From the collaboration between WMF - the biggest Festival on Innovation, and the Digital Library of the Italian Ministry of Culture - MiC was born Startup 4 Culture, the call that seeks innovative ideas and technological & digital projects, capable of enhancing the Italian historical and cultural heritage, innovating the cultural and creative sectors thanks to Digitalisation.

This call aims to identify and support innovative projects that combine the cultural sector with the digital one, in order to promote innovative startups and talents, to foster an increasing synergy between the cultural sector and the technological-digital one and between Public sector and private entrepreneurship. 

The Call in now Closed.

During the application stage, each Startup is asked to indicate how to meet the following Challenges:

• Create connections between Public and Private sectors and develop forms of cooperation and interdependence;
• Widen the digital cultural heritage resources, organized as to be easily accessible, searchable and shareable;
• Expand forms of access to and use of digital heritage to improve cultural inclusion;
• Propose advanced technological forms for the cultural heritage’s digitization;
• Broaden the practices of digitization from goods to users services;
• Enhancement of minor cultural sites through digital technologies;
• Given the creation of a "Platform of digital services for developers and enterprises" - as provided by the PNRR - facilitate and support the development and integration of innovative digital services for culture by public and private entities, startups and cultural enterprises;
• Given the creation of a "Platform of co-creation and crowdsourcing" - as provided by the PNRR - imagine a digital environment where users will be able to produce, upload and share their original contents, join crowdsourcing projects, contribute to the processes of recognition and metadating of acquired digital resources, be an active part in the construction or reconstruction of cultural contexts.
   

The finalist Startups will have the chance to present their innovative and cultural project to the audience of the biggest Festival on innovation and to be evaluated by the MiC Digital Library, as well as by the main players in the digital sector, investors, incubators and corporate businesses. Finalists will also have the opportunity to:

• present their projects during the WMF in front of thousands of people;
• join dedicated panels organized in collaboration with the Italian Ministry of Culture;
• access the Startup District, the exhibition area dedicated to startups from all over the world;
• win the award of 5.000 € in consulting services offered by Search On Media Group.

The best ones will be selected to take part in the finals by the WMF team and by the MiC Digital Library. These latest will compete in a pitch competition during the WMF - from June 16th to 18th at the Rimini Expo Center.

Each team will have 3 minutes to present the key elements of their idea. The jury will then have an additional 2 minutes to pose follow-up questions. At the end, the jurors will cast their votes to state the winner.

Read the instructions

The elevator pitch is the heart of the Startup Competition. It is a short presentation that contains the key elements of a business idea, designed to attract possible investors or promote a business idea. 

> Download the support material
The call is now Closed.

The call is dedicated to Italian and International startups and companies - composed of individuals or teams - with innovative, technological and digital projects or ideas, relating to the field of culture. Submitted projects are selected according to the following criteria:

• Skills of the team, knowledge of the sector, feasibility of the project;
• Development stage of the product/service;
• Degree of innovation and its defensibility;
• Positioning in relation to competitors;
• Consistency with market and customers’ needs and potential outreach;
• Business potential of the idea;
• Exhaustiveness of the documentation submitted.