How to run Open Calls, Cohorts, Innovation Groups, Technology Accelerators ...

Whatever you want to call it: Open Calls, Cohorts, Innovation Groups, Technology Accelerators... basically a method to deliver funds to small-medium companies like startups to encourage to adopt a specific technology, usually done with the help of public or private funds. An Open Call/Cohort has usually 5-6 participants / per funding stream and they usually apply for a common scope, however you can design it however you would like it.

 You cannot do it alone, you need a team, Allocate time for atleast the minimum resources and for contracting. 

 Cut the bullshit, and stick to the delivery, at minimum you need a PM and innovation lead or technical lead,

 Plan for some failures and anticipate the needs of the funding body, or better make them agree on a written document,          

 and foster innovation with your cohort group.  

Basically, it is a list of what I learned after running 11x Technology Accelerators, Cohorts, Innovation groups, Open Calls (8X Open Calls for Digital Supply Chain Hub, 1x for 5G Sonic Labs, 1x Verizon creative accelerators, 1x A*Star Aerospace programme- Singapore)

Core (minimum) Resource Requirements:
• - 20% Marketing Support (Mark.)
  To promote the open or closed call, generate interest, and support outreach communications.
• - 100% Innovation Lead / Practice Lead (IL/PL)
  This role engages with potential participants, fields questions, drafts necessary collateral for marketing, and helps define the scope of the open call. The position could be filled by an Innovation Manager or a specialized Project Manager.
• - 100% Dedicated Project or Programme Manager (PM)
  A separate resource fully focused on leading delivery once the selected projects begin.
• - 20-25% Legal Support (Legal)
  Essential for drafting contracts and ensuring all legal frameworks are in place.

Optional (but potentially critical) Resources:
• - Business Development (BD)
  Depending on complexity, BD may be needed to support partner engagement or sponsorship opportunities.
• - Technical Lead (TL)
  Particularly useful at the early stages of the open call or accelerator to help scope the technical requirements and guide participants toward feasible and innovative solutions.
• - Systems Architect (SA)
  Important if the project requires integration with existing systems or backend infrastructure.
• - Events & Marcomms (EM)
  Useful for organizing events, webinars, or communications efforts, depending on the scale and visibility of the programme.

Example of BAD resourcing: Placing the entire burden on the Programme Manager or PM to manage all aspects of the initiative—including marketing outreach, responding to participant queries, drafting legal contracts, and delivering the actual projects—is unsustainable and inefficient.

Obviously, it depends on a case-by-case basis—but the simpler, the better. Fewer moving parts mean less risk. Do not over prommise to the client or the funding body. The simpler and concise your scope of the open call/cohort is and the fewer moving parts/ people to engage the more likely you are going to succeed.

A Bad example: An Open Call with a tech participant that gets data from Manufacturing SMES and reports to a Industry Sponsor and gets advice from a Advisory Board !! - you have 5 moving parts here, wasting time and resources, just trying to please people rather focusing on delivery
A Good Example: An Open Call with a tech participant developing a technology + Industry sponsor ( only 2 moving parts) if you can reduce it even further, the better.

I'll say it again: Keep it simple, stupid. It's your responsibility to keep the process as lean as possible. For example, securing industry sponsors often involves contracting—data agreements, NDAs, etc.—especially when data needs to flow from the sponsor to the participant. In sectors like defense, NDAs and contractual agreements can take a minimum of 1–2 months to finalize

Assume a scenario where you are managing an accelerator programme or a funding stream through an open call, with the capacity to support 5–6 initiatives. Let's consider a case where an open call is issued under one accelerator or funding track, budgeted for 5-6 selected projects. you

• - Scoping - Resources (PM , IL, Legal, BD, Technical, SA depending on requirements) - definiing the scope of the open call/cohort.
• - Announcing Open Call - Resources (Marketing, IL): Typically heavily involved with the funding body at this stage, as well as marketing.
• - Drafting Legal Documents - Resources (PM, IL): Involvement depends on the funding body's requirements (public or private) and how the funding will be cascaded or distributed to the start-ups/SMEs.
• - Open Call Live (minimum 1 month) - Resources (IL, Marketing): This is the period when the Open Call is live and participants can submit their applications. Applications are typically submitted either through a document or via a dedicated platform such as Salesforce, Skipso, or Monday.com.
• - Judging Selection (2-3 weeks) - Resources (PM, IL, BD, Technical, SA): This phase involves participant evaluation, including judging, interviews, and final selection decisions.
• - Contracting (minimum 1 month) - Resources (PM, IL): It's usually effective to adopt a “take-it-or-leave-it” contracting approach, as otherwise each company may introduce their own terms and conditions. In the best-case scenario, contracting takes around one month—provided you're not working with large enterprises or defense companies. This timeline can be shortened if the process begins “at risk,” but it's important to clearly define boundaries and stopping conditions upfront
• - Kickoff meeting/ onboarding - All team All Participants - Good ideea to have it face to face but online is also good. Half day explaining all the intricates of your open call. If you any special legal/ financial requirements now it is a good time to tell them.
• - Delivery (technical developement) - Resources (PM, Technical, SA) - Monitoring
  Some template milestones
  • Milestones 1: Agreement signed, requirements established, equipement sent..ect... (10% of funds)
  • Technical milestone 1: initial concept established and agreed (20%)
  • Mid-Project review (30%)
  • Technical milestone 2 or Closing gate: Final product (40%)
• - Closing steps, including any report or presentation collection
• - Showcase / Investor event

Academic calls/ cohorts are very similar with small diferences. They tend to be more innovative and produce less market ready solutions (low TRL), plan for a continuation phase2 where the product beeing developed is brought to the market. They also tend to me more collaborative (many partners) and may require longer contracting time.

Assuming you'll run 2-3 Open Calls with 6-7 participants each: Even with the best planning in the world, achieving 100% success is a myth. Things will go sideways—startups might fold, drop out, or run into unexpected roadblocks. It's not a matter of if, but when. Especially in complex Open Calls, chasing 100% is setting the wrong benchmark. Aim for 90%. Hit 95%, and you're overdelivering. Reach 98%? That's excellence (exceeds expectations). I'll say it again: You will not hit 100%—and that's not failure, that's the nature of the beast.

The Programme Managers (PMs) should take ownership of the finances, given the many moving parts involved in Open Calls. Unless your team has the budget to include a dedicated finance resource full-time, financial oversight falls to the PMs by default. Support from the finance team may still be needed—particularly when it comes to preparing claims for the funding body. Would help if the tracking would happen in the same tool used for planning (Monday.com, Ms Project)

You going to need a tool for participants to apply and join the cohort/innovation group. For applications, this can be done using a simple email and template document, however you can also use a specialized tool like Skipso or developed especially like Valuechain, or others. For project management, most tools work but I would recomend one like Monday.com that you would be able to make the participants responsible for thier own milestones and have a shared experience. Ms Project is very difficult in doing that experience Here you can use AI tools and automate.

Legal participation agreements typically take at least a month to draft—regardless of the programme. Ideally, your Programme Manager should have some contracting know-how. When things go south—as they often do in complex, multi-company projects—the contract may be the only thing that protects you. The less time you allocate for contracting, the greater the risk your programme takes on. It's not a bottleneck—it's insurance.

Like Singaporeans and Germans, it helps to have a 'can-do' attitude and cut through the bullshit. Some people are very good skill at talking an generating complex programmes, but at the end they will not have to deliver it, you will have to do it. It helps to cut though bullshit without offending peole and focusing on what really matters. It will help to have a well defined scope with requirements at the begining of each Acceleratos/open calls. If you do not have that luxury or management is too slipery then it help you define one. remember to keep it simple and in the long run it will help you. Be very concice and not more then half a page.

In supply chains and defence sectors, data will be your biggest hurdle. Before you can even begin, you'll need NDAs, data licences, or formal data-sharing agreements in place. This isn't a maybe—it's a certainty. Start early. Earlier than you think. You won't face the same level of data restrictions in FMCG or food sectors, but in defence and high-regulation industries, expect friction.

There are two critical data challenges:
• - Availability: Is the data actually accessible in a usable digital format?
• - Quality: If it's available but the quality is poor, it's effectively useless.

In those cases, you may need a “data interpreter” or a technical layer—like a transformer or middleware—to clean it up and bridge system incompatibilities.

When working in domains outside your core competency—like the creative sector—it's invaluable to involve a producer or artist manager in your programme. They understand the nuances of the industry: arts, music, sound, UX/UI, human factors, and more. Their expertise can bridge the cultural and operational gaps that may otherwise derail delivery.
If you're planning multiple Open Calls (e.g. 6-8), don't launch at scale right away. Start small. Let the first one fail smart—learn fast, adapt faster. Alternatively, run a 1-week simulation with real participants, exactly as you would during live delivery. This kind of dry run exposes the friction points early and helps bulletproof your process.

depending on what you measure success on, I can confirm that yes indeed it is around 1 maybe 2 startups/participants out of 50 get a significant investement afterwards (1 mil ++). The rest, half would get small additional investemend / POs , while the other ones either would need to change direction or die.

What makes a successful startup?
Team? Funding? Strong management?
Of course they help—but let's be honest: most of the time, it comes down to luck.
Too early to market? No one gets it. Too late? You're lost in the noise.
Perfect timing? That's not always a product of genius—it's usually a coincidence you were just smart enough to notice and fast enough to ride.

 Open Call - Cohort - Monday.com Planning template  

Version 1: 08/09/2025 , in version 2 planning to add some more bad and good examples...