Are you a food sector professional from a RIS country? Do you want to improve your skills in New Product Development? We invite you to be one of 25 selected participants in the EIT Food Summer School on new product development for the food industry!

During an intensive 8 day workshop, our industry experts will present not only how to create and execute NPD by understanding the market and consumer’s needs, but also provide insight on how to handle competing project requirements and constraints. Put simply, you will be given the entire spectrum of knowledge required to be an expert of New Product Development and much more.

It’s not a school, if you only listen! That’s why we included Design Thinking workshops and hands-on experience in a simulated environment. Sounds interesting? That’s not all! Thanks to cooperation with market leaders from the food sector, we will show you where these theories meet reality. You’ll get to analyse actual case studies of NPD successes and failures learning from others real life experiences!

The EIT Food Summer School is organized by: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland), Maspex (Poland), PepsiCo (UK), Technion – Israel Institute of Technology (Israel), University of Warsaw (Poland)

Programme summary

30 students and graduates with different educational backgrounds from RIS countries will discover job opportunities in the food industry, by getting unique, professional, paid 3-months internships within the framework of RIS Fellowships project. Unlike other scholarship projects, the students and graduates will reveal their talents in agri-food sector, throughout gaining hands-on experiences and strengthening their job-related skills, including analytical thinking and creative problem solving.

Programme description

The RIS Fellowships project is dedicated to students and graduates of Msc., with different educational levels, educational and professional background, coming from different universities from 13 RIS countries. The selection process of candidates will be implemented as an open call, using clear and transparent selection criteria.

During multi-step recruitment process, candidates will not only learn how to professionally prepare outstanding LinkedIn profile but also will actively participate in unique networking and case study solving workshops led by EIT Hubs. Best selected 30 talents will get internships in different areas of operations in EIT Food consortium companies or RisingFoodStars companies. Interns will take learning-by-doing activities by solving real problematic situations that the companies in food industry are facing. All interns will be provided with a scholarship of 1000 EUR gross monthly.

Who should apply

RIS Fellowships project is looking for talents from higher education (student and graduates of Msc.) who will become future food sectors’ employees or will set up their own businesses. Young passionate people upon the return to their homes 13 RIS countries, will spur a wave of entrepreneurial innovations and support the development of the local agri-food ecosystem.

Best candidate for the RIS Fellowships project should:

• be a student or graduate of Msc, who is keen on discovering job opportunities in the food industry;
• be interested in challenges in agri-food sector in the entire value chain;
• be a person who is looking for taking up learning-by doing activities and developing job related-skills;
• have proactive attitude and be passionate about student extra activities;
• be eager to gain new experience, willing to learn and self-motivated;
• be aware of his/her strengths and knows how to present them;
• have analytical skills, be open-minded, goal-oriented and team player;
• be ready to work in an international environment and speaks English very well;
• could have a lack of work experience but has an entrepreneurial approach;
• be also interested in innovativeness and entrepreneurship and would like to share his/her interests with the local environment.

Benefits for candidates

• participation in professional recruitment process, with corporate background
• guidance on how to professionally prepare an online profile of the candidate – sophisticated ‘business card’ (or business portfolio) of a student entering the labor market – using LinkedIn social media platform
• participation in an exciting, engaging, interactive workshops, including real corporate case studies and individual tasks
• 3-months internship in EIT Food consortium companies or RisingFoodStars companies – start-ups association across Europe and from the entire food value chain
• taking an internship based on setting up an internship program
• 1000€/per month gross scholarship, based on an internship contract and a grant agreement
• mentor/buddy support and guidance during internships
• cooperation with professionals, experienced business employees in the agri-food area
• the opportunity to participate in learning-by-doing and inspiring projects
• get insight into different area of corporate operations
• the involvement of interns helped address actual food systems’s challenges.

Timeline of the programme

The online applications ended on 30/04/2018. A more detailed timeline description can be found on the project website: http://timo.wz.uw.edu.pl/risfellowships/

EIT Food’s Global Food Venture (GFV) programme supports 30 highly-motivated PhD students from across Europe to turn their innovative ideas into successful business propositions in the food & agtech space.

The programme will educate upcoming innovators in the area of entrepreneurship and business creation through an intensive 3 – week curriculum of tailored seminars and workshops spread out over a period of 6 months, Jun to Dec 2018. During this period, PhD students will leverage the knowledge and expertise of a diverse consortium of EIT Food partners and benefit greatly from a virtual mentoring scheme on entrepreneurship and the challenges of building a start-up (online meetings, 2 hours / month).

GFV participants will additionally have the unique opportunity to gain insight into two international innovation ecosystems (Israel and the Silicon Valley) and network with key players from the food & agtech space, in order to build and validate their value propositions and fuel innovation across food & agriculture in Europe.

The programme targets PhD students with an innovative start-up idea or with an early stage start-up (pre-seed) from the food & agtech space.

GFV is fully sponsored by EIT Food so that no financial contributions will be required by the participants.

Key activities and time scope:

• One-to-one virtual mentoring by a partner institute on how to start your start-up (time requirement 2 hours / month)

• 1 week bootcamp by TU Munich (starting 18 June)

• 1 week visit to Technion, Israel (starting 22 July)

• 1 week in San Francisco area visiting Silicon Valley and UC Davis (starting Nov 2018, TBD)

• 1 day conference in Paris with final pitches and best start-up awards (up to 50K Euro) by the EIT Food Business Creation (Dec 2018, TBD)

Are you ready to embark on a new and challenging venture? Join this programme to gain all necessary skills and tools required to learn how to build your start-up!

Application phase is now open, deadline May 7 2018

Everything you need to know

Who should apply?

PhD students from any European Institute or H2020 associated countries can enter the programme with a start-up idea or with an early stage start-up (pre-seed) in the food & agtech space.

PhD students who have completed their studies in the 2nd half of 2017 or students planning to join a PhD programme within 2018 are also eligible to apply for the Global Food Venture.

Why should you apply?

The Global Food Venture programme will strengthen your entrepreneurial spirit and help you improve  your entrepreneurship and business creation skills. You will learn about the process and challenges of building a start-up and be supported by a mentor for a period of at least 6 months. You will visit established agrifood companies, start-up incubators or accelerators and gain access to an international network of food & agtech experts, mentors and investors to help you validate your idea and embark on a journey to become yourself a successful entrepreneur.

The programme is independent of your PhD studies at your research institute and free of costs for the participants.

Learning objectives & outcomes

You will have seminars and workshops in business creation: Product development, Market research, Start-up finances, Team building, Lean start-up and the Business model canvas etc

You will learn about internationalization, different innovation cultures and explore yourself two key international ecosystems

You will design and validate your value proposition

You will learn how to communicate your idea effectively to a wider audience through professional pitch trainers

You will develop your start-up strategy, create your business model and have the chance to win a best start-up award of up to 50K Euro

 Timeline of the programme and locations

How can I apply

Document requirements: Motivation letter (max 1 page), CV (max 2 pages), Video pitch of 1 min and Start-up description (template to download)

Please, send your application documents to the globalfoodventure@eitfood.eu

Deadline for application

May 7 2018! Successful applicants will be notified at the latest end of May 2018

What are the evaluation criteria

Innovative idea and/or early stage technology from the agrifood value chain with potential impact in the field

Potential to commercialise or demonstrated market need

Entrepreneurial mindset and motivation to bring the idea to the market

Likely benefit from the programme

Environmental sustainability and social impact of the idea

What are the costs?

The programme is fully funded by EIT Food. Successful candidates will receive a fellowship, which will be utilised to cover all of their mobility costs (travel, subsistence and attendance expenses)

Downloads

Global Food Venture Flyer