Startup Europe

Startup Scaleup initiative

Startup Europe is an initiative of the European Commission to connect high tech startups, scaleups, investors, accelerators, corporate networks, universities and the media. It is supported by a portfolio of EU funded projects and policy actions such as the EU Startup Nation Standard, Innovation Radar and the Digital Innovation and Scale-up Initiative (DISC). It is fully aligned with the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) strategy of the European Commission. 

EU Startup Nation Standard

The EU Startup Nation Standard is a new initiative announced in the European Commission’s new SME Strategy.

European SMEs and startups face several challenges as they pursue ambitions of securing market opportunities and growing their revenues. Many EU countries are already following best practices to help startups address challenges such as venture creation, and attracting and retaining talent.

The European Commission in 2020 will establish EU Startup Nation Standard to multiply such practices across the EU to make Europe the most attractive startup and scaleup continent.

In particular, this will include the launch of a political initiative calling for commitments from EU countries to implement such practices at local, regional and national levels. The initiative will focus on making it easier to launch a startup and expand across borders. It will also streamline visa and residency applications for third country talent, make granting of employee stock options more attractive, promote venture-building and tech transfer from universities, and increase access to finance for scaling-up. 

Innovation Radar Platform

The Innovation Radar is the European Commission’s data-driven initiative to identify high potential innovations and innovators in EU-funded research and innovation projects. Its goal is to allow every citizen, public official, professional and business person to discover the outputs of EU innovation funding.

Digital innovation and scaleup initiative (DISC)

Digital startups in the central, eastern and south-eastern Europe (CESEE) region face an investment gap compared to innovators in other European regions. To address this gap in a geographically targeted way the digital innovation and scaleup initiative (DISC) was launched in 2019 by the European Commission in cooperation with several other international institutions. DISC pursues these aims by addressing the existing market gap, enhancing investments and strengthening technical assistance programs focused on digital innovations and the scale-up of digital startups in the CESEE region.

Read a short note on DISC (.pdf)