Innovation Labs is gearing up for the 11th edition of the program

Innovation Labs – the national pre-acceleration and mentoring program for young entrepreneurs in the field of technology – announces that it will run the eleventh edition of the educational program in 2023, implementing a pre-program pilot component in Bucharest.

With a university tradition and a national footprint – thanks to the presence in five of the major university centers in Romania (Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Iași, Sibiu and Timișoara), but having partner universities and registered teams from other cities as well, such as Brașov, Constanța, Craiova and Oradea – Innovation Labs has assumed the role of supporting Romanian technology startup entrepreneurs by creating an experiential trajectory and a community of mentors and partners from the business environment.

The program will debut in the five centers through the hackathons organized in March, during two days (Saturday and Sunday). Thus, in Cluj-Napoca and Iasi the hackathons will take place on March 18 and 19, and in Bucharest, Sibiu and Timișoara the hackathons will be organized on March 25 and 26. The teams from Brașov, Constanța and Craiova will participate in the hackathon in Bucharest, and the teams from Oradea in the one in Timișoara. Following the qualification, these teams will follow the program in Bucharest, respectively the one in Timișoara.

The teams that will sign up for hackathons and that will participate in the Innovation Labs program can be, depending on the experience of their members, in one of three categories: teams made up exclusively of students, spin-off teams from university research projects and teams made up of students and experienced entrepreneurs. At the same time, we encourage the participation of people who, even if they do not have an idea of ​​a technical product to develop, want to join an already formed team that is looking for new members to participate in hackathons.

Different from the previous editions, for the teams that register in Bucharest, a pre-program pilot stage will be implemented, through which they can have access to a series of resources before participating in the hackathon. The pre-program stage started on January 3, 2023, and those interested can apply until February 25 of this year.

Teams that qualify for the program following the hackathons will benefit from weekly mentoring sessions, weekly breakout sessions on various topics, and 1:1 coaching. The structure of the program will be the same in all its venues. The finalists of the program will be chosen following the national semi-finals scheduled to take place on May 15, 2023. The final Demo Day, scheduled to take place on May 28 and 29, 2023, will bring the top 15 developed products and teams to a large audience who created them.

All teams will continue to benefit from the support of the pre-accelerator and program supporters after the end of the mentoring period, becoming part of the alumni community of Innovation Labs.