I3-INSHAPE

Description

Innovation Network for Sportive and Healthy Active People in Europe

Start Date: September 1, 2023
End Date: August 31, 2026
Duration: 24 months
Budget: €9.598.897,24 (70% funded by EU-I3)
Funding: Interregional Innovation Investment (I3)

Description

Project Summary

I3-INSHAPE aims to strengthen the European digital economy by developing the ClusSport Partnership (recognized by the EU in the smart specialisation area – S3– of sports and vitality) into a European competence centre for SME initiatives in the field of sports and vitality: the I3-INSHAPE Network of Innovation and Investment Hubs, where we will accelerate interregional innovation investments related to sports and vitality and bring them to the market.

The approach is demand-driven. The consortium wants to support SMEs in their process to address challenges in data-driven growth, to upscale innovations and to bring them to the market:

1) find interregional connections to building value chains and expanding market presence;
2) digitalize services & products and create better access to data,
3) provide business and innovation support: user-driven innovation, scale-up, commercialization and access to financing.

The project will build the portfolio of interregional investment (I3) cases from 6 pre-selected FLAGSHIP SME I3 cases (included in the partnership) and another 30+ SME I3 Cases selected during the project via a series of bottom-up OPEN CALLS. The 30+SME I3 Cases will benefit from additional funding to A) address specific needs/requests from Flagship SMEs and B) build a second Stream of additional I3 cases, thereby contributing to building interregional value chains around the Flagship and Second Stream I3 cases.

Finally, the project will transform the I3-INSHAPE Innovation & Investment Hubs into a self-sustaining, demand-driven ecosystem carrying on beyond the lifetime of this proposal.

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Ask the leaders Cluster Sport & Technology to know more or join the project. 

Project Objectives

The project supports mature SME-led innovations in the commercialisation and scale-up phases to capture opportunities in this fast-growing global market. As

  1. Flagship SME Investment
    To invest in 6 flagship SMEs incorporated in the partnership for next steps in order to address their needs and assist them in reaching market readiness (TRL 9)
  2. New Investment cases
    To identify additional interregional investment cases (SMEs) in Europe to build further up new investments and new initiatives.
  3. Digitalization
    To strengthen data and digitalisation infrastructure in order to facilitate interregional innovation processes and provide support to SMEs in the interregional innovation ecosystem.
  4. Interregional Innovation Hub
    To further develop and strengthen the interregional innovation ecosystem in sports and technology from this partnership. This will pave the way to a self-sustainable and interregional European digital innovation Hub in the field of sports and vitality, with a positive impact on health and well-being in society.

Consortium

Project Partners:

  • Cluster Sports and Technology – CST (South Netherlands, NL)
  • IMEC (South Netherlands, NL)
  • InnoBeweegLab (South Netherlands, NL)
  • European Platform for Sport Innovation – EPSI (Brussels-Capital Region, BE)
  • LAB University of Applied Sciences (Päijät-Häme, FI)
  • LADEC (Päijät-Häme, FI)
  • University of Jyväskylä (Kainuu, FI)
  • Kajaani University – KAMK (Kainuu, FI)
  • Lapland University of Applied Sciences – LUAS (Lapland, FI)
  • MSE Cluster Ltd (Észak-Alföld, HU)
  • Universidad Europea de Valencia – UEV (Comunidad Valenciana, ES)
  • 4ivlcesport (Comunidad Valenciana, ES)
  • Metric Salad (Comunidad Valenciana, ES)
  • ACCIÓ (Catalunya, ES)
  • INDESCAT (Catalunya, ES)

Preselected flagship SMEs

  • ViNotion (South Netherlands, NL)
  • CSE Entertainment (Kainuu, FI)
  • Toisintekijät (Päijät-Häme, FI)
  • Comeback Center (Lapland, FI)
  • Blautic Designs – SL (Comunidad Valenciana, ES)
  • ONALABS (Catalunya, ES)

Materials And Publications

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Innovation Council and SMSs Executive Agency (EISMEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.