The ENRICH In Africa Project Launches The ENRICH In Africa Centre
The ENRICH In Africa Project Launches The ENRICH In Africa Centre. The ENRICH in Africa project has launched the ENRICH in Africa Centre (EiA Centre), at this year’s Annual Congress held in Nairobi, Kenya, on the 25th of November 2022. The EiA Centre is a network connecting European and African innovation ecosystems as an outcome of the ENRICH in Africa project, an EU project funded under the Horizon 2020 programme.
The ENRICH in Africa project is led by a consortium of ecosystem stakeholders and was designed to build a supportive network of incubators and accelerators from across both neighbouring continents, piloting services in a ‘by the community, for the community’ ethos, for the purpose of strengthening internationalisation and collaboration in innovation. Based in Cape Town, South Africa, the ENRICH in Africa Centre is centralised through an online digital platform, providing a digital meeting space for different innovation stakeholders, including incubators, accelerators, innovation facilitators, entrepreneurs, SMEs, and corporate investors.
Once registered, users will be able to access a range of state-of-the-art services through the Centre and its platform including special services for African and European incubators and accelerators through a Champions membership programme and targeted programmes for entrepreneurs, such as Open Innovation Challenges and soft-landing opportunities. “We are thrilled to be able to work with such a strong group of partners to add additional value to the innovation ecosystem of Europe and Africa. There is such a great amount of work already taking place in this space, but we see a real value in being able to raise the capacity of such actors as well as connect the two regions to each other.’’ Eduardo Herrmann, EiA Centre Director and Member of the Management Board and Head of Department – Steinbeis Europa Zentrum, the EiA Project Coordinating Partner.
“Methys is very pleased to have been chosen, jointly with our long-time partner Startupbootcamp AfriTech, to host in Cape Town the head office of ENRICH in Africa Centre. Together we will, thanks to the grant from the European Commission and the platform of partnerships we have been building over the years, work relentlessly to build together a common business around technology partnerships, open innovation and soft-landing for African entrepreneurs in Europe and European entrepreneurs in Africa. We look forward to continuing to amplify our work to support our ecosystem”. – Christophe Viarnaud, EiA Centre Director and CEO of Methys Consulting (Pty) Ltd, an EiA Project Consortium partner.
The EiA Centre has been founded by four of the project partners- Methys and Startupbootcamp Afritech in South Africa, and Steinbeis Europa Zentrum and SPI from Europe. The Centre’s offices are being jointly hosted by Methys and Startupbootcamp AfriTech in Cape Town with the activities and services of the Centre being further supported by numerous established African and European players in the innovation ecosystem.
