Seven start-ups from UK, Italy, France, Estonia and Austria were selected to be part of the first round of companies benefiting from the Open Data Incubator for Europe (ODINE). This two-year programme awarded EUR 650 000 in total to the companies, which can receive up to EUR 100 000 each.
In 2014, the Open Data Incubator for Europe received the support of the European Union, which invested €7,8 million in the project, though its 2020 Horizon programme. ODINE is based on the UK Open data Institute model of start-up incubator. Open Data Institute (ODI), the University of Southampton, the Open Knowledge Foundation (Germany) Telefónica, Fraunhofer and The Guardian are partners of this initiative.
Being enrolled in ODINE will also give start-ups access to a wider package, which includes peer-networking, coaching and experts, mentorship, investors, datasets and technology among other things. Their incubation period will last six months. Every two months, a new range of start-ups will be selected and included in the programme up until August 2016. 50 to 70 companies will be awarded over the next two years.
“Tracking of infectious diseases to a marketplace for bio-waste”
Winners are all data-related companies and use open data as one of the basis of their applications or services. “Our first ODINE winners, some of Europe’s top innovators, are using open data in order to create solutions that otherwise wouldn’t exist – everything from the tracking of infectious disease, to creating an e-marketplace for bio-waste », Ulrich Atz, start-up programme manager at the ODI, commented in a statement.
A marketplace to help companies to recycle their bio-waste, a search engine for the Internet of thing, a price comparison engine for raw materials, statistical analysis and tracking of infectious illnesses among children or a platform to promote biking in urban environment, are among the projects which participated in this programme.