U-SOLVE concluded its startups pitching day for the 10 projects and ideas qualified for the final stage

U-SOLVE concluded on Monday 21/08\2023 its “startups pitching day” for the 10 projects and ideas that were qualified for the final stage, out of 29 applications that met the requirements for applying for step two of U-SOLVE project and out of 203 initial applications submitted in step one in Palestine.

The pitching day began with a meeting for the evaluation jury, chaired by the project manager, Mr. Khaled Shana’a, and its members were,  Mr. Thomas Chilasis, project manager in Greece, Ms. Dina Al-Araj, technical coordinator from the Bethlehem Municipality, in addition to external experts, namely Eng. Hassan Omar, head  of the business incubator (Glow Innovation), an international expert and certified entrepreneurship trainer, and Mr. Osama Khalili, a lecturer of business administration at Bethlehem University and a business development consultant.

This was followed by the presentations of 10 ideas and projects individually based on a pre-prepared presentation model with the main points to be focused on, namely the aspects of creativity and innovation, the urban development challenges addressed by the project, the extent of the project’s ability to implement and sustainability, in addition to the strength and diversity of the members of each team.

The projects that were presented varied and included different sectors, including creative education  projects, including the Robotics Academy, the Bethlehem Icon  Center, Jusoor Labs, Al-Basel Center, and Warsheh project, and some projects focused on smart phone applications, including “Earthwise” application to benefit from food leftovers, and the “omomi” application to address transportation problems, and some focused on the tourism aspect, such as the Corner Cinema, and tour Palestine platform, and water purification projects represented by Blue Filter project.

Each team had 15 minutes for their project, were divided to a presentation and followed by discussion by the jury to identify the strengths of each project, where the jury’s questions focused on aspects of financial sustainability, the ability to apply and achieve quick gains, as well as the link between the solutions presented and the challenges of urban development that were linked to the ecosystem road map one of the outcomes of WP3

Once the evaluation of the projects is finalized, the jury will announce the five winners, who will receive financial support of up to 10,000 euros each with the aim of developing and expanding their projects in response to the urban development needs that the project addresses under the supervision of the project team in Palestine.