14th Innovation and Technology Competition (Greece)

The annual innovation and technology competition is an action of the National Bank of Greece (NBG) Business Seeds program to support innovative entrepreneurship. It is organized every year to guide, highlight and reward original ideas that will contribute to the development of pioneering systems and applications, based on new technologies, to the integration of the environmental dimension into the design of products and services, to the spread of the use of electronic banking and of electronic transactions and more generally in the promotion of innovation in Greece.

Themes

• Electronic Entrepreneurship
  • The entries in this section are about electronic entrepreneurship in all areas of activity: banking/ commercial/ tourism/ agricultural/ shipping/ transport/ publishing/ technological/ educational/ biomedical etc.
  • Indicative works and services such as:
    • Innovative cloud, programming, communication and marketing systems, simulators, biotechnology and biomedical systems.
    • electronic stores (e-shops, marketplaces), electronic auctions (e-auctions),
    • electronic procurement (e-procurement),
    • the electronic financial supply chain (fintech, e-financial supply chain),
    • the alternative banking networks (mobile banking, internet banking, ATM,) serving electronic transactions, payments as well as automated payments through bank accounts, to natural or legal persons.
• Environment and Technology
  • Participants in this module are invited to develop technological ideas and applications, which are ESG-related, environmentally friendly and aimed at reducing pollution, the circular economy, tackling climate change, saving energy and producing electricity energy from renewable sources.
• Culture and Technology
  • Participants in this module are invited to develop innovative technological ideas and applications, which promote culture and aim to implement actions:
    • Information about cultural institutions (museums, galleries, schools, etc.) and cultural events (events, festivals, etc.).
    • Recording, handling, recording, archiving, cultural processing data (images, sound, texts).
    • Operation, organization and management of cultural organizations and events.
    • Social entrepreneurship with a strong technology axis.

Focus Areas

• Agriculture
• Energy
• Innovation
• Society
• Environment
• Health
• Tourism
• Civilization
• Technology
• Fintech

Details

• Display to the press
  • You can win exposure in print and online as long as you are one of the 10 winners.
• Guidance for all 
  • To grow your business properly, you need someone to support you. From advice to practical guidance, they are there for all participants.
• Information days
  • You have the opportunity to participate in thematic guidance, information and networking days in Fintech, health, technology, agri-food, energy-environment, culture, tourism and women’s entrepreneurship that they organize together with the partners.
• 4 day bootcamps
  • Visit 1 of the 4 bootcamps they organize together with a series of other actions in Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras and Heraklion. The mentors of the program in collaboration with the executives of the bank, the Fund, but also entrepreneurs in your area they give useful advice and guidance for the next steps of your idea or company.
• Online bootcamp
  • In addition to the bootcamps in 4 major Greek cities, they also organize a four-month online bootcamp in which selected groups from all over Greece can participate.

Prize Information

• If your idea, business plan or company is shortlisted, then you can claim an amount from the €49,000 in total awarded in prizes.
• The first four winners will receive:
  • 1st Prize 20,000 euros
  • 2nd Prize 10,000 euros
  • 3rd Prize 6,000 euros
  • 4th Prize 4,000 euros
• Six prizes of 1,500 euros each will be awarded to those who qualified in Phase 3, excluding those who received the above A’, B’, C’, D’ awards except those who received the above awards.

Criteria

• Each participant must carefully read the present conditions before registering and submitting their proposal.
• Participation in the Competition implies the unconditional acceptance of all without exception of the terms of the Competition and the relative commitment of the participants.
• Participation in the Competition is carried out by the electronic submission of the Proposal Submission Form.
• My legal and permanent natural person can participate in the Competition a resident of Greece, a citizen of Cyprus or another Community citizen or a Greek abroad, 18 years of age or older on the deadline for submission of proposals.
• The participants in the Contest bear the full and exclusive responsibility for registration or any other protection of their submitted proposals as well as the rights deriving from them.
• Those interested can participate in the Competition individually or in groups. In in the case of ‘group participation”, the representative of the group, who will also be the contact person, as well as its other members, must be declared (as a whole, the group can consist of a maximum of five  people). For the declaration of the personal details of the group members, the representative of this group declares that he has received the previous written order and authorization of each of them for the purpose of the Competition, which he is obliged to make available to the Organiser, whenever requested.
• The Organizer may, at any stage of the Competition, request the relevant documents (identity, passport, residence permit, etc.) for cross-checking or certification of the participants’ information in accordance with the above conditions.
• In the event of a false statement being submitted. the Organizer bears no responsibility, and reserves the right to reject participation in any phase of the Competition.
• Proposals that contain illegal or immoral content are excluded by the Competition. Proposals that are not related to any of the thematic sections. as described in the next section are also excluded.
• The following cannot participate in the Competition: the employees of the Organizer and its Group companies, the members of the Competition Committees, as well as the spouses and relatives up to the 2nd degree of the aforementioned.
• Any form or other material — part of the proposal that will be submitted in the context of the Competition, will not be returned to the participant(s).
• Any costs of preparing the proposals submitted to the Competition (e.g. cost of mock-up, pilot, etc.) are borne exclusively by the participants.
• Winners of contests selected by the Organizer may participate directly in Phase B of the Contest as well as those who qualify through Phase A of the Contest.
• Directly in the Second Phase of the Competition, in addition to those qualified through the First Phase of the Competition, groups or individuals who have been nominated by organizations collaborating with the Organizer whose selection has been made after an evaluation by the partner, can also participate carrier.

For more information, visit National Bank of Greece.