Application Deadline: May 31st, 2024
Impact Pioneers is a leadership programme that welcomes you to exchange experiences with an international network of peers and gain first hand insights and experience from Sweden’s most successful impact entrepreneurship leaders and environments. The programme mixes online learning modules with a one-week onsite summit in Stockholm.
Impact Pioneers’24 seeks to strengthen leaders and enablers working in organisations and networks that want to promote the nurture and growth of local impact entrepreneurship. The programme aims to grow participants skillset through exchange of experiences, perspectives, cases, tools and frameworks. A central component of the programme is also networking across an international cohort of peers and with the Swedish impact entrepreneurship ecosystem. This component is key, as is the programme hopes to plant seeds for future partnerships, to the benefit of impact startups and scaleups as they seek to expand their growth, reach and overall impact.
Impact Pioneers 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 Impact entrepreneurship and Impact innovation forefront, such as practical cases, tools and frameworks.
- Get first-hand experience of the Impact entrepreneurship community in Stockholm, recognised as one of the leading ecosystems in the impact entrepreneurship domain.
- Build long-term relations with Swedish foreign missions and Swedish Impact entrepreneurs that seek to expand their international reach, growth and impact.
Requirements
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, SI 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 impact entrepreneurship
The application is open to 22 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*
Applicants must meet the following requirements:
- Be a citizen and resident of one of the 22 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 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.
Benefits
Commitment and expectations
Impact Pioneers is scheduled to run across eight weeks, from late August through October 2024. A final schedule and timeline will be provided upon acceptance to the programme.
- Participants should be prepared to spend around two hours per week in online activities such as participating in sharing sessions and working an idea for a collaboration project.
- As a participant, you should also be able to join the one week summit onsite in Stockholm in October.
Participation in Impact Pioneers is free of charge. 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
Timeline:
- Late August/early September: Kick-off and weekly online activity/sessions
- 21-25 October (excluding travel days): 1 week onsite experience in Stockholm, Sweden
- Early November: End of weekly online activity/sessions (collaboration/exchange to continue in other ways)
For More Information:
Visit the Official Webpage of the Impact Pioneers ’24: Enabling Impact Entrepreneurship Program