- GENERAL CONDITIONS
- 1.1 Requester: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ), Office Tirana, Rr. Skenderbej No. 21/1
1.2 Profile: Within the context of bilateral development cooperation, the Republic of Albania and the Federal Republic of Germany agreed on the joint implementation of the “Sustainable Economic and Regional Development, Employment Promotion and Vocational Education and Training” program (short: ProSEED) in 2016. The overarching aim is to improve the employment situation of the workforce and self-employed, particularly of skilled youth, in the Albanian labor market. The Government of Germany has thereby charged GIZ with the execution of the project.
The program has since its initial commissioning been amended three times, in that it currently runs from 01/2017 until 03/2022 with a total volume of EUR 20.9 million. The program has five components: (i) Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), (ii) Promotion of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), (iii) Social participation of youth and minorities, (iv) Strategies and frameworks for regional development, economic growth and employment and (v) Promotion of the innovation system.
In 2018, with the latest amendment, the European Union (EU) contributed funds under the framework of the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA II) 2014-2020 for the Competitiveness and Innovation (C&I) Sector. The delegated agreement-based co-financing extended the program by including measures to encourage innovative start-ups and to strengthen a corresponding environment (ecosystem) for start-ups and growing companies. As such, a fifth component was added to the ProSEED program and has been named “EU for Innovation”.
Funded by the European Union, and with additional support from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) as well as the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), the “EU for Innovation” project supports the capacity for innovation among the innovation ecosystem actors (start-ups, innovation support providers and policy-makers), builds linkages within the Albanian innovation ecosystem and internationally, and funds innovative start-ups and innovation support providers. The project runs until September 2021 and is implemented by GIZ and the Swedish Embassy Tirana.
- SUBJECT
EU for Innovation is capitalizing on the experiences of the last two accelerator programmes (pilot phase of the Flexible Start-up Support Programme and Uplift Albania) and lessons learned so far, and is aiming is to identify a group of high potential start-ups in the validation and growth phases and support them by offering an accelerator programme. The successful bidder shall be an Innovation Supporting Organization (ISO) that will translate the experience above into few Modules to be provided by the ISO at their facility. The programme must offer practical and directly applicable support for start-ups and shall involve and combine local, regional and/or international expertise, by identifying and selecting the experts and mentors that would carry out the Module trainings and other planned activities. The partner ISO must work closely with the international experts to further develop their capacities for organizing such activities themselves in the future.
Parallel to the accelerator programme, the ISO shall design, develop and implement the “Flexible Plus” Programme, as a follow up support for the alumni of the previous accelerators in Albania, as well as other start-ups that have completed acceleration programmes and/or have fully developed (Minimum Viable Products) MVPs. This program must follow a strict one-on-one approach to further support and develop the selected start-ups according to their specific needs.
- ELIGIBILITY
Participation is open to all legal persons (participating either individually or in a grouping — consortium — of tenderers) which are effectively established in Albania.
All legal entities interested in the application process should ask for application forms to the address: [email protected]
- DEADLINE
The due date for submitting the application is 8 July 2020. The documents should be submitted in a sealed envelope, marked “Application for prequalification: Development and implementation of an accelerator program and of a “Flexible Plus” program, as a follow up support for the alumni of the previous accelerators in Albania” to:
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) Office Tirana, Rr. Skenderbej No. 21/1, Tirane
After the due date for submitting the application, the process of prequalification will follow. The submitted applications will be evaluated, and only prequalified candidates will be invited to answer the bid. All written communication for this procedure and the following successful ones must be in English.
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