EU4Innovation East Project - Support to digital innovation in the Eastern Partnership region

Observing the innovation landscapes across Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova, and Ukraine reveals several commonalities and distinctions. Each nation showcases a commitment to fostering entrepreneurship, though their developmental stages vary. Digital transformation emerges as a unifying theme, with concerted efforts to apply technology across diverse sectors. 

Despite their progress, innovation ecosystems face common challenges such as limited access to capital, an insufficient connection between academia and the private sector, as well as a shrinking talent pool. While some countries have produced globally recognised companies, others are in the nascent stages of achieving global visibility. 

To address these challenges and develop innovation ecosystems, strategies often include international collaborations and partnerships with foreign entities. A reinforced public-private dialogue can help governments play pivotal roles, implementing inclusive policies to support innovation, education, infrastructure, and encourage startup creation.

Its mission is to build more resilient economies by supporting incubators, expanding funding opportunities for startups, and providing tailored support to Ukraine’s emerging tech sector. 

Through strategic co-financing, skills development, regulatory assistance, and a strong commitment to gender inclusion, EU4Innovation East is laying the foundation for sustainable, long-term growth in the region, ensuring that innovation is both inclusive and impactful.

The EU4Innovation East Project meets four specific objectives, which contribute to boost innovation and growth in the region:

• Improve access to early-stage funding, especially for women-led startups and green businesses, through new funding mechanisms and improved incubation programs and technology transfer initiatives.
• Foster innovation development in EaP ecosystems by structuring and improving the business environment, and introduce the capacity to mainstream priorities such as gender and climate/environment.
• Amplify the visibility of EaP startups and strengthen connections with European investors, fostering both funding acquisition, market access, and increased local interest in the entrepreneurial journey, promote access to climate finance focused on startups.
• Develop a customised strategy for Ukraine, integrating French co-financing, to navigate and capitalise upon the distinctive challenges and opportunities encountered by the Ukrainian startup ecosystem during the ongoing reconstruction period and support Ukraine’s objectives with regard to the twin green and digital transitions.

1 - Supporting access to early-stage funding 

The project seeks to promote seed investment and support business angels to build a robust pipeline of innovative startups. This funding-first approach is designed to boost investor confidence and strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the EaP region, setting the path for exponential growth.

2 - Backing high added-value segments and high-performance incubation

EU4Innovation East contributes to the development of local incubators and accelerators by: 

• Providing a financial aid
• Offering high-quality training to emerging innovative startups
• Promoting technology transfer 

These activities will enhance the incubation experience for startups in Eastern Partnership countries.

3 - Strengthening community ties

A supportive legal and social environment is essential for the development of startups. At the national level, the project builds bridges between startups, universities, the diaspora, gender and climate experts, the private sector and other key stakeholders of the ecosystem through events, peer learning, and national community-building activities.

At the regional level, the Eastern Partnership is more than a geographic region: it is a network of connected communities. By deepening existing ties, EU4Innovation East shapes a more cohesive and collaborative startup environment that favours innovation and business prosperity.

4 - Showcasing EaP ecosystems and building EU partnerships

EU4Innovation East boosts the visibility of Eastern Partnership role models and startup ecosystems, by creating connections between national and European stakeholders, through:

• the participation of EaP delegations at major international events;
• the invitation of European stakeholders to EaP events. 

This dual promotion strategy increases exposure, inspires entrepreneurial initiatives, drives investments and builds EU-EaP partnerships.