European Institute of Innovation and Technology Presents Award to Turkey

Turkey made its mark on the EIT Jumpstarter program, organized by the European Union's institution European Innovation and Technology Institute (EIT), which aims to reward innovative ideas and support the establishment of successful start-ups.

The final of the EIT Jumpstarter program, organized to encourage promising early-stage ventures in developing European regions and to help scientific ideas and innovations transform into successful businesses, took place on 28 November in Budapest, Hungary.

European Innovation and Technology Institute (EIT)'s event, which was combined with the "The Next Decade in Innovation for Europe's Future" conference, brought together 49 teams from 21 countries competing in 9 categories and winning prizes worth a total of EUR 150,000. Teams from Turkey competing in the EIT Jumpstarter Grand Final, where 24 new science-based start-ups were awarded, made a strong impression.

Objective: Close the financing gap in Europe's ecosystem

EIT Jumpstarter Director Piotr Boulange, noting that this is a highly important program to close the financing gap in Europe's innovative ecosystem, stated: ''To date, 1,180 participants have been trained under the program and 124 ventures have been established in developing countries, enabling the creation of 2,100 new job opportunities. The number of start-ups established through programs like EIT Jumpstarter in countries outside Western Europe is increasing every year, and many ventures from previous periods have now reached valuations worth millions of euros. Our goal for 2025 is to provide additional support to innovative entrepreneurs in Ukraine, the Western Balkans, the Mediterranean, and the EU's remotest regions.''

First-place award for Yapar3D project from Turkey

In the program where only 180 innovative entrepreneurial candidates were selected for training from 600 applications and the best 49 teams competed in 9 different categories ranging from food to energy, Yapar3D from Turkey won first place in the EIT manufacturing category. The project provides an innovative manufacturing method in production, enabling cost-effective production of plastic components suitable for low-volume manufacturing.