The EU enhances collaboration with Sri Lanka’s innovation and start-up ecosystem actors

The European Union through the EU delegation to Sri Lanka launched in 2020 the EU-Sri Lanka Innovation Partnership (EU-SLIP) with the aim to foster innovation cooperation between Sri Lanka and Europe[1]. The Partnership was also open to innovators from India to benefit from regional cooperation. Fostering partnerships with Sri Lanka’s growing innovation and start-up ecosystem actors is seen as an important tool to strengthening mutually beneficial EU-Sri Lankan collaboration and the overall EU-Sri Lanka Partnership.

The EU-SLIP support action allowed to rely on a dynamic team of consultants/experts from the EU and South Asia – with extensive experience in coordinating international networking between researchers and innovation actors (incubators, accelerators and tech start-ups), and in facilitating corporate innovation calls and tech scouting opportunities that target researchers and start-up companies in Europe and South Asia.

Six key activities have been implemented as part of this initiative:

1. Creation of a network of EU-Sri Lankan incubators and accelerators
2. EU-South Asia Start-up Internationalization Helpdesk
3. EU-South Asia Corporate Innovation Platform
4. EU-South Asia Investor Platform
5. University Tech Commercialisation
6. EU Ecosystem Connect Support - Enterprise Europe Network
 

In the past twelve months, a diverse range of innovation stakeholders have benefited from the initiative, including incubators, start-ups and investors. In total, 15 European and Sri Lankan incubators/accelerators have joined the EU-SLIP incubator network, forming 9 ongoing incubator partnerships. The initiative has launched two thematic challenges, connecting actors in Europe and South Asia that focus on agricultural technology and on artificial intelligence.

The Start-up Helpdesk received over 55 start-up enquiries for internationalization support. While 45 start-ups were supported with generic networking and information support, 5 European and Sri Lankan start-ups were shortlisted and supported with Sri Lanka and Europe market access. A workshop was organized for start-up networking and international market access training.

The Investor Platform brought together 3 leading angel investor networks from Europe, India and Sri Lanka for a cross-border investor and start-up networking event. The event has been attended by 45 investors. During the event, 7 start-ups participated in investor pitching and got connected. Meetings have been facilitated between investors and between investors and start-ups.

EU-South Asia Corporate Innovation Platform involved 17 corporates, of which 3 corporates launched the tech scouting innovation calls targeting European, Indian and Sri Lankan start-ups.

Exchanges on University technology commercialisation needs have taken place with 2 Sri Lankan University Business Linkage Cells (UBLCs) and European universities. Furthermore, incubators/accelerators from Sri Lanka and Europe are expected to continue collaboration through Horizon Europe, and with support of the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN). A Sri Lankan consortium is being developed to become an EEN node in Sri Lanka.

H.E. Denis Chaibi, the EU Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives congratulated the partners on the progress and the tangible results achieved: “The EU-Sri Lanka Innovation Partnership initiative has proven to be a powerful platform for boosting innovation and business collaborations not only between the EU and Sri Lanka but also at regional level with the inclusion of many Indian partners.” He said “There is more work to do on digital transformation, investing in decarbonisation technologies, and socio-economic innovations to bring about positive change in people’s lives.” The EU is planning to enhance its green development cooperation with Sri Lanka and provide additional funding in the coming years to promote access to sustainable finance for the circular economy and biodiversity protection.

The initiative has been funded by the Directorate General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD) and the Directorate General for International Partnerships, European Commission (Brussels), and implemented in cooperation with Sri Lankan and Indian stakeholders (incubators, start-ups, investors, public sector and corporate organisations).

Email eu-srilanka@servicefacility.eu to find out more on how you can benefit from the EU-SLIP activities.

[1] 28 EU Member States and 16 countries associated to Horizon 2020