Accelerate the growth of your deep tech startup with €60,000 in support and access to top-tier mentorship
Are you a female founder of a deep tech startup from one of the 16 European countries with emerging innovation ecosystems? Join the EPIC-X project and seize the opportunity to receive €60,000 in support and access to world-class mentorship.
The open call launches in August 2025, so don’t miss your chance to bring your innovation to the forefront of Europe.
What do you get as a selected participant?
In August 2025, 20 promising deep tech startups led by women will be selected, which will get access to:
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€40,000 in grant funding to develop your solution,
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€20,000 in vouchers to access expert services,
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A place in the exclusive Acceleration+ programme.
The Acceleration+ programme (6 months of intensive support) includes:
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A personalised roadmap tailored to your vision and goals,
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Monthly operational support sessions and 1:1 mentoring from over 100 top experts,
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Masterclasses, meetups, and intensive networking with innovators across Europe,
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Access to investors and innovation ecosystems,
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Demo Day to showcase your progress in a pitch and scale your venture.
This programme gives you the tools to not only accelerate your deep tech solution but also to strategically position it in the European market.
Why EPIC-X?
EPIC-X aims to reshape the European innovation landscape by putting women-led deep tech innovation at the centre of change.
Our key objectives:
- Activating, expanding and connecting interregional innovation ecosystems to help startups grow collaboratively, not in isolation,
- Increasing the market footprint for European women-led startups in digitalisation and deep tech with greater access to markets and capital,
- Involving underrepresented regions and stakeholders in the innovation process and improve their connectivity,
- Fostering collaboration for a more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient world.
Who's behind the project?
EPIC-X is a pan-European initiative bringing together 13 organisations from 16 EU countries. Startup Slovenia is among them, ensuring that innovators from Slovenia can benefit from this opportunity.
Want to be one of the selected startups?
Applications open in August 2025. Leave us your contact details, and we’ll notify you as soon as the call is live.
What is EPIC-X?
EPIC-X is a 24 months Horizon project which aims to accelerate excellence by connecting regional innovation ecosystems across the EU, building on strategic areas of regional strength and specialization, while addressing the innovation divide and underrepresentation of talent within the European Union.
The initiative focuses on empowering and supporting women-led start-ups in the deep technology sector across 16 'moderate' and 'emerging' innovator countries in the EU (Slovenia, Portugal, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Italy, Poland, Lithuania, and the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Estonia, Croatia, Malta, Latvia, Greece, and Spain).
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union and therefore the European Union cannot be held responsible for them.
