Impact Pioneers Programme: Enabling Climate Tech Entrepreneurship

Impact Pioneers ’25 is a leadership programme that sets out to convene leaders and enablers working in organisations and networks seeking to promote the nurture and growth of local entrepreneurship and innovation. The programme takes a starting point in the idea that entrepreneurship is a key driver of both economic and social development, as well as a force that can help accelerate the global green transition.

The programme runs across 8 weeks, mixing weekly online sessions with a one-week onsite summit in Stockholm in October 2025.

Objectives

• The shortterm programme objective of the programme is to strengthen capacity among leaders and enablers working in organisations and networks seeking to promote the nurture and growth of local Climate Tech entrepreneurship. By enabling the exchange and sharing of perspectives, cases, tools and frameworks the aspiration is to grow collective efforts and impact. A central component of the programme is also networking across an international cohort of peers and with the Swedish ecosystem. This component is key, as is the programme hopes to plant seeds for future partnerships, to the benefit of Climate Tech startups and scaleups as they seek to expand their growth, reach and overall impact.
• The longterm programme objective is connected the SDG 8, target 8.3, which includes promotion of activities and policies that support entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation to encourage the formalization and growth of micro-, small- and mediumsized enterprises, ultimately contributing to job creation and sustainable economic, social and environmental development.

Thematic Focus

• The thematic focus of 2025 is ‘Enabling Climate Tech Entrepreneurship’, with ‘Climate Tech’ referring to technologies developed and used with the explicit purpose to help people, governments and others both address the sources and impacts of climate change.

Costs Covered 

• The Swedish institute arranges and covers costs related to:
  • Learning programme
  • Flights to and from Sweden for the Sweden week onsite visit
  • Accommodation, meals, transportation and insurance while in Sweden
• Participants from Saudi Arabia carry their own costs for flights and accommodation, given that Saudi Arabia is not part of Swedish development cooperation funding agreements.

Benefits

• Impact Pioneers’25 offers participants the opportunity to:
  • Grow from the exchange of experiences with an international community of peers.
  • Be supported and inspired by new insights from the Climate Tech Entrepreneurship and Innovation forefront, such as practical cases, tools and frameworks.
  • Get first-hand experience of the entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem in Stockholm and Sweden, recognised as one of the leading ecosystems in the impact entrepreneurship domain.
  • Build long-term relations with Swedish foreign missions as well as Swedish entrepreneurs and organisations that seek to expand international reach, growth and impact.

Eligibility Criteria

• The application is open to entrepreneurship ecosystem leaders and practitioners who work in organizations and networks that want to develop their support for entrepreneurs with businesses related to sustainablility and green transition. More specifially, they imagine applicants to work as:
  • Startup hub/accelerator/incubation founders and managers
  • Tech and innovation hub founders and managers
  • University accelerator/incubator managers
  • Public sector employees involved in work that supports Climate Tech entrepreneurship
• In 2025, the application is open to 26 programme countries (applicants must be a citizen and resident of one of them):
  • AFRICA: Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda, South Africa, Zambia
  • ASIA: Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam
  • EUROPE: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Sweden, Ukraine, Türkiye
  • MENA: Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia
  • Ukrainian applicants who reside outside of Ukraine are also eligible to apply.
• Applicants must meet the following requirements:
  • Be a citizen and resident of one of the 26 programme countries
  • Work in an organisation or business systematically working to nurture and grow entrepreneurs.
  • Have the mandate to develop new international partnerships for your organisation/business.
  • Have a good working knowledge of both written and spoken English.
  • Be willing to actively participate, provide support and share their experience and knowledge with other participants.
  • Have identified opportunities and challenges that could be worked on during the programme to help their organisation improve its contribution to the local Climate Tech entrepreneurship ecosystem
• An applicant’s home organisation/business must also meet the following requirements:
  • Be locally owned and based in one of the programme countries.
  • Be somehow hosting/coaching (or be in the process of starting up hosting/coaching of) entrepreneurs with business ideas that are related to sustainability and green transition.
  • Run the organization/business with focus on contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals.

Ineligibility Criteria

• Governmental employees in Georgia are not eligible to apply.

For more information, visit Swedish Institute.