Academics from across Europe spent a week in an innovative campus creating fifteen technology companies

Fifteen new companies in a week, that´s the challenge of the European project Eu-Xcel in which the Polytechnic University of Cartagena participates and aims to promote entrepreneurship among university students and recent graduates.

Forty-five students from 24 European universities attended from 6 to 10 July at Cartagena to lay the foundations for a successful business project.

The initiative was developed in the Faculty of Business at the Polytechnic University of Cartagena (UPCT) and Fuente Álamo´s Technology Park and it´s part of Startup Europe, an initiative of the Horizon 2020 program of the European Commission that aims to compete with Silicon Valley.

During the first two days of work, participants interacted with each other using innovative techniques of design thinking that contributed to develop fifteen startups in record time. These startups had three days to present a business idea and a valid business model.

In the experience they were supported by mentors and experts in business development from the Polytechnic University of Cartagena and the Universities of Cork, Munich, Athens, Pozdan and Technological of Denmark (DTU).

After this phase, the startups have three months of virtual work to continue with the development of their projects and will conclude with their participation in the finals, to be held in November in the Irish city of Cork and they are going to join startups created in five other European universities where the project is developed.

The best business projects will receive direct access to investors and capital funds.

The objective of Eu-Xcel project is to create a hundred of new companies related to new technologies during this year and another hundred next year.

More information at: www.eu-xcel.eu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad6bjjdbPJU&feature=youtu.be