Does your startup have a game-changing idea to battle cybercrime? Alternatively, a groundbreaking initiative to connect youngsters to our society? Or perhaps you have some sound plans to prevent child abuse? If you have a great idea to tackle these kinds of serious issues, the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security is welcoming you to join their Startups in Residence (SiR) programme.
Co-work with the Dutch Ministry to solve a variety of societal challenges and fast-track the development of your product. You can apply here right now, until November 8th, 2018!
Budget, mentor, and training
The Startup in Residence programme has been specifically designed to leverage the innovative strength of young enterprises in ‘residence,’ and combine it with the knowledge, tools, and experience the Ministry already has available. Startups can sign up to tackle one of the eleven challenges to improve Dutch society. Topics range from creating tools to find legal solutions for serious problems, help the rehabilitation of former prisoners or to promote the diversity of thought in the workplace.
The startups with the best ideas will be selected as a startup in residence at the Ministry of Justice and Security in The Hague. For five months, the Ministry will provide you with a development budget, mentors and you will attend a thorough training and guidance programme.
Working up to Demo Day
During these five months, your startup team will put all its talent to work to develop an initial idea to a working prototype. The highlight of the residency will be the final Demo Day in June 2019. That’s when the startups pitch their brand new product to an influential audience of commissioning parties and potential customers.
Startups tend to look at societal issues in a different way than the Ministry and its traditional partners. That out-of-the-box mentality is precisely what the Ministry was looking for last year, during the first edition of the SiR programme. Four startups made it through the extensive track all the way to Demo Day, where they got to pitch their brand new offering.
Working together
One of those startups was Pandora Intelligence, a data-science startup that uses a scenario-based model to structure information about crime and safety. “It did not feel like we were working for the Ministry. We were working with the Ministry”, Maaike Lousberg from Pandora Intelligence reminisces about her time as a startup in residence. “It was a way of working based on equality. Through this programme, we became better connected to the world of justice and security. We now have a better understanding of the way they work and can navigate in what, for us in the past, was a large, complex organization.”
Assist Jeugdwerk was another winner of the first edition of SiR. Their app ‘Always on’ brings structure in the sometimes hectic lives of juveniles. “The original idea was to develop an app that helped young people to keep an agenda and to receive reminders regarding appointments,” Johnny Driessen from Assist Jeugdwerk says. “But along the way, during the co-working process with the Ministry, a more extensive version of the app emerged. One that helped young people to get back on their feet in a playful way.”
New and fresh ideas
Not only the startups benefited from the programme, but the Ministry was also enthusiastic. Lisette de Bie, the driver of the first edition of SiR from the Ministry, said at the Demo Day: “I am thrilled and proud to be here and to have found, after only five months, different solutions to our challenges. Through collaboration with startups, we now look at our societal challenges from a different angle. It provides us with really new and fresh ideas.”
Register your startup now
The Ministry of Justice and Security is ready to go at it again, and they are calling all startups. Does your startup have what it takes to tackle the SiR II challenges? As Dutch Prince Constantijn van Oranje, Special Envoy from StartupDelta once said: “Startup in Residence Programmes are to be taken seriously, they are not a gimmick.”
How seriously do you want to take your idea? Sign up today and show the world. Registration is open now, until November 8th.
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask them via: [email protected]
This article is produced in a collaboration with Startup in Residence. Read more about our partnering opportunities.
