Valorisation of knowledge is crucial to create real impact and solve societal challenges related to water. Key in this valorisation process are start-ups and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises.

That is why the work in Water4All Pillar C on Science - Policy - End-users Interface, and the task C2 “Accelerating the uptake of Research & Innovation results by the economic sectors” in particular, is focused on the uptake of innovative approaches by the economic sectors. Within task C2, the focus is on the creation, incubation and growth of knowledge intensive start-ups.  

To be able to support start-ups, it is crucial to know if and in what field start-ups need support and which support is already available. Through a fruitful collaboration between all C2-partners, two online surveys were launched to gather input from start-ups (survey 1) and start-up support organisations (SSOs) (survey 2). With input from start-ups and SSOs from all across Europe the C2-team got insight in the positive and negative experiences of start-ups and SSOs.  

These insights are published in a report entitled “Entrepreneurship/ Business development training program with focus on inspiration, education and incubation” (Deliverable 3.2). The most important conclusions are reported hereafter. 

Start-up support is divided in five different areas: 

• Talent: development of entrepreneurial skills. From inspiration, education, incubation and acceleration. 

• Market: to connect start-ups with end-users and potential partners; 

• Finance: to give start-ups access to finance (investment, subsidies); 

• Knowledge: to add valuable, non-technical knowledge to start-ups; 

• Facilities: help start-ups with access to, among others, laboratories, office space and demosites. 

Both the start-ups and SSOs see that the support programs can be improved by:  

• Bringing the customers closer to the programs; and  

• Improving the connection with investors; 

The SSOs pay less attention to the inspiration and incubation activities. These activities are crucial to stimulate (young) researchers to start their own company. 

• There is a discrepancy between the experience of start-ups in the way they are connected to the market (their main experience is limited support) and the perception of SSOs about the support they offer in this field. This is an important conclusion because several fail factors for start-ups are connected to the market (no market need; get outcompeted pricing/cost issues). 

• Finance is crucial to start-ups and in many cases complex. Although the SSOs claim that they are supporting start-ups in this field, start-ups see several possibilities to improve this support. 

• Both start-ups and SSOs see that start-ups lack knowledge around legal aspects and IP. There is a discrepancy between the fact that start-ups see a knowledge gap around scaling-up their technology while SSOs see a knowledge gap around finance and human capital. The SSOs experienced knowledge gap around finance is supported by the answers of the start-ups around this pillar area. 

Based on the outcomes of the surveys, an example of the design of an entrepreneurship inspiration program that SSOs can include in their services.is included in the annex of the report. 

During the coming months, the Water4All partners of the task C2 will focus on the following activities:

• Mapping of financial programs;  

• Running a joint incubation program for start-ups from all over Europe; 

• Creating an end-user platform to connect start-ups with potential customers in an early stage.