GREEN TECH LABS (GTL) – a 27-month European Climate Initiative (EUKI) Project – officially kicked off in November 2020 with the aim to empower green start-ups for climate protection and sustainability in Germany, Greece, Slovakia and Spain.

Briefly, the project will spearhead the establishment of 7 Green Tech labs; 4 local, 2 mobile and 1 virtual Green Tech Labs, based on a strong European network to support green start-ups in the target regions and to inspire green start-up ideas transregionally. Adapted to the special needs of the regions, the project team will develop and implement consultancy and training measures co-creatively and transculturally. The exchange of best practices and green know-how will be instituted and will motivate new ideas in the different regions.

The primary objective is to create new service and product ideas based on new technical solutions for climate protection and sustainability. The new services and products will enhance transition to low emission economies and create new employment opportunities. The support structures in the local and mobile labs will be set up in 4 regions (in 3 countries) of Europe suffering from youth unemployment and promoting potential founders in the local areas. The virtual platform and the local or mobile startup centers will provide entrepreneurship and technical training, start-up support, and network formation. At least 10 potential founders in each region are to be accompanied in the process of implementing green business or project ideas.

The overall goal of the project thus far is to enhance the implementation of the EU climate and energy framework, to use ecological innovations for economic stabilisation, to reduce unemployment and to strengthen social balance. Slovakia, Spain and Greece have high unemployment rates yet they have a lot of green-tech know-how and great potential to foster the economy with new green-tech solutions but few businesses see their opportunities in innovative, sustainable products and services. GTL was therefore established to right his wrong by establishing a platform on which those founders can break through to the market with their ideas and scale.

The project will be coordinated by FiAP e.v with the help of 3 implementing partners that will ensure the success of the project, and these include; PEDAL Consulting s.r.o,  Deutsch-Griechische Industrie und Handelskammer/German-Hellenic Chamber of Industry and Commerce, the City Council of Cadiz, Department of Energy Transition of the City Council of Cadiz and the Asociación de Investigación y Cooperación Industrial de Andalucía (AICIA)/Departamento de Ingeneria Energetica (Association of industrial research and cooperation of Andalusia/Department of Energy Engineering).