BRIDGE-BS is looking for individual experts to implement the 2nd Call for the Black Sea Accelerator (BSA) targeting Black Sea business opportunities.

The BRIDGES-BS accelerator covers the support listed below:

• Expert support > support market analysis, or other strengthening services are offered via ad hoc consulting (individual applicants) for techs/services still needing improvement;
• Start-up support > in case of valuable business mentoring support can be provided (directly or combined with other initiatives);
• Facilitate financing/investments > “investors pitching” training sessions (in groups) are offered and support for access to finance.

IMPORTANT: Ad-hoc and one-to-one activities are foreseen in supporting across those areas the most advanced applicants (in terms of TRL), for which the contribution and direct experience of the selected expert(s) will be pivotal – i.e. both in designing and implementing the support offered by the BSA under BRIDGS-BS supervision.

The selected experts (in principle one or two) will support the implementation of Task 7.3 and potentially other action tasks across other WPs of the BRIDGE-BS project. They will not work on action tasks. The language of such services will be English.

This call for experts is open for international senior experts with a proven expertise in terms of:

• Support SMEs and solution providers in assessing and developing business strategies, as well as increasing their ability to successfully pitch towards international impact investors;
• Understanding of the blue economy, preferably in the context of the Black Sea and other EU sea basins, across the different sectors and activities covered by the Accelerator.

• Support to innovative ideas, start-ups and SMEs in engaging with international investors;
• First hand understanding of the blue economy sector and relevant investors in this area;
• Direct long-term experience in the EU and/or across the Black Sea is considered a plus.

The candidates shall provide a detailed list of references to demonstrate their expertise on both above topics and indicative cost for day fees. The work is considered in expert office, as the support needed will be provided online, with in principle no travel planned or to be covered.

Several experts could be acquired as part of this call, based on the needs identified by the BRIDGE-BS Accelerator:

• delivering the actual support to the new applicants and possibly some selected ones from the previous call (about 12 following us up more thoroughly);
• leading some (limited) group discussions and the bilateral follow-up exchanges needed to support business models, market assessment, pitching ability and identification of interested/interesting investors;
• leading and proactively supporting the design of such support actions, based on the specifications offered in this document and further exchanges with the BSA team of BRIDGES-BS.

The experts will start offering their services from September 2024 till March 2025, with the peak of the work intended until December 2024, supporting BRIDGE-BS Accelerator team in the services to the selected applicant from the BSA 2nd call.

The total amount allocated for service acquisition (for maximum 2 experts) is expected to be up to 10.000 EUR. The overall amount allocated to each expert will be discussed depending on specific needs, duration of the contract, range of expertise demonstrated by each expert and etc.

Specific services required as well as agreements in the interaction of the experts with BRIDGE-BS partners in charge of the BRIDGE-BS Accelerator will be specified as part of the contractual agreements.

Interested applicants must send a CV and detailed demonstration (one page max) of their relevance for this position, according to the requests of this document, to the following email: [email protected]

Deadline for application: 20 July 2024, 06:00 PM Turkish time (GMT+3).