The CivTech Alliance – the sister-programme of CivTech, the Scottish Government’s flagship innovation accelerator – is calling on green tech companies from across the world to apply for the second round of its climate-focused global scale-up initiative.
CivTech Alliance’s Global Scale-Up Programme 2.0 (GSUP 2.0) will “build on the success” of the programme from last year, to help source, surface and scale climate tech solutions.
Its GSUP scheme draws together leading global innovation programmes and up to 20 high-growth firms from around the world to address climate challenges.
Successful companies will be given access to policymakers, procurers and investors across regional ecosystems through a series of engagement sessions, before presenting at events coinciding with the COP27 climate change conference in Egypt in November.
It follows the success of last year’s programme, which brought together 18 companies, eight governments and three academic institutions from 10 countries, in the lead up to Cop26 in Glasgow.
Several firms have since gone on to secure multimillion dollar contracts, including environmental consultancy Brasil Mata Viva, which won a $2m-$5m deal with a Brazilian state. Meanwhile, vehicle routing and management company, The Routing Company, raised $15m through a series A funding round led by the Climate Impact fund.
Alexander Holt, who established the CivTech Alliance in 2020, urged Scottish green tech and gov tech scale-ups interested in applying to join GSUP’s virtual engagement sessions scheduled for 24 May and 31 May. The deadline for applications is 6 June.
Holt said: “This is our second year of this hugely exciting and highly innovative award-winning programme.
“Last year, we selected eighteen companies from nine countries and during a seven-week Scale-up Safari preceding Cop26, we scheduled sixty-nine engagement sessions with policymakers and procurers and investors and innovators, across our ten participating Alliance member countries.
“Over two hundred introductions were made across one hundred and two organisations, including NASA’s Open Innovation team, top researchers in the fields of sustainability, ministers of environment and international trade and gatekeepers of the €500 million German Family Office Funds.”
GSUP 2.0 will seek to solve two public sector challenges.
The first, ‘Adaptation and Green Growth’, will explore how communities can use data and technology to make ‘nature-smart’ choices and drive scalable green growth. The second, ‘Green Public Procurement’, is about how data and technology help the public sector procure greener services and reduce the environmental impact of the supply chain.
Holt added: “This year we want to really build on the policymaker community of practice, so if you’re a policymaker in the adaptation or natural capital space, or understanding about green public procurement, then do get in touch.”
This year’s programme teams are based in the US, Brazil, Lithuania, Poland, Denmark, Spain, Scotland and Australia – as well as newcomers Ireland and Greece. More are expected to confirm their participation.
Successful applicants to the programme will be announced in early July.
Companies can apply online. The deadline for applications is 6 June.
CivTech Scotland will be launching CivTech 7 at the end of the month with its next round of contract opportunities here in Scotland. https://www.civtech.scot/civtech-7