IGNITION QUALIFIERS: free online programme for future deep-tech founders starts on 30 September
Registration is open for IGNITION QUALIFIERS, a free online programme beginning on 30 September 2026 that prepares participants to build a technology business on the basis of scientific research.
The premise is simple, and still not widely understood: you do not have to be the scientist to commercialise the science. There is an established methodology that allows entrepreneurially minded people without a technical background to bring a discovery to market, and this programme teaches it.
What the programme offers
The online course was developed by professionals working in venture capital, entrepreneurship, industry, technology and startups. It is built on the accumulated experience of more than 100 deep-tech companies, their successes and their mistakes alike, and covers the first steps of forming a team with scientists and building a company together, alongside an overview of how the deep-tech startup world actually operates.
Completing the course unlocks access to the IGNITION EVENT, a dedicated technology showcase at which pre-selected science champions present their technologies to entrepreneurial participants. The purpose is not networking in the abstract: it is the formation of founding teams, in which the entrepreneur takes the lead and develops a business together with the researcher.
Participants also gain access to partners across the pan-European deep-tech ecosystem, opening routes to expertise, collaboration and future opportunities.
What it can lead to
The methodology has a track record within this project. HOW Pectin, a company that installs mobile production modules at juice factories to convert fresh fruit pomace into premium clean-label pectin on site, was created through a special edition of the same Creation-to-Capital Cycle, adapted for AGRI-BIOCIRCULAR-HUB. Within its first year the team was selected for the EIT Food Accelerator Network’s Helsinki Hub, admitted to MassChallenge Switzerland 2026 from a field of 1,961 applicants across 47 countries, and named a finalist for the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Innovation Accelerator in Japan.
Practical details
- Format: online, in English
- Scope: pan-European
- Start date: 30 September 2026
- Cost: free, limited number of seats
- Registration: https://form.typeform.com/to/yIk946nt
Who is behind the programme
IGNITION QUALIFIERS is part of Commercialization Reactor’s “Creation-to-Capital Cycle”, recognised by the EIT Deep Tech Talent Initiative as the #1 Deep-Tech Program Provider in Europe (2023) and the #1 Deep-Tech Trainers in Europe (2024). It is organised in partnership by PACTT and Commercialization Reactor and holds the patronage of the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development (PARP).
The initiative is embedded in the broader AGRI-BIOCIRCULAR-HUB framework, a Horizon Europe project building a network of excellence hubs in smart agriculture and the circular bioeconomy across Ukraine, Poland, Latvia, Belgium and Spain.
Funded by the European Union under Horizon Europe, Grant Agreement No. 101186869.