DIY ACCEL Voucher Scheme Guide for Applicants

1. Objective of the DIY ACCEL Project
DIY ACCEL Project is supported by the DSPF, part-financed by the European Union and the City of Vienna. The overall objective of the project is to enhance youth entrepreneurship and to showcase the path to successful funding for youth business projects. The specific objectives are to explore start-ups acceleration programmes in the different countries that are suitable for youth, to develop self-training and mentoring tool and to raise youth entrepreneurs preparedness to use accelerators as a funding source.

2. Objective and scope of the voucher scheme
The voucher scheme service will include start-up advice and development of a short (2-3 minute) demo video of the product/service of the successful applicant with the aim to help pitching to potential funding programmes (start-up accelerators). The main services included in the voucher scheme are:
1) Mentoring service of the selected ideas on successful pitching to acceleration programmes, including, where necessary (but not limited) mentoring on Intellectual Property Rights;
2) Development of a professional 2-3 minute demo video in accordance with the pitching requirements of acceleration programmes;
3) Presentation of the developed business ideas during a demo day to be held in Greece.

One voucher value is of maximum 1000 EUR. Maximum 5 business ideas will be selected and supported under the voucher scheme. The best 3 ideas showing high level of maturity will be given the opportunity to present in person to the demo event in front of representatives of acceleration programmes.

3. Eligibility Criteria
The service is dedicated to young people 15-24 years of age (UN youth age) that are willing to start their own business and have a feasible business idea.

The administrative criteria for selection are as follows:
1) The team members of the start-up have completed or are enrolled for completion of a minimum secondary stage of education;
2) The team members are not under persecution and are not convicted of crime in accordance with the national and EU legislation;
3) All necessary documents are correctly filled-in and are submitted within the deadline;
4) In case of a youth start-up of team members of age below 18 years, a written declaration of consent has to be provided by the parents;
5) In case of a youth start-up of team members of age below 18, non-conviction record must be provided by both parents of the respective team members upon selection of the project.

4. Necessary Documents
The application pack consists of the following documents that need to be provided:
1) Duly filled-in application form (template);
2) Non conviction document issued by the relevant court institution for each of the team members (or by both parents in case of age below 18 of a team member) – to be provided upon successful selection for the voucher scheme;
3) CVs of the team members of the start-up;
4) Copy of start-up trade register number;
5) Supporting documents proving the viability of the business idea (pictures, test results, records, etc.);
6) Proof of performing the self-test exercise on readiness to apply to acceleration programmes on the following link: https://accel.smebg.net/self-assessment/
7) Written declaration of consent to apply signed by both parents for each team member that has not completed 18 years of age.
8) GDPR declaration of consent to process personal data signed by each team member.

5. Selection process
Evaluation of applications will be made by 3 experts that are independent of each other, does not know who the other evaluators in the scheme are and will not meet in person. They will sign an impartiality and lack of conflict of interest declaration in accordance with the EU legislation prior to being provided the assessment documents of the business ideas.

The experts panel will be different for each country of the DIY ACCEL project and will include 1 technical expert (an expert with engineering background or technical background related to the topic of the proposal, including with an academic background in the field), 1 economic expert and 1 representative of the project partner with experience or having worked on start-up support projects.

Experts will communicate only with the project partner and will not communicate among themselves. They will provide an independent evaluation of the applicants business ideas based on a set of criteria listed below. Upon necessity, an expert with an intellectual property protection background can be consulted by the partners. Each expert will award a number of defined points on each criterion with a short argumentation. If evaluation of assessments varies significantly among experts, detailed argumentation will be asked for from the experts.

The selected young entrepreneurs will be publicly announced and the list of applicants with awarded points will be made available. Project Partners will conclude agreements with the selected entrepreneurs for provision of the services regulating the commitment of the entrepreneur to use the service and to provide follow-up information.

6. Selection criteria
The applications will be assessed as follows: