EPICenter is one of the partners within the project ABCD – The Alliance of Boundary Crossing for Deep Tech, supported through the EIT HEI Initiative, which aims to become the leading platform for innovation and deep tech entrepreneurship in the Western Balkans region!

With an equal involvement of academic and non-academic organizations, the EIT HEI Initiative – Innovation Capacity Building for Higher Education aims to create synergy between higher education institutions and industry, with the aim of fostering entrepreneurship and innovation in Europe. Since the start of the Initiative, almost 40 thousand students, academic and non-academic staff have been trained through EIT HEI projects, and over 900 innovative teams and startups have been supported!

48 consortia with over 500 organizations applied for this year's call, and the call resulted in supporting 16 projects, which include partners from 100 higher education institutions and 79 non-academic organizations (companies, associations, research centers, and public authorities).
All 16 projects directly support and strengthen the EIT program ’Deep Tech Talent Initiative’, which aims to train one million deep tech experts by 2025.

Among the supported projects is ABCD, managed by a consortium of 10 full project partners and 2 associated partners, representatives of the Western Balkans countries. With the aim of becoming a leading platform for strengthening deep tech innovation and entrepreneurship in the Western Balkans, the ABCD project will encourage an entrepreneurial mindset and entrepreneurial activities and support deep tech startups to develop globally. By 2030, the project aims to strengthen the innovative and entrepreneurial capacities of the Western Balkans, establish incubators, build strong ties with the local and regional ecosystem, and effectively disseminate quality results.

With its expertise and experience, the EPICenter team will help in designing, organizing, developing, and implementing project activities, in accordance with its own mission of supporting and strengthening deep tech innovations and their better and sustainable positioning on the market.