Leapfrogs was launched as a pilot project back in 2012 with the support from the universities in Skåne and Blekinge and through facilitation of LU Open. Since its start Leapfrogs has undergone some transformation and further development in 2013. A total of 84 checks has been distributed to students from Lund University, Malmö, BTH, SLU Alnarp and Kristianstad University.

2014 starts the third round of Leapfrogs with a deadline for application on March 31st. In order to be eligible to the project, you have to be a student at one of the Universities in southern Sweden and have a Swedish social security number. You can read more about the requirements here. If you want to know more about how to apply, guidelines are available on their website.

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According to Lewis Horne, Project Coordinator at Lusic and initiator of the accelerator, the region of Skåne has general perception that social innovation is about charity. But it is important for investors to see that there are business opportunities in social entrepreneurship as well.
Companies participating in the Accelerator program will benefit from the resources offered at Ideon.

“Ideon has been very supportive in terms of providing its business advisers. They also think it is good that we do not make a separate accelerator but e include it in the existing structure,” says Lewis Horne.

The Accelerator is similar to the concept of incubator but the program runs for a shorter period of time and is less limited to the physical location.

“It’s like an incubator but time is concentrated to three months instead of two years and content is more intense. The accelerator programs will also include milestones one must reach in order to continue and offer opportunities to travel together to meet potential investors. When the pilot experiment is finished and evaluated it, we will apply for more money to launch a major campaign in the fall or next year,” says Lewis Horne.

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