EDI is targeted to Big Data innovators and entrepreneurs in order to help and support them solving real industry challenges provided by various EU corporates and data providers across a wide range of sectors, or to develop independent data solutions utilizing the available datasets, in key industrial domains, e.g. a) Cross Sector; b) Agri-food; c) Energy & Environment; d) Finance; e) Gaming; f) Health; g) Industry 4.0; h) Internet & Media; i) Retail; j) Smart Cities; k) Sports and l) Transport & Logistics. EDI is devised to aid European startups in Big Data to overcome the usual barriers they face when innovating in this area, e.g. a) lack of access to private corporative datasets; b) access to the actual needs of the corporations having those datasets; c) access to VC and investors willing to bring forward their solutions or d) seed equity-free funding (up to 100K €) to help these innovative startups to materialize their innovative and marketable data-driven solutions.
EDI aims to leverage the technology and knowledge on Big Data across countries and sectors thanks to the incubation of SMEs and startups who use Big Data open source tools oriented to sort out major challenges in different business which facilitate their data assets. It boosts the European Data Economy by fostering a community bringing together stakeholders, such as data providers, innovators, tech/business experts, investors, universities, corporations, with an end goal of connecting the European startups and SMEs to a vibrant network, and positioning EDI as a network builder and confluence point to boost innovation in Big Data.
The main specific objectives of the EDI project are:
● Objective 1 - Experiment: to incubate around 30-40 startups per call on a funnel approach programme to develop a Minimum Viable Product based on existing data provided by consortium Big Data providers and using some of the most extended Big Data tools and a dedicated free infrastructure.
● Objective 2 - Business generation: to facilitate the business generation of the best companies per call focusing on the development of skills (such as: business planning and modelling, marketing & communication, technology, crowd and public funding, fundraising, human resources, product design/user interface, corporate and legalese or pitch).
Derived from those above some complimentary objectives are identified:
● Objective 3 - Open Calls: to launch three open calls to select over 100 top-leading Big Data startups/SMEs out of a pool of above 1,000 startups applying to the open calls.
● Objective 4 - Ecosystem and exploitation: to build a solid ecosystem around Big Data stakeholders with over 3,000 participants (including startups, SMEs, data providers, investors and Big Data experts) leveraging the results of sub-granted projects. At the same time, the consortium will launch new incubation programmes and continue with the services offered to the SMEs/startups on a commercial basis. We estimate an accumulated income of over €5.4M by 2024 only among the core-consortium partners.
● Objective 5 - Coordination: to adequately manage and coordinate the EDI project according to the rules of the H2020 and the coordination with other Big Data PPP initiatives. The consortium is comprised by 20 partners (including the data providers) and will disburse funds to over 100 SMEs/startups from all over Europe.
