What is EQUALS-EU?
EQUALS-EU is a regional partnership that originated from the EQUALS Global Partnership for Gender Equality in the Digital Age.
EQUALS Global partnership is dedicated to promoting gender balance in the technology sector by championing equality of access, skills development and career opportunities for women and men alike.
The Incubator Program Participants.
The winners.
As part of EQUALS-EU project activities, the winners of the innovation camps and hackathons held by our project partners win a free place at the EQUALS-EU Incubator Program hosted by Global Universal Design Commission Europe (Inclusive Creation). The program ran from June 2022 until the end of December 2022.
Our program aims to support the winners to realize their vision and get the resources they need to take their ideas to the next level. The program is open for all the participants and consists of online workshops, mentoring sessions, and access to the incubator program portal repository.
All activities were held in English!What happens after program completion?
After program completion the team members are invited to attend a fully-funded summer school.
Summer school.
Participants from the winning hackathon and innovation camps' teams who successfully completed our incubation programme which had a duration of 6-months, were invited to apply for a fully-funded slot in the three week EQUALS-EU professional development summer school that is set to take place in next year in June 2023. This summer school is hosted by our project partners.
Incubator Program Plan.
Repository.
The winning team members have access to the incubator program portal. The portal contains all the repository of training materials and additional learning resources that are available at all times for all the team members.
Online workshops.
Our programme consists of six two-hour online workshops covering a variety of topics such as design thinking, universal design of products and services, how to keep your startup safe, business development, and other topics.
Mentoring sessions.
The winning teams have monthly mentoring Q&A sessions with experts from the private and public sectors. This gives the startups the chance to engage in discussions and overcome challenges that they face during their journey on building their ideas.
Our role in EQUALS-EU.
Transform Gender Inequity into Sustainable Social Impact.
More about our work.
Our work focused on running a 6-month incubator program on gender-inclusive entrepreneurship. We provided strategic advice and guidance and catalysed commercial growth and social impact for 24 women-led start-ups. We focused on expanding opportunities for women and girls to become social innovators and entrepreneurs.
Our incubator program initiated, oversaw, and concluded a work placement program focused on professional development mentorship and training to advance at least 72 social entrepreneurs from 24 countries. In addition, we co-innovated two Gender Equity Tools for Digital Inclusion based on the roadmap from previous project work activities.
Project Objectives.
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![Mentorship and Training]()
Mentorship and Training
Provide business development training for at least 72 social entrepreneurs from 24 countries.
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![Strategy]()
Strategy
Develop strategic opportunities, partnerships, and markets for 24 new start-ups.
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![Mentors and Advocates]()
Mentors and Advocates
Involve expert representatives as active mentors and advocates for the start-ups.
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![Co-innovation]()
Co-innovation
Co-innovate two gender equity tools for digital inclusion.
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![The Network]()
The Network
Spin-off professional network of women and girls in social innovation and entrepreneurship.
Project Results.
More about EQUALS-EU.
The 4-step plan to promote equity in STEM.
Historically, women have been excluded and undermined in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
EQUALS-EU devised a set of complementary activities to promote equity and diversity through education, networking and hands-on opportunities.
EQUALS-EU Consortium consists of 19 organisations and together with external partners the EQUALS-EU scope of activities encompasses 37 European and non-European countries.
Project partners.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101006396.