ACCEL

The CB region is challenged with a) population decrease due to the brain drain phenomenon where highly educated people immigrate to other countries, mainly in central Europe, seeking better career opportunities, and b) high unemployment rates.

ACCEL is designed to critically and practically respond to the need of reducing unemployment rates and at the same time make business in the CB area more resilient and competitive boosting economic activity.

The project main outputs are:

• A mainstreaming guide with project results/outputs/links to accessible online business support resources
• A Project website with information about the scope/progress/deliverables/results of the project
• A Diagnosis Tool assessing business ideas/team/product innovation
• An international mentors network .-An Advisory Board offering professional and executive business advice
• A virtual corporate accelerator ‘V.Xelerate’, a three month intensive, unique and empowering training and mentoring programme to support business innovation and new product development
• An Action Plan describing methods for strategy adaptation and policy development for harmonising business support schemes with real business needs.

ACCEL project is innovative in its nature providing the opportunity to business in the CB area to grow, hence boost economic activity.

Furthermore, ACCEL provides the opportunity for business in the CB area to participate to project activities virtually, benefiting the whole CB area. The project will result in 50 companies being accelerated and hence receive non financial support and 70 business being incubated. At least 50 people are expected to find employment after project end in the cross-border area due to the direct linkage offered for the co-development of innovation projects between business and highly skilled graduates.

The envisaged results of the project are directly linked with the programme result indicator of increasing the number of highly educated people in employment. The project directly improves the capacity of regional actors to support the development/growth of bussiness and the CB business survival providind modernised business services.

The project’s added value is the ‘democratisation’ of entrepreneurship offering access to training, coaching and mentoring services virtually to anyone in the program eligible area that is beyond the beneficiaries areas.