SAIS 2 has concluded the evaluation process of the programme’s third call for proposals, the RE:Innovation challenge competition, in December 2020, with the SAIS 2 supervisory board deciding which of the projects will be receiving grant funding. 

Five projects were selected from 53 applications based on their solutions’ potential to strengthen innovation ecosystems’ resilience to system-wide shocks. The projects have been notified and are participating in market validation training provided by the SAIS 2 programme management office and Viridian PLC before finalising their work plans. 

Once the grant agreements are signed, the project teams will embark on a five-month implementation period to pilot test their solutions in a real-world environment.

“This was a tough competition, with many interesting proposals and competent teams,” says SAIS 2 Lead Expert Ilari Lindy. “Evaluators faced several difficult decisions, and many good proposals unfortunately did not score enough to get funded. These were all potential services and products that were ready for early-stage funding. We hope demand and supply can also meet outside the opportunity provided by SAIS 2 to allow for these solutions to come to fruition.”

Further information on the funded projects will be released upon the signing of their grant agreements.