3RD OPEN CALL
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
General questions
The IMPACT EdTech project has set up a hybrid incubator-accelerator to support European EdTech SMEs to bring innovative digital education solutions into the market. With funding from the H2020 programme of the European Commission, the project supports – through funding and other services – companies that develop new solutions that can contribute to extending personalised, inclusive educational models and/or support the development of the skills relevant in today’s world.
First of all, because you have the possibility to receive up to €197,388 equity free funding, if you are selected for both stages!
But it is not just about the money!
17 contenders will be selected to participate in the IMPACT EdTech 4 months Incubation Phase (Stage 1), led by key world class professionals and entrepreneurs, which will include:
- Week-long welcome bootcamp, packed with sessions and workshops in relevant topics and taught by leading experts in the sector, to boost your start-up’s growth from the get-go;
- Individual Mentoring Services from business and educational mentors;
- Full access to EdTech resources to develop your Minimum Viable Product.
After that, 8 start-ups will be selected to participate in a 5 months Acceleration Phase (Stage 2). If you are one of these, not only you will get the same services as in Stage 1, you’ll also have the opportunity to pilot your solutions with users and get visibility to relevant investors and potential partners to bring your solution to the market.
The IMPACT EdTech programme provides EU funds to selected companies to bring their innovative digital learning solutions to the market. If they progress until the end of the IMPACT EdTech incubation/acceleration cycle, companies have the chance of receiving up to €197,388 of financial support of which up to €30,000 will be paid in the form of vouchers to access business and educational mentoring services with the rest being paid as an equity-free lump sum.
Stage 1 – Incubation. MVP VALIDATION: EU grant of up to €87,388, of which up to €10,000 will be paid in the form of vouchers to access business and educational mentoring services with the rest being paid as an equity-free lump sum.
Stage 2 – Acceleration. PROOF OF-MARKET: EU grant of up to €110,000, of which up to €20,000 will be paid in the form of vouchers to access business and educational mentoring services with the rest being paid as an equity-free lump sum.
For more information on the payment schedule and conditions, please check section 5.2 of the Guide for Applicants.
Stage 1 – Incubation. MVP VALIDATION
- Business mentoring (Proof-of-Concept from a business perspective): 2 follow-up sessions per month.
- Educational mentoring (Proof-of-Concept from a pedagogical perspective): 2 follow-up sessions per month.
- Specialised sessions (i.e. technical issues, legal issues) scheduled depending on the needs established in each Individual Mentoring Plan.
- MVP Live Testing: 2-day testing session by a group of educational
Stage 2 – Acceleration. PROOF OF-MARKET
Strand A (EdTech solutions for schools) and Strand B (EdTech solutions for any age group or level of education) companies will receive different resources and services for the different pilot solutions. Strand A will be divided into two subgroups, Strand A1 for solutions that will be piloted directly in classrooms and Strand A2 for solutions that will include a co-creation process with teachers.
For both strands
- Business mentoring (Testing Roadmap): 2 follow-up sessions per month.
- Specialized sessions (i.e. technical issues, legal issues) scheduled depending on needs established in each Individual Mentoring Plan.
For Strand A
Strand A.1 (Classroom)
- Educational mentoring
- Access to Schools facilities for pilot: the MVP will be piloted during 5 months in 3 classrooms in 3 different EU countries. One teacher from each school will be appointed as a Practitioner Mentor (a total of 3 teachers per pilot) and will test the MVP in the classroom.
Strand A.2 (Teachers’ Co-Creation)
- Educational mentoring
- 5 months of iterative MVP development involving 3 teachers from 3 different EU countries.
For Strand B
Depending on specific needs of each selected company, they will be given access to one for the following resources:
- 1. Go-to-market testing services.
An Expert-in-Residence will work with the company. Primary needs might include the following: A/B testing, app development, CRM implementation, performance and advertising, user acquisition…
- 2. Blockchain-based technological testing environments.
An in-house block chain environment will be made available as a “sandbox” testing environment to start-ups wishing to experiment with this technology in an immediate way, only requiring a minimum personalisation to adapt to each EdTech solution’s needs.
- 3. Digital Missions (if travel conditions allow)
4-6 days’ travel to a key startup ecosystem, filled with visits of two kinds:
- (1) group visits to relevant and interesting places such as headquarters of top companies, investors, and relevant government organizations, and
- (2) one-to-one meetings with investors and potential clients or partners.
Digital Mission may be organised to the preferred ecosystem stated by the Disruptors requesting this pathway (Silicon Valley, London hub, or others).
Only SMEs incorporated as legal persons are eligible to receive the IMPACT EdTech grants. However, if you haven’t already incorporated a company at the application stage, please note that teams of at least 2 natural persons are eligible to apply, but will be required to register an SME with legal personality in an eligible country before the start of the IMPACT EdTech programme. For more information please check sections 3.2 and 3.3 of the Guide for Applicants.
No, the IMPACT EdTech funding does not fall under the European De minimis regulation.
If you were not selected in the previous Open Calls, you can apply again. Applicants cannot benefit from more than one IMPACT EdTech grant. Therefore, all companies having already received an IMPACT EdTech grant in the previous Open Calls will not be eligible for this 3rd Open Call.
Eligibility and enrollment process
Before signing the sub-grant agreement, we are going to verify your SME status. More specifically, we will request you to provide the following documentation:
- Status information of the beneficiaries.
- SMEs checklist. In the event they declare being non-autonomous: the balance sheet and profit and loss account (with annexes) for the last period for upstream and downstream organizations.
- Financial information. It includes the headcount (AWU), balance, profit & loss accounts of the latest closed financial year and the relation, upstream and downstream, of any linked or partner company.
- Legal existence. Company Register, Official Journal or similar, showing the name of the organisation, the legal address and registration number and, if applicable, a copy of a document proving VAT registration (in case the VAT number does not show on the registration extract or its equivalent).
- In cases where either the number of employees or the ownership is not clearly identified: any other supporting documents which demonstrate headcount and ownership such as payroll details, annual reports, national regional, association records, etc.
- Bank identification form
- Information about participation in other acceleration programmes and another H2020 grants received.
Yes, UK SMEs are eligible.
TRL or Technology Readiness Levels are measurements used to assess the maturity level of a particular technology. Each technology project is evaluated against the parameters for each technology level and is then assigned a TRL rating based on the project’s progress. There are nine technology readiness levels, ranging from TRL 1 (the lowest) to TRL 9 (the highest).
The TRLs in Europe are as follows:
- TRL 1 – Basic principles observed
- TRL 2 – Technology concept formulated
- TRL 3 – Experimental proof of concept
- TRL 4 – Technology validated in lab
- TRL 5 – Technology validated in relevant environment (industrially relevant environment in the case of key enabling technologies)
- TRL 6 – Technology demonstrated in relevant environment (industrially relevant environment in the case of key enabling technologies)
- TRL 7 – System prototype demonstration in operational environment
- TRL 8 – System complete and qualified
- TRL 9 – Actual system proven in operational environment (competitive manufacturing in the case of key enabling technologies; or in space)
The deadline for this 3rd Open Call is 30 June 2021 at 13:00 (CEST). We do not accept applications after the deadline. We strongly encourage you not to wait until the last minute to submit your proposal. Failure of meeting the submission deadline for any reason, including extenuating circumstances, will result in the rejection of the proposal.
Registration form
We estimate an average time of 4 hours for filling in your application via the official submission form. Note that character limitations have been established in each section of the online application form.
No, according to the IMPACT EdTech Open Call eligibility criteria, only one proposal per company can be submitted. If more than one proposal per company is identified by the IMPACT EdTech team, only the latest proposal which has been submitted in order of time will be evaluated.
The ‘Guide for Applicants’ is the main reference document for the 3rd IMPACT EdTech Open Call. It provides detailed information about the requirements of the evaluation and selection process, and the Incubation / Acceleration Programme offered by the project.
Additionally, an Open Call Helpdesk service is available to clear up any doubts you may have relating to the application process (eligibility rules, application form information requests, etc). You can access the Helpdesk via the Open Call Community Spaces available here: https://spaces.fundingbox.com/spaces/impact-edtech-impact-edtech-3rd-open-call-q-a. Finally, a Technical Helpdesk service (contact@impactedtech.eu) is also available if you encounter any technical problem when filling in the application form.
Evaluation and selection process
- Remember that evaluators do not know your solution: give as many details as possible and make sure you include a demo link or a video. Moreover, all external sources included in your application form must be public and easily accessible.
- Be specific when answering the questions asked in the application form, they are designed to help evaluators assess your proposal against specific criteria.
- Show how your solution tackles one of the three challenges described in the Guide for Applicants: the selected solutions should help achieve the overall objective of IMPACT EdTech, which is to extend personalised, inclusive educational models and/or support the development of the skills relevant in today’s world.
- Only innovative solutions will be selected: make sure to explain how your solution differentiates itself.
- Describe why the members of your team are the best suited to work on the EdTech solution that you propose.
- Only solutions with commercial potential will be selected: show the evaluators that you know the market potential of the EdTech solution that you propose.
The table below presents the indicative dates in which each of the evaluation phases will end and the number of expected applicants that would go through to the next phase.
The pre-scoring will be applied if more than 250 applications pass the eligibility check. The pre-scoring is a system carried out on the FundingBox platform which automatically scores answers to specific questions, following pre-established criteria. Only the 250 highest scored proposals will move to the “Experts evaluation” phase. You can see the pre-scoring criteria in Section 4.2 of the Guide for Applicants.