The network of National Contact Points (NCPs) is the principal structure providing practical guidance and information on all aspects of participation in Horizon 2020, both within the EU and beyond. This includes information on choosing relevant Horizon 2020 topics, advice on administrative procedures and contractual issues, assistance on proposal writing, distribution of documentation and assistance in partner search. NCPs are a national service which can vary by country.

The Enterprise Europe Network’s fundamental objective is to innovate and grow small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on an international scale. It provides business advice and support and has a network of over 3,000 experts from over 600 different organisations. This network is active in more than 60 countries worldwide, and provides SMEs with the necessary help and contacts to allow them to operate internationally.

‘Fab Lab Lisboa’ is an abbreviation of ‘Fabrication Laboratory Lisboa’. This international network makes digital manufacturing sites and prototyping available to people with ideas. The equipment available, such as milling machines, laser cutters, and 3D printers, both permits people to carry out their ideas as well as gathering like-minded people together, creating the type of network and community needed for independent projects.

Startup Lisboa is a business incubator and non-profit association that supports the creation of companies and entrepreneurs in their first years of activity. It has an extensive mentoring and support network to aid startups, and encourages collaboration and knowledge sharing within its own community. It also organises initiatives such as Launch in Lisbon, that helps international entrepreneurs to establish themselves in Lisbon, and Hub Criativo do Beato, an innovation hub, to help maintain the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the city and to continue to expand its own network.

Lisbon Startup City forms part of the strategy of the Lisbon municipality to transform the city into a ‘startup’ city. It is an accessible, online information hub for entrepreneurs that informs them of the latest business news within the city. It also has an extensive map detailing all of the incubators, events, Fab Labs, investors, accelerators, etc. that are available in the area. This facilitates and encourages startups as this hub provides all of the relevant information needed to help and support aspiring businesses.

Mind The Bridge is an international organisation which aims to build a sustainable and global entrepreneurial ecosystem. Its programmes and activities focus on bringing startups and corporates together to enhance the growth of all parties. Mind the Bridge’s entrepreneurship programmes for startups and scaleups include Startup School, an education programme that immerses founders in a startup ecosystem for 3 weeks, Corporate Matching, events that bring startups and corporates together, and the Mind the Seed investing programme. On top of this, Mind the Bridge organises Scaleup Summits, invitation only, matching activities hosted by the most prestigious European Stock Exchanges, where international corporates, investors and scaleups can do business and spot technology trends.

Media Deals is a pan-European investor network gathering business angels and early-stage venture capital funds focusing on the creative industries and digital media. Since its creation in 2008, Media Deals has been promoting and encouraging early-stage equity investment in high-growth startups. Among other activities, Media Deals organises European Investment Forums in a range of European countries, providing opportunities for entrepreneurs and investors to meet up and discuss investment and partnership possibilities. The forums also provide the right environment for companies to brainstorm with entrepreneurs working in the creative industries and digital media sector from other European regions, as well as to discuss investment and partnership possibilities with financiers specialised in the sector.

Galileo Masters is an international innovation competition that seeks to accelerate space-related startups. It supports startup innovations at any development stage, and helps to transform them into real business cases. The openness of the competition encourages a wide spectrum of business solutions to apply, and has resulted in greater innovation and a highly diversified network of prize winners.

ESA Business Applications functions as a network of talent, technology and funding to all types of businesses that seek to improve people’s daily lives, especially those involving space technology such as satellite data or spaceflight technologies. It helps companies to integrate these technologies into their commercial services, and provides funding, consultants, guidance, and access to its network of partners to successful applicants.

The Copernicus Startup Programme is a competition that assists startups from the generation of a business idea to its full commercialisation. The programme is made up of several main components: The Copernicus Prizes phase supports the generation of new business ideas while and the Copernicus Accelerator helps to transform startup ideas into commercialised solutions. The Copernicus Incubation Programme supports innovative business applications with the most potential, and provides 20 European startups a year with €50,000 to finance their incubation and development.

The European Global Navigation Satellite Systems Agency runs Europe’s independent satellite navigation programmes – Galileo and EGNOS – that help to revolutionise transport, farming, logistics and our everyday lives. The GNSS Agency (GSA) serves as a link between space technology and user needs, as it oversees the key service facilities involved in translating the information available from these satellite programmes into reliable everyday services.

With Startup India, the Government of India in seeking to encourage and empower innovation and startups on a national scale in order to drive sustainable growth and generate employment opportunities. Its Startup Portal is the country’s largest online networking platform for entrepreneurs across a range of industries, and also provides free resources and programmes such as online courses and innovation challenges.

DCU Ryan Academy is a partnership between Dublin City University and the family of Dr Tony Ryan, one of the country’s most successful entrepreneurs. The academy promotes and accelerates early stage entrepreneurship in Ireland, through its leading entrepreneur, startup and innovation programmes and through events and activities which support broader entrepreneur and startup ecosystem development.

Clusterland Sweden is an organisation that builds and implements digital strategies for cities and regions. With a belief in digitalisation as a way to create sustainable, healthy and prosperous societies, Clusterland Sweden will analyse the current environment, create a digital strategy and implement it.

Digital innovation hubs (DIHs) were created to ensure that every company, no matter their size, has access to digital opportunities. With technical universities and research organisations at the core, DIHs act as one-stop-shops where companies —especially SMEs and startups — can get access to technology testing, financing advice, market intelligence and networking opportunities.

InvestHorizon is a programme financed by the European Commission, in association with Eureka, to facilitate funding and training for selected deep tech companies. Selected companies will have access to accelerator services including coaching, boot camps and workshops, as well as opportunities to pitch to investors. A range of services are also offered for investors.

Information from the European Commission on accessing funds.

The Microfinance and Social Entrepreneurship (MF/SE) axis of the European Commission’s EaSI (Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion) programme supports actions in two areas: social enterprises, and microcredit and microloans for vulnerable groups and microenterprises.

Creative Europe is the European Commission’s framework programme for support to the culture and audiovisual sectors, partly through the provision of funding.  It aims to enhance the culture sector by initiatives including cross-border cooperation, networking and literary translation. Meanwhile, initiatives in the audiovisual sector include the promoting, development and distribution of audiovisual works.

Access to Risk Finance gives information on the European Commission’s specific objective of helping companies and other types of organisation engaged in research and innovation (R&I) to gain easier access, via financial instruments, to loans, guarantees, counter-guarantees and hybrid, mezzanine and equity finance.

The programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (COSME), is a programme of the European Commission that is improving access to finance for SMEs through two financial instruments that have been available since August 2014. COSME’s main aim is to facilitate access to loans and equity finance for SMEs where market gaps have been identified.