September was one of those months that did not leave much room for downtime. Consortium meetings in Pamplona, a final event for Evolve2Care, a cybersecurity hackathon from AppTake, and a handful of closures marking the natural rhythm of this kind of work. Here is how it all unfolded.
Pamplona plays host: Women TechEU and Open Horizons
8-10 September | Pamplona
Some months, the work comes to you. Between 8 and 10 September, our offices in Pamplona became the gathering point for 17 representatives from 14 countries, here for the consortium meetings of Open Horizons and Women TechEU, two European programmes with a shared focus: expanding opportunities for women-led tech startups.
Coordinating from Navarre
Open Horizons kicked things off on 8 September. The meeting brought together the partners behind this open innovation programme, where large companies put forward real business challenges and women-led deep tech and digital startups develop the solutions. The 30 startups already selected through its open calls are now building pilot projects alongside those companies, supported by up to €55,000 in non-dilutive funding each.
Women TechEU took over for 9 and 10 September. The consortium reviewed the current edition of this EIC-backed programme, which will support 160 women-led deep tech startups across Europe between 2026 and 2028. Each startup selected receives €75,000 in non-dilutive funding plus a six-month acceleration package covering mentoring, training, investor access, and preparation for instruments like the EIC Accelerator. Our own Virginia Gómez led the sessions, which also included a detailed look at how Kronis is being used to manage the project.
“Bringing together organisations from so many countries in Pamplona around Women TechEU shows that from Navarre we can coordinate large-scale European projects and create international connections with a real impact on the innovation ecosystem.”
Virginia Gómez, EU Area Manager, Sploro
The agenda went well beyond the working tables. The Women TechEU partners visited the Parliament of Navarre, where they got a first-hand look at how the regional legislative process works. The meetings also brought warm institutional support from the Government of Navarre on both days. And the closing session was rounded off by Agurtzane Martínez, Director General of Science, Technology and Innovation, who spoke about gender equity in STEM in a way that felt considerably bigger than a project sign-off.
Natalia Nowinska, the programme’s Project Officer at EISMEA, joined virtually and described Women TechEU as the European initiative with the greatest impact on the innovation ecosystem. When you are coordinating it from Pamplona, that kind of recognition lands well.
“Women TechEU and Open Horizons represent two complementary ways of turning European funding into concrete opportunities for innovative companies. From Navarre, we bring our expertise in project coordination and cascade funding to ensure these programmes reach startups in a meaningful way.”
Miguel García, CEO, Sploro
From Pamplona to Vilnius
Open Horizons, meanwhile, was not done with September. On 16 September, our own Virginia Vasilakou and Maja Horvat were in Vilnius for Startup Fair 2026. Maja joined a panel discussion at the main event, and both took part in the side event “Behind Every Start-up Success Story: How Ecosystems Shape Growth, Scale and Impact”, organised alongside INNOVATE-EU, WE-RISE and EPIC-X. Virginia also hosted a World Café table on corporate-startup collaboration, exploring how the gap between challenge and adoption actually gets bridged in practice. A week after Pamplona, and the project was already in a different room in a different city, which is very Open Horizons.
Open Horizons is a Horizon Europe project supporting deep tech and digital startups through cascade funding and structured corporate collaboration. Learn more at openhorizonsproject.eu.
Women Tech EU is a European initiative supporting women-led startups in deep tech. Learn more at womentecheurope.eu.
AppTake: Assembly, Hackathon, and a final chapter
9-10 September | Online
AppTake had a packed final stretch. On 9 and 10 September, the project’s General Assembly took place online with a Cagliari base, where our own Mikel Apesteguia and Aitor Uranga were part of the sessions. The kind of meeting where you take stock of where everything stands and start thinking clearly about what the project leaves behind.
A week later, on 17 September, AppTake ran something altogether different: a cybersecurity hackathon. Hybrid, across four cities, with participants joining in person or online, the event followed a CTF (Capture the Flag) format where teams worked through real security challenges on a dedicated platform. A Discord server kept everything coordinated in real time, with vendor experts available in dedicated channels throughout. If there is one thing the event captured well, it was the energy of a technical community that genuinely cares about this space.
“AppTake has been one of those projects that keeps surprising you. From the depth of the technical conversations in the consortium to something as alive as this hackathon, it has been a real reminder of why cybersecurity matters and why the community around it matters even more.”
Mikel Apesteguia, Project Manager, Sploro
September was also AppTake’s last month. We are proud of what this project became, and we said so properly in a dedicated post.
APPtake is a Horizon Europe project helping European SMEs strengthen their cybersecurity capabilities by driving the adoption of DevSecOps practices through an integrated marketplace of innovative application security solutions. Learn more at apptake.eu.
Evolve2Care: Two years of healthcare innovation
16 September | Online
On 16 September, Evolve2Care held its Final Event, and it felt exactly like what it was: a proper send-off for two years of work connecting healthcare innovators and Living Labs across Europe. All partners were present, and our own Małgorzata was there to present the open call approach and walk through the collaborations that gave the project its most tangible shape.
Nine cross-border experiments between innovators and Living Labs, a panel of Advisory Board members looking ten years ahead, policy recommendations, and a live demonstration of the Accelup platform. Not a bad afternoon’s work for a closing event.
“Evolve2Care showed what is possible when you put the right innovators in the right rooms. The final event was a chance to see the full picture of what two years of collaboration looks like in practice, and it looked a lot better than any report could describe.”
Małgorzata Olszewska, Project Manager at Sploro
On 30 September, Evolve2Care came to an end.We gave it the send-off it deserved, go read it on the blog.
Evolve2Care is a Horizon Europe project accelerating the adoption of digital innovations in transitional care. Learn more at evolve2care.eu.
A couple of milestones and a couple of goodbyes
Skills4Valorisation now has a home on the web. The project’s website and LinkedIn page are both live, which means the consortium’s work on knowledge valorisation in European research and innovation finally has a public face to match it.
And on the closures front: SPADE and PQ-React both reached their official end on 31 August. We have already published dedicated posts on both, but they deserve a mention here. Two projects, their work done, their contributions sitting quietly in the portfolio record.
Skills4Valorisation is a Horizon Europe project coordinated by Sploro that strengthens the skills and capacities of Knowledge and Technology Transfer Offices (KTOs/TTOs) across Europe, helping them turn research results into real-world innovation and market impact. Learn more at skills4valorisation.eu.
Still in motion
With AppTake and Evolve2Care now closed, October brings a natural shift in focus. Women TechEU moves deeper into its selection process, Open Horizons continues accompanying its startups through their pilots, and Skills4Valorisation starts finding its footing in the broader ecosystem. The portfolio is a little lighter, but still very much in motion.
