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Description
The Step Forward Together project wants to help Romanian businesses, especially new ones, do better. Further, the project involves running a program to help 20 new startups, teaching people about diversity and sustainability, and transfering knowledge on how they all can make a difference. The project wants to make sure that startups in Romania have the right support and know-how to succeed while also promoting fairness and taking care of the environment.
The main outcomes of this project will be increased competitiveness of Romanian SMEs enterprises within focus area Green Industry Innovation. The project also aims at achieving enhanced business cooperation between donor states entities and beneficiary state entities. Achieving these outcomes will be a driver for building an ecosystem that encourages the participation of a more diverse group of founders, which will lead to even more entrepreneurial activity than already exists today.
In order to achieve these goals the key activities of the project includes:
- Partner matchmaking
- Project Management and Running the Step Forward Together Accelerator
- Project Publicity
This project also has a strong bilateral component. The project has a Norwegian partner in Startup Norway. They have worked to build a leading start-up ecosystem in Norway by strengthening entrepreneurs and the ecosystem''s knowledge and skills through competence-enhancing measures. Startup Norway will complement StepFWD efforts on a two-fold level:
1. Contributor to: The Handbook of Norwegian good practices, a compendium of lessons and use-cases from the Norwegian ecosystem. This will shape the design of Step Forward Together Accelerator, as well as the communication and learning materials for mentors, investors and advisors.
2. Participant in: common Romanian-Norwegian events in Oslo, Cluj and Bucharest dedicated to local entrepreneurs, founding teams, mentors, investors and advisors.