Applicant selection criteria

The aim for establishing these criteria is to identify participants whom to accept to the Smart Silver Lab Innovation Program. The goal is to qualify 5-10 participants/projects in each participating country (Latvia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Russia).

Mandatory requirements for the Applicants:

  1. Any legal organization or private person (no legal status limitations) can apply;
  2. A person or a team has a business idea or innovative project idea, or social innovation idea;
  3. The idea is related to the silver economy;
  4. The idea is related to one of the RIS3 priorities (information and communication technologies, health, medical and welfare technologies, senior employment and empowerment services, living space development solutions [infrastructure, transportation services, environment, housing, refurbishment]);
  5. The idea should not be violating EU rules for entrepreneurship support (according to the COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) No 1407/2013 - https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32013R1407)

Pitch criterion – quality assessment

Live online 5-minutes pitch/presentation of the proposal. This is the most important part for the Assessment of applicants to accept them to the Innovation Program. If the applicant qualifies through the mandatory requirements (1) to (5), then he/she is invited to the pitch session, which will be evaluated according to quality criteria by  the Assessment Committee. The highest evaluated participants will be accepted to the Program.

Assessment Committee

Chaired by CONNECT Latvia representative (no voting rights) and including at least four members (representing all quadruple helixe actors [academia, business, public administration and civil society] and chosen to include RIS3 priority areas).

Pitch session

The applicants will have to pitch their proposal in a 5-minutes format. The Assessment Committee will discuss/interview applicants after their pitch in order to provide evaluation as objective as possible.

Applications to be assessed applying the following criteria:

  1. Application and overall structure of presentation. Presentation has to be well organised and provide reasonable enough information to make judgement about applicant’s project. Weight of the criterion – 30%
  2. Quality of the team and entrepreneurial edge. Motivation, commitment and resilience. Willingness to listen, i.e. to be able to mentor/coach. Mix of people and competencies (both technical and business skills). Weight of the criterion – 20%
  3. Innovativeness of product or technology. There has to be some innovation. For this purpose innovation is defined as new product or idea, or change/adaptation of existing product for use in a new way or in a new market. Have you thought about the options to protect your intellectual property rights? Weight of the criterion – 25%
  4. Market potential. The problem to be solved or opportunity created. Is there a market, prospective size and geography. Value proposition and competitive advantage. Weight of the criterion – 25%

Each of the criteria is assessed on a 10-grade scale, from 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest). The total score of the application is the weighted sum of values of all 4 criteria.