Palestine CleanTech Innovation Competition – 2nd Edition 2022

Yes, in fact, the program encourages applications from Palestinians living in any part of the world.

No, you can be an individual, a team, or a company (for example, a corporation or LLC); however, in order to get the award at the end of the competition, you should form a team and would need to register a company.

Yes, you can apply and might be accepted if your global application meets the requirements. However, it's preferable that the founding team have the skills to build their product themselves, rather than outsourcing it to someone else. So, during the program, you should form a team and find a technical co-founder.

We seek ideas that fall in one of the following three categories:

• Energy Efficiency
• Renewable Energy
• Water Efficiency

However, there can be thousands of different technological solutions that could fall into these three categories starting from software, IoT, and other hardware solutions that would save and generate renewable energy and save industrial water. The solutions that would make the existing such technologies more efficient are also welcomed.

There is neither program entry nor participation fee. The whole program including the support you get during and after the program is free of charge.

Yes, you can submit more than one idea. However, individuals are only allowed to represent one team / idea during the acceleration program.

Once your entry is submitted you will not be allowed to change or edit it; however, you will be allowed to submit additional materials/information before the final deadline. However, if accepted to the program you are allowed to change and refine your idea/concept during the first 3-4 weeks of the acceleration program.

There are three rounds of judging:

• The first round of judging: the panel of judges will select the acceleration program participants from a pool of applications. We expect that about 30-50% (see below) of the applicants will be selected to enter the program.
• Mock Judging: 1-2 weeks before the end of the acceleration program the participating startup will pitch their business models/technologies before the judges; this exercise is not for selecting winners but for providing valuable feedback to the startups to improve their final business models and pitches and get ready for the final pitching. However, there may be cases that judges would suggest that some startup(s) are not ready for the final pitch. So, it all depends on how much time and effort the startups put into the program.
• Final Judging: during the final judging event the startup will pitch before a panel of judges. The judges will select three national winners who will get up to 25,000 Euro award for each, and also will participate in the UNIDO Global Cleantech Innovation Program’s Global Forum taking place in Silicon Valley (TBC).

We expect that about 30-50% of applicants will be accepted as participants. However, this is not a hard number as it depends on the quality of applications we will receive.

The applications for the Palestine Cleantech Program’s competition will be evaluated based on the three major criteria:

• Team/Individuals – the credibility and motivation of the team members or individual applicants will be taken into account. Additionally; founder-market fit, complementary fit in the team, if a technical/business component is included will also be evaluated.
• Concept/solution (product or services) – It demonstrates the potential for a sustainable competitive advantage and it is scalable, innovative, and realistic with an existing pain.
• Market – The potential market size is large enough for sustained business growth, whether the market is easily accessible, and “early adopters” can be easily acquired.

No - we accept startups at all stages of development. We accept applications from startups with only a concept and no prototype, and from teams who already selling a product to their initial customers.

However, the curriculum and program of Cleantech Palestine is most useful for companies who are still doing Customer Discovery, creating their Business Models, and forming their products.

As in cases of other activities, what you will get out of Cleantech Palestine will depend on how much effort you put into the program. You should expect to spend 4-8 hours per week on the program-related activities at any given point during the acceleration.

The required Launchpad program at the beginning will be 7-9 days and the Global Forum is a week-long event/activity taking place in Silicon Valley (TBC).

Yes, Cleantech Palestine targets and supports early-stage startups; however, we will be working with startups in different stages of development. There are startups that were established and working for several years; however, they need to refine their business models, develop some new key connections, get new inspiration, and great visibility to move forward more effectively. So, the program can help them.

Also, a significant part of our acceleration program focuses on finding and speaking with customers: finding them, learning about their needs, and understand how your startup and product/technology can satisfy those needs.

We should note that there are many startups applying to an acceleration program that doesn’t need money. The awards that we provide are just a small part that the acceleration program offers to the startups.

Yes, you can apply and join our acceleration program. However, as you have completed another program, we may expect that you have reached some level of progress.