The Alava entrepreneurship ecosystem will be supported by Álava Emprende in 2022. Throughout the year, an extensive program of activities and events will be developed aimed at helping entrepreneurs in the territory to solve the new challenges of society.

Vitoria-Gasteiz City Council, Álava Provincial Council, the Basque Government, through the SPRI Group and BIC Araba, as well as the Vital Fundazioa Foundation, have presented a new edition with the motto “Emprende-topía. Exploring new paths”. The institutions promoting the contest want to show and value the figure of entrepreneurs as fundamental agents to solve these new challenges and generate wealth in the territory, since entrepreneurs, thanks to aspects such as their ability to listen and closeness to needs of society and their capacity for innovation, they have become the explorers of the 21st century, the people in charge of opening new paths and promoting a new way of growing and generating wealth.

The first Deputy Mayor of Vitoria-Gasteiz, Maider Etxebarria; the Deputy General Lieutenant of the Provincial Council of Álava, Itziar Gonzalo; the director of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and the Information Society of the Basque Government and president of BIC Araba, Leyre Madariaga; and the executive director of the Vital Foundations, Axier Urresti, have outlined the peculiarities of an ‘Álava Emprende’ 2022 edition that has been consolidated, in its 19 editions, as a reference initiative not only in Araba, but also in Euskadi and that it will continue to combine face-to-face activities with online activities throughout the year with the ultimate goal of improving the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Alava.

The contest begins with the launch of the 18th edition of the “Your idea counts” contest, a contest that rewards the best ideas and entrepreneurial projects in the territory. In total there will be ten awards that add up to an amount of more than 11,000 euros for the winning initiatives:

• On4U Award for the best idea. With an amount of €500
• Aclima Award for the most sustainable idea. With an amount of €500
• Gasteiz ON Award for trade and tourism. With an amount of €1,000
• Eroski Award for the best agri-food initiative. €1000
• Michelin Award for the best industrial initiative: €1,000
• Prezero Award for the best service sector initiative: 1,000 euros
• RPK special award for corporate social transformation: 1,000 euros
• Fundación Vital Fundazioa Award for transformative solutions to overcome the crisis: 1,000 euros.
• Metxa Special Award for Innovation: Awarded by the accelerator of the same name to the most innovative and scalable project. The prize is a place in the next Metxa Bootcamp valued at 4,000 euros.
• Special Audience Award: Chosen from the public attending the final presentation of the finalist ideas. 300 euros

The deadline for submitting applications will be extended until March 25 at 2:00 p.m. The bases can be consulted at alavaemprende.com. A jury made up of the different entrepreneurial agents of the territory will choose the finalist projects at the beginning of April. This year they will meet again through an online event that will be held in April and which will also show how other entrepreneurial projects awarded in previous editions have progressed. Let us remember that more than 750 entrepreneurial initiatives have passed through this contest. In fact, last year all participation records were broken with 54 proposals submitted. In the 2022 edition, as a novelty, the finalists will be able to attend a special course given by Cristina Juesas, an expert in public presentations and promoter of TEDxVitoria-Gasteiz, with the aim of helping them prepare the presentations of their projects.

Each finalist must show their proposals in an event open to the public that will be held on May 19 at the Palacio Europa and the winners will be announced within the framework of the Ekin Day that will take place on May 25. The organization of the contest wants to encourage all the people who have an idea or an entrepreneurial project to participate in this edition. “Your participation can be a very important boost for your project, as it was in its day for other initiatives that today have even become internationalized.”

The event on May 19 at the Palacio Europa will also serve to host, for the sixth consecutive year, a B2B meeting in which entrepreneurs can arrange individual meetings with advisory entities, financing entities, accelerators or even with other entrepreneurs. In order to attend, you must first register on the website www.alavaemprende.com. In previous calls, more than 200 bilateral meetings were held from which new collaborations emerged.