BI Ok! – BiOK

What is BiOk!
Who can participate?
Applications
Assessment process
Winning project
Conditions

What is BIOk!

BiOK! This is a meeting place that promotes generation of new business opportunities offered by BEAZ (an entity of the Department of Economic Promotion of the County Council of Bizkaia) the objective of which is double:

To consolidate the competitive positioning of reference companies in Bizkaia, providing them access to local and international talent and skills.
To attract startups, SMEs, or other kinds of kinds of organisations with high skills, either technological and/or in specific fields of knowledge, to Bizkaia, and to boost and provide them a first market option.

Proposals may be made to the BiOK platform by startups or organisations from any place in the world. Each reference company shall identify its development priorities through challenges, that shall be involved in the respective analysis and selection processes.

We sincerely believe that open, collaborative innovation is the must successful way to diversify and grow.

Who can participate?

The challenge is open to any individual entrepreneur, start-up, SME, technological centre or university with a proposal that may contribute to partial or total solution of the challenge posed by the reference company. It is not necessary for organisations that are interested in offering a solution to the challenge posed to be located in the territory of Bizkaia

Submission of applications

Participating organisations with an interest in joining this initiative shall fill in the relevant application form, attaching all information the are asked for or consider of interest to their inscription.

The application form will contain the following information:

Contact information.
General information on the company.
Solution proposed.
URL – video explaining the solution proposed (optional).
Innovation elements (product, process, marketing and organisation) or R&D results related to the solution proposed.
Technologies / fields of knowledge associated with the solution proposed (if any).
Team that shall participate in developing the solution.
Benefits.
Risks.
Collaborators.
State of development.
Cost.
Terms.
Other observations.

The term to submit candidacies shall be notified beforehand along with each challenge and it shall be open for a period of approximately 5 weeks.

Submmit application

More information: info@bizkaiaok.eus

Evaluation process

An Assessment Team shall be formed to choose the best projects, with people from the reference company, and it shall carry out the selection process.
At first instance, a selection of finalist projects shall be drawn up, that shall be invited to participate in an In factory innovation trip.
The In factory innovation trip consists of two days that are distributed as follows:

Day 1: in-depth knowledge of the company, the innovative ecosystem in Bizkaia and in-depth knowledge of the challenge, working shoulder to shoulder for one day with the technical team at the company to analyse the solutions proposed.
Day 2: the projects selected shall try to adapt their solution with the feedback received and final presentation.

The finalist projects, that thus participate in the In factory innovation trip, shall be informed at least two weeks in advance, by electronic mail.
After holding the In factory innovation trip, the challenge winning project shall be announced. Notification of the results shall be made by electronic mail once the maximum of 15 days.
The assessment team shall assess the following one of the finalist proposals:

Innovation: the degree of innovation in the solution proposed shall be valued.
Technology and/or field of knowledge: the technology and/or field of knowledge that is developed to cover the solution.
Degree of construction of the project: the degree of development of the solution proposed.
Project team: the team or organisations participating, their experience, dedication, knowledge of the market, contacts, etc., shall be assessed.
Terms: the times when the solution may be operational on the market.
Feasibility: feasibility and cost of the solution in a real environment.

Winning project

The reference company shall select the challenge winning project and shall undertake to hire the winning company to develop a pilot project that amounts to at least € 15,000.

The winning company shall have a guideline term of 6 months that shall be agreed individually with each reference company to execute the company.

Conditions

Industrial and intellectual property

At all times, the project as well as the possible patents that may arise from these, shall be owned by the person or company that has presented the candidacy. Participation in the challenge does not involve assignment of the participation to the reference company by candidate person or company.

Notwithstanding this, execution by the winning project in the challenge of a real pilot project to provide the solution with the reference company shall involve signing a contract that binds both parties in which, among other things, they shall agree the terms of use arising from the possible industrial / intellectual properties arising from the actual execution of the pilot project

General Considerations

For the purposes of proceeding to analysis and evaluation of the project, the persons participating authorise the organisation to inform the members of the Assessment Team of the ideas, documentation and information provided within the framework of their participation in this calling.

Moreover, the participants that, originally or subsequently, do not fulfil any of these requisites, may be excluded from the challenge, forfeiting the option to reserve any service whatsoever and without the right to claim anything from the organisers of this Calling:

A same start-up, SME or organisation may only participate with one project, either individually or jointly with third parties.
The members of the project team participating in developing the solution must be of legal age and have legal capacity.
The data the participants provide when registering for the challenge must be true and complete.

The organisers of this calling reserve the right not to accept, or cancel the challenge without prior notice, for all participants that it understands are acting in a fraudulent or abusive way, that is contrary to the spirit of the programme or law, the rights of third parties and/or good faith, all notwithstanding the responsibilities that should arise from such conduct, that shall be fully undertaken by the persons participating, with indemnity for the organisers in all cases. In any event, they may deregister any participant whose actions (or that of a related person), may be contrary to the reputation or good name of the organisers. They also reserve the right not to accept any participant should they understand that they do not provide an adequate answer to the challenges posed, or due to the number of projects accepted, or for any other reasons.

By registration in this challenge, the persons participating fully accept the terms set forth in these bases without reserves or conditions

Final Considerations

The persons participating specifically consent, due to the mere fact of participating in the calling, that the organisers may use both their name, individually as well as that of the start-up, and their associated images and/or logos, by any means and exclusively for corporate, advertising, promotional and/or purposes, and/or to notify the rest of the participants and the public at large of the winning project, without any territorial or time limit whatsoever, and without generating any remuneration whatsoever in their favour.

This challenge may be amended, interrupted, deactivated and/or cancelled if justified circumstances require such.
Likewise, the organisers reserve the right to declare all or some of the benefits vacant if no project submitted deserves being declared a Finalist or Winner in the opinion of the Assessment Team