The first event for the European Youth Entrepreneurship Week in Kozani took place in a full auditorium, at the ZEP Campus of the University of Western Macedonia, on the afternoon of Monday, March 11.

With the slogan “Development of a Local Ecosystem of Young Businesses in a Region of Just Transition”, the event was organized by UoWM, co-organized with the Region of Western Macedonia, AN.KO. of Western Macedonia and the Chamber of Kozani.

The Rector of the University of Western Macedonia, Professor Theodoros Theodoulidis, emphasized that the University has strongly supported the rapid development of the innovation and technology ecosystem in the Region of Western Macedonia. Four years ago, there was only one company operating in the Region, and today 17 companies are producing work, indicating the rapid improvement of the Region’s innovation index.

He also pointed out that PDM has supported the creation and development of 11 spin-offs within it in the last two years. It coordinates the Digital Innovation Hub of Western Macedonia – SYNERGiNN EDIH which supports public sector organizations and services as well as businesses to respond to digital challenges and become more competitive. At the same time, PDM participates in the European Digital Innovation Hub for “Smart Health: Precision Medicine and Innovative Electronic Health Services (smartHEALTH)” and is proceeding with the implementation of flagship projects.

During the event, presentations were made by Fotis Tsambouris, Project Manager of PDM, Nikolaos Ploskas, Associate Professor of PDM and coordinator of SYNERGiNN EDIH, Pantelis Angelidis, Professor and Dean of the Polytechnic School of PDM, Dimitrios Mavromatidis, Director of the Regional Development Fund of Western Macedonia, Liana Papaterpou, Executive of AN.KO. of Western Macedonia and Grigoris Chatzikostas from Loggerhead Ventures.

Representatives of 17 start-up companies from Western Macedonia presented their profile and their work to date:

  • MetaMind Innovations I.K.E. (Panagiotis Sarigiannidis)
  • SURE SA (Olga Markogiannakis)
  • RED Consulting (Ioannis Bakouros)
  • ACTIVECODE (Georgios Kokkonis)
  • OMEGA INNOVATIONS (Stelios Kraunakis)
  • INSYS I.K.E. (Angelos Michalas, Ioannis Vardakas, Dimitrios Vergados, Spyridon Nikolaou)
  • COMPONOUS (Kosmas and Nikolaos Tiriakidis)
  • KEYVOTO (Giorgos Papadimitriou)
  • I3S Labs (Panagiotis Sarigiannidis)
  • INNOVATION BEE (Christos Roumeliotis, Vassilis Balafas)
  • Proud Farm (Nikos Koltsidas)
  • Pimenas (Nikos Koltsidas)
  • Clean Energy (Nikos Margaritis)
  • REDI ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS (Sotiria Stefanidou)
  • Gnosis Assessment Hellas SA (Giorgos Dokos)
  • SUSTENERGO (Vivi Gourka)
  • ETELEO (Ermina Lazaridou)

*The European week for the encouragement of entrepreneurship, Start Up Europe Week, is held with the support of the European Commission at the same time in a large number of European cities every year. It brings the public and private sector into contact with active start-ups and at the same time supports and encourages the creation of new start-ups, informing about available financing tools, networking possibilities and development opportunities in the region.