INSPIRE

INSPIRE was a free acceleration programme dedicated to teams, spin-offs, and startups in the seed, early stage, and early growth phases, aimed at promoting the creation and development of new businesses in Southern Italy.

The programme supported innovative solutions in the field of networks and integrated services, under the "Connecting the Unconnected" paradigm, based on technologies and/or platforms that enable the digitalisation of places, people, and devices (for example, Internet of Drones, Internet of Things, integration of terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks), networks and integrated services for the effective management of intelligent ecosystems (mobility, agriculture, health, networks), use of renewable energies, blockchain, artificial intelligence, cloud and edge computing, AR/VR, digital twin models in integrated networks and service architectures to connect places, things, and people.

Another sector of interest was Media, Entertainment & EdTech, through services and platforms for video streaming, podcasts, production and distribution of audiovisual content, gaming & eSports, EdTech, etc.

The initiative was promoted within the scope of the RESTART Programme – Spoke 2 "Integration of Networks and Services", funded by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) and the European Union – NextGenerationEU.

The programme, under the scientific coordination of the Polytechnic University of Bari, was born from the synergy between three leading players in the Italian innovation ecosystem: Giffoni Innovation Hub, Fabbrica Italiana dell’Innovazione and SPICI S.r.l., who worked in an integrated manner for the design, implementation, and consolidation of the acceleration path.

For the selected startups, INSPIRE offered entrepreneurial training services, one-to-one mentoring, open innovation initiatives, business matching, and networking events, fostering dialogue with the market and the innovation ecosystem.

Giffoni Innovation Hub acted as the lead of the project, handling general coordination, communication, and strategic design of the path. Fabbrica Italiana dell’Innovazione managed the executive design and operational management of the acceleration programme. SPICI S.r.l., as an accelerator, contributed to the analysis of sector needs and the organisation of open innovation, benchmarking, and matchmaking activities.