Support Ecosystems for Digital Startups

The project DIGISTART (Support Ecosystems for Digital Startups) is an EU funded research project in the area of startup ecosystems. The project aims to support European-Wide digital ecosystems through a set of coordinated activities targeting Lisbon and Malmo. It also aims to harness the capabilities of the largest European online platform for startups and web entrepreneurs: F6S, for providing online support to startups.

The Lisbon Ecosystem will be supported by UNIDEMI and BETA-i. UNIDEMI, A research centre at the Faculdade de Ciencias e Tecnologies, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, will initiate activities to provide greater access to the innovation ecosystem for students. This includes early stage mentorship, awareness creation, launching of the Startup Forum, a formal Entrepreneurship Course and an online MOOC. It will also undertake research activities that will provide greater insights on how Innovation Ecosystems have benefitted Startups. BETA-i already runs a very successful acceleration programme, the Lisbon Challenge, and will undertake other events to enhance the ecosystem. Clusterland Sweden based in Malmo, Sweden will initiate activities in sync with the activities in the Lisbon Ecosystem.