Accreditation Process
The Cap Digital Label is accredited to two types of projects, corresponding to any or all of the six strategic cross-disciplinary application segments of the Digital Content and Knowledge Creation industry:
- Research and Development which bring about technology or methodology breakthroughs and significant groundbreaking innovations to contribute to the global competitiveness of its participants and to the cluster as a whole.
- Innovation and Growth with strong potential for stimulating creative new businesses and entrepreneurship to conquer the market and create jobs for the region in the short to medium term.
Step 1:
A project proposal is submitted in response to Cap Digital’s Call for Proposals via the online application to the Executive Secretariat (ES). A file is opened to register the proposal submission with an automatic acknowledgement to the project coordinator.
Step 2:
The proposal undergoes preliminary filtering by the VP of technical and scientific liaison, the ES CEO and senior project officers to determine a) if a conflict of interest exists between the project, its participants and the thematic commission experts, and b) if there is more than one thematic commission it can apply to. The proposal files are then transmitted to the relevant Thematic Commission(s) for expert evaluation.
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Step 3:
The project proposal is subjected to expert assessment by the relevant thematic commissions where it is evaluated on a certain number of criteria to study its eligibility for accreditation.
Each thematic commission meets regularly to deliberate and build a case of recommendation, carrying a specific rating of A, B or C, before submitting it to the Executive Committee (EC).
A – Projects which correspond strategically to the thematic submarket with a strong potential and interest for the cluster.
B – Projects which hold a strong potential and interest for the cluster but requires improvement in certain aspects.
C – Proposals which fail to show strong potential and interest for the cluster or those which are structurally inapt.
Step 4:
All the proposals are regrouped for further deliberation by the EC where the technical coordinator for each thematic commission presents and defends its assessment and recommendations. At this point, possible funding schemes are also explored for the high potential proposals before a shortlist is drawn up to the Administrative Council (AC) for accreditation.
Step 5:
Based on the shortlisted project proposals, the AC makes the final selection for receiving the Cap Digital Label, taking into consideration recommendations for improvements, possible funding schemes and partners and the maturity of the proposals for immediate financing. This decision is immediately transmitted to the ES.
Step 6:
The ES notifies all label applicants with unsuccessful candidates receiving as well, reasons for which their project had not been accredited with the Cap Digital Label.
Step 7:
Successfully accredited project participants will receive the label and be accompanied to complete the funding process for project launch. High potential projects that fail to receive a Cap Digital Label will be assisted in the process of re-structuring and improvements to enhance its appeal and readiness for re-submission and funding.