In 2008 EIF jointly with U.S. Civillian Research&Development Foundation (CRDF) and the Government of Armenia is starting new round of Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Promotion (STEP) project.

A key objective of STEP is to help engineers/researchers/scientists move innovative products to the market, create new ventures, and partner effectively with established companies. The project is also aimed to foster economic growth by facilitating efforts by Armenian scientists to establish connections with local and international companies with which they can collaborate in a mutually beneficial way.

This year EIF in partnership with Ministry of Economy and CRDF will implement a number of activities, including implementation of Business Partnership Grant (BPG) program in the area of IT/High-tech. 

Within BPG competition, EIF will issue an open call for proposals open to local S&T professionals who will submit joint proposal with a company partners (with at least 10% cash contribution). These proposals will be reviewed by independent experts both local and US for commercial and technical merit. 

After proposals evaluation, selected finalists will receive additional training on Business plan preparation, Oral presentation skills, Understanding Market needs, etc. and business mentoring support. 

As a final step, Venture conference will be organized where the finalist teams will pitch the business proposition for their projects to a panel of judges, which will include representatives of CRDF and VC experts. The Conference panel will select up to 3 winners to receive up to 10,000 USD grant for 12 months period.

The other activities are to be implemented within STEP project in 2008 includes organization of training programs for general science community, cluster seminars, legal consulting and mentoring.