Business Development Expert: EWA and Supernovas

General objectives:

EIT Food is launching a request for proposals to contract a Business Development Expert to support the strategic development of two key gender-focused initiatives.

• EWA (Empowering Women in Agrifood) – an EIT Food programme that supports early-stage female entrepreneurs in the agrifood sector across Europe.
• Supernovas – a cross-EIT (Food, Urban Mobility and Manufacturing) initiative that supports women entrepreneurs and investors, with the aim of fostering women presence in the ecosystem.

Both initiatives promote gender equality in the innovation ecosystem. This assignment will define mid-term strategies, develop funding models, map participant pathways into broader EIT Food support offers, and identify synergies between the two programmes. Detailed work scope:

Main tasks:

• Develop a 2–3-year strategic roadmap for EWA, including funnel design, target countries for expansion and alignment with internal KPIs.
• Define a financial sustainability strategy for both EWA and Supernovas, exploring diverse funding sources (grants, sponsorship, co-financing).
• Map participant pathways from EWA and Supernovas into other EIT Food initiatives.
• Identify cross-programme synergies to improve resource efficiency and strategic positioning.
• Facilitate up to 3 internal/external workshops to validate findings and co-develop strategy.

Key Outputs:

• Strategic Plan for EWA (including funnel logic, expansion strategy, KPI alignment, financial model, and synergy opportunities).
• Financial Sustainability & Synergy Report (for both EWA and Supernovas).
• Integrated Participant Pathways Plan (maps transitions into other EIT Food programmes).
• Strategic Communication Materials (including pitch decks and internal presentations)