During the event were presented several programs available to Turkish organizations
During the EPSI Turkish webinar were presented funding opportunities in the field of sports innovation to local stakeholders from the country.
The event started with a greeting from Sebastiano Lommi (junior director of EPSI) who thanked the participants. After that Alberto Bichi, the co-executive director of EPSI presented the network and how it works and thanked Sebahattin Deveciouglu for the efforts for promoting the EPSI activities among Turkish stakeholders. After that Sebahattin took the floor to thank all the participants and the EPSI team and continued with his presentation about innovation in sports and how to acquire funding for it.
He introduced the concept of innovation and how this term is understood by different authors and economists and how it has developed over the years. Mr. Deveciouglu focused on what are the main drivers of innovation as a process and the main factors that influence it.
After that Sebastiano Lommi gave a presentation about EPSI, the scope of the network (132 members in 24 countries), and how the organization operates and provides an active representation of its members. He stated how EPSI manages to create synergies between the different stakeholders in the field of sports and a healthy lifestyle through the three main pillars of the organization – lobbying, funding, and business creation.
Sebastiano presented how:
- EPSI tries to put the sport on the map of political activities;
- EPSI helps its members to acquire funding by using a top-bottom approach (providing information about funding, project opportunities, and more) and a bottom-up approach by receiving concept notes with project ideas from EPSI members that are shared in the special Members Only Zone. These project ideas are reviewed by members that can show their interest and formed into project consortiums with the help of EPSI and the leader of the project idea. After that funding opportunities are discovered and a project proposal is drafted and submitted with the help of EPSI strategic partners;
- EPSI supports business opportunities for private entities by finding private investments and making business matches within EPSI members as well.
Sebastiano presented the results of EPSI fundraising efforts – 30 projects with over 17 million EUR in financing. He talked about the annual conference in Bergamo (17-19 October) and especially about the brokerage events and business-related sections of the program (business pitches and more). The Members Only Zone (MOZ) and its functionality were presented to all stakeholders that participated in the event.
After that Francisco Caetano, manager at the Deloitte Network presented currently available funding opportunities to Turkish organizations in sports. There are some specifics since the country is not an EU member but has been integrated into most of the funding mechanisms. Francisco focused on several specific mechanisms – Horizon, Erasmus, Innovation Fund, and more and he showed what is the application procedure for Horizon.
The webinar continued with a discussion between the panelists and participants and some Q&A on the topic of sports innovation and funding opportunities in the field.