The ECOSTAR virtual research-enterprise hub collects tools and promotes opportunities to increase the value of nature through innovative business ideas.
The initiative, co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, aims to promote entrepreneurship and innovation skills in the forestry sector and, more specifically, in Markets and Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (MEEB) by creating university-business links and opportunities among research institutes and companies at European level.
Business is booming in the “nature-based business” sector, which includes initiatives ranging from aggrotech companies to ecotourism to the production of sustainable raw materials. Already more than forty nations around the world are investing in the bioeconomy, which, in Europe, is worth € 2 trillion in annual turnover and twenty million jobs, according to the European Commission. In the tech world, there are literally hundreds of acceleration programs and thousands of investors to reach out to as you own a business model and pursue growth. For nature-based business, the reality is different, there is a lack of such opportunity. As a result of this, the ECOSTAR initiative, together with Fledge and several local and international partners, started the first Nature-Accelerator.
The Nature-Accelerator, developed by ECOSTAR and powered by Fledge, accelerates impactful startups through an intense programme of entrepreneurial, technical and scientific mentorship. This programme is the first “nature-based” accelerator of its kind and it is designed to guide entrepreneurs along the complex path to improved revenues and financial sustainability.
ECOSTAR offers training for young professionals and students that leads them to acquire high level entrepreneurial skills which teaches them to convert innovative ideas into successful business plans, in the field of marketing and economics of ecosystem and biodiversity.
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https://www.facebook.com/EcostarHub
