CYENS Centre of Excellence (former RISE) and CYENS Techub have announced a new accelerator program, “Nicosia²” (Nicosia Squared) focusing on the development of projects that use digital twins as ways of solving the challenges faced by cities and their inhabitants.
“Nicosia² aims to accelerate and support promising teams with hands-on training in business modelling, service design, project management and finance also providing coaching throughout the 3-month program to help convert ideas into viable businesses”, a press release says.
The program is designed in four phases to support teams at every stage, it adds.
The first phase is the soft application phase, where applicants from all around Cyprus with any background are invited to propose ideas that relate to the use of Smart Cities / digital twins and match at least one of the following criteria:
• Innovation delivering societal and environmental benefits
• employment opportunities
• contribution to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs)
• circular economy business models.
According to the press release, all successful applicants of the soft application process will be invited to participate in a week-long Basecamp to work with experts in preparing their applications to participate in the Accelerator.
Program Timeline
6 September 2021 Announcement of the program and soft applications (Deadline 26 September)
15 September 2021 Info session – Online
2 October 2021 Invitation of the selected applicant to join the Basecamp
4 – 8 October 2021 the Basecamp
8 October 2021 Hard applications & announcement of selected teams to Nicosia² accelerator program
18 October – 17 January 2022 Nicosia² Accelerator