The Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA) pre-acceleration program “Innovation Academy”, implemented by Riga Business School, has received 125 applications with the total number of potential participants of the program reaching 173. This program is realized with the support of the Norwegian Financial Mechanism and provides an opportunity for start-up creators of to learn how to effectively implement their ideas. Support will be provided for validating the viability of the idea and its development, creating the early-stage prototypes, as well as adjusting ideas to global market demand. Studies in this program will begin on October 20th of this year.
The First “Innovation Academy” program which concluded in spring was joined by more than 160 participants, and 27 investment-ready teams graduated from it. This strong result provides confidence that the new program call will gather many creators, professionals and scientists who will be able to successfully test the viability of their business ideas and prepare for their further development.
One of the most valuable resources of Latvia is talented young experts able to offer many creative solutions, including in the technology development area. The task of the “Innovation Academy” is to bring these people together in teams and motivate them to work on the development of ideas in order to commercialize these ideas into globally demanded products and services. From the previous stage we see that people with various expertise work in teams which is one of the main preconditions for the successful development of ideas as we can achieve the desired result only when combining technical and business knowledge.
Viesturs Sosārs
Program Director and Riga Business School Entrepreneur in residency
Anyone ready to learn the ins and outs of implementing innovative and globally scalable business ideas can still apply to “Innovation Academy”. The program was joined by both – participants who already have their own business idea and also the ones who will use the program as a platform to come up with their business idea. Also during the studies, it is possible to join a team already working on the development of a specific business idea. The program begins on October 20th and lasts for eight weeks. During this time participants will have lectures, master classes and camps in order to come up with new solutions and prove their viability and define solutions afterward. At the conclusion of the program, participants are expected to have a clearly defined product concept to continue participating in the second part of the “Innovation Academy” or pre-acceleration program.
Andrejs Berdņikovs
Head of Technology Business Centre at LIAA
“Innovation Academy” is organized by Riga Business School as a structural unit of Riga Technical University in cooperation with the LIAA Technology Business Centre. The program is supported by the Norwegian Financial Mechanism.
