Next steps for startups in our second open call
We have now assessed all the candidates for the second round of Data Pitch, and have selected which startups will be put forward for the initial interviews which will be taking place in the next couple of weeks.
We were pleased to receive many high quality applications from across the European Union. Participating countries included the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Romania, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Finland, Turkey, Portugal, Italy, Cyprus, Serbia, France, Bulgaria, Latvia, Greece Lithuania, Poland, Norway and Denmark.
Data Pitch assessed 97 applications in total, and has shortlisted over half for interview. The number of candidates that applied for each challenge is as follows:
Personalised Entertainment 3
Text & Mining Analytics 8
Smart Manufacturing 8
Supply Food Supply Chain 4
Customer Needs Prediction 5
Healthcare 7
Multi Modal Transport 1
Weather and Climate Change 7
Open Challenge 24
Pharma 1
Automotive 2
Energy 5
Finance 5
Telecoms 1
Privacy & Content Control 10
Smart Transport 6
A total of 58 companies have been selected for interviews. Unfortunately, there were a number which were not eligible for various reasons. These included incomplete applications, or applications from companies who did not meet all the criteria of the programme.
As Data Pitch is itself funded by Horizon 2020, companies need to comply with the following rules to be suitable for consideration.
- The applicant must be an SME.
- The applicant must be legally established and working in the EU-28 countries or in the Horizon 2020 associated countries.
- The applicant must be registered with the European Commission as an SME at the time of submission.
- The applicant must be working as an individual company – no consortia are permitted.
- The applicant must target one track and challenge, and propose a solution to that challenge, following the instructions laid out in the challenge text.
By far the most common reason for ineligibility amongst companies that were otherwise compliant with the terms and conditions was that applications were not 100% complete. Furthermore, several applications were not in the scope of Data Pitch because they did not solve a relevant challenge using shared data or could not provide relevant evidence that they had access to data shared by a different organisation.
In addition, some applications were not submitted on time for a range of reasons, and we were unable to take into account circumstances which caused the delays.
Eligible applications
Applications that passed these basic checks were reviewed in more detail according to the criteria explained in the guide, with each application evaluated by two experts. hose achieving the threshold score, will be shortlisted and invited for interviews with an executive panel of Data Pitch partners. The full review criteria can be found in the guide for applicants.
We extend our congratulations to the candidates who have made it to the next stage, and look forward to meeting them at the interviews to find out more about their proposals.