The ELEVATE project aims to accelerate entrepreneurship and innovation capacity in the fields of Food Biotech, Biomedicine, AI and Creative and Cultural Industries, fostering value creation, start-up generation, and knowledge-intensive solutions. By integrating expertise in these knowledge areas, ELEVATE fosters and supports the creation of sustainable business opportunities in an interdisciplinary, co-creation-driven environment. ELEVATE will enhance the competitiveness of HEIs by transforming internal structures that support technology transfer, innovation, entrepreneurship, and foster employability.

The project spans several EU regional ecosystems – Portugal’s North and Lisbon regions, Italy’s Friuli Venezia Giulia and Emilia Romagna regions, and Central Denmark – leveraging their distinct characteristics and existing structures to drive systematic transformation for long-lasting impact.

ELEVATE fosters collaboration across a diverse ecosystem of actors, including HEIs, industries, municipalities, innovation support structures and investors, to develop a co-creation community and ensure knowledge transfer across disciplines and sectors, placing students at the core of this ecosystem transformation.

Its methodology involves continuous engagement of the ecosystem actors and combines mixed training modalities, mentoring programs, and an acceleration programme to support the development of innovative solutions addressing key challenges in agri-food, health, ICT, and Creative Industries.

The ELEVATE training calendar includes a Core Programme specially designed to offer a mixed discipline environment with entrepreneurship skills and dedicated mentoring, complemented by summer schools and an array of training events encompassing competences related with digital business models, business innovation, marketing strategies, leadership, team building & social strategies, for students coming from different knowledge areas.

Funded by the European Union’s EIT HEI Initiative, ELEVATE will lay the foundation for long-term transformation, driving innovation and economic growth in these regions, while setting an enduring example for interdisciplinary entrepreneurship across Europe.