ATHENS, December 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

"the EGG - Enter*Grow*Go"

 young entrepreneurship acceleration programme

Eurobank and Corallia proudly announce "the EGG - Enter*Grow*Go", a joint initiative that aims to boost young innovative entrepreneurship and improve employment opportunities for young people in Greece.

"The EGG-Enter*Grow*Go" is a holistic entrepreneurship acceleration programme, reaching out to young teams with creative and innovative ideas. Through the programme, participating teams will have access to a reliable network of mentors and partners with experience in start-ups' acceleration; a focused, hands-on educational programme on business development; and value-added, one-stop-shop services to support business operation and growth.

With the purpose to facilitate interaction and exchange of ideas and experiences, participating teams will be co-hosted in state-of-the-art facilities provided by Eurobank, offering modern and creative collaborative spaces. The first facility of the programme will operate in the city of Athens, while it is planned to extend the programme in other cities across Greece in the near future. The Expression of Interest Call to interested teams will be launched early next year, referencing the respective details concerning the programme eligibility and admission criteria and processes.

The principal architects of this programme, both of them pioneers in their respective fields, designed "the EGG- Enter*Grow*Go" in order to provide visionary and motivated young people with entrepreneurial prospects and opportunities. Eurobank has been, since its very inception, consistently implementing and supporting, long-term, targeted Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives. Respectively, Corallia actively contributes to the development of world-class innovation ecosystems, and the support of young entrepreneurship as a key pillar of its initiatives.

Mr. Nicholas Nanopoulos, CEO of the Eurobank group, stated that: "In our effort to always respond to the growing needs of the Greek society, we are creating a ground-breaking programme, adding a major initiative to our Group's extensive Corporate Social Responsibility agenda. The aim of 'the EGG-Enter*Grow*Go' programme is to support young innovative entrepreneurship through the provision of learning and working tools. Our initiative is mainly designed for young people with innovative ideas, who believe in these ideas and are ready to venture in business. Our collaboration with Corallia -a leading partner on innovation and young entrepreneurship- in this project is the best guarantee for its success."

Prof. Vassilios Makios, Head of Corallia, stated: "Nowadays, the urging needs of our society and economy leverage the notion of "collaboration" into an indispensable ingredient of every venture. Corallia has been, since its formation in 2005, incessantly looking for new, reliable partners, in order to extend its young entrepreneurship support initiatives. Eurobank constitutes an invaluable partner, fully aligned with our strategic objectives. The bank's long-standing work on Corporate Social Responsibility, along with its strong business presence, both in Greece and abroad, will be instrumental for achieving our common targets: providing young people with the vision they so desperately need today."

View the announcement in Corallia's website

Eurobank

The Eurobank group is a European banking organization with total assets of €73.6 billion, which offers banking services in eight countries. Eurobank is the second largest bank in Greece, one of the leading banks in Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia, and a key player in the field of Asset Management in Cyprus, Luxembourg and London, also having established a presence in Ukraine. Since its establishment and along with its business activity, the Group has been consistently realizing targeted long-term Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives.

(http://www.eurobank.gr)

Corallia Clusters Initiative

The Corallia Clusters Initiative -in brief, Corallia- is the first agency ever established in Greece for the organized and systematic management and development of clusters, integrated productive and innovative ecosystems, within which undertakings operate in a coordinated manner, in specific sectors and regions of the country, and where a competitive advantage, as well as knowledge intensiveness, high technology export orientation exist. Acting as a catalyst, Corallia has been designing and implementing targeted support initiatives, aimed at the internationalization of Greek businesses, leveraging business research, education and vocational training, job creation, and supporting entrepreneurship.

Today, Corallia supports the mi-Cluster (a nano/microelectronics-based systems and applications Cluster), the si-cluster (a space technologies and applications cluster) and the gi-Cluster (a gaming technologies and creative content cluster), also managing two innovation centres, the Athens InnoCenter in Maroussi, Attica, and the Patras InnoHub in Rio, Achaia. Corallia is hosted at the "Athena" Research Centre. (http://www.corallia.org)

SOURCE Corallia Clusters Initiative