The idea

GIPA is based on two pillars: it is an incubator aimed at young academics and a program to transfer cybersecurity expertise to corporate partners.

The incubator is dedicated to foster new security innovations and start-ups. Focused on Cybersecurity and Privacy, it aims to speed up the development of new technological ideas and connect young entrepreneurs with researchers, advisors, customers and influencers. The incubator combines the strong experience of the Cybernation Israel with 40+ years of Fraunhofer’s successful, agile innovation model. In Europe’s leading hub for applied security research participants will solve real life cybersecurity challenges from areas such as:

• Internet & Cloud security
• Security mechanisms for the Internet of Things, industrial security and embedded systems
• Protection against Advanced Persistent Threats
• Web Security

Cybertalents, entrepreneurs and young professionals from Germany and Israel form mixed teams that address current security challenges identified by Fraunhofer SIT. The program starts with one week in Darmstadt, including training with a cyber-range platform as well as entrepreneurship and technology lectures that lay the foundations for succeeding in the cyber challenge in the following 5-6 months. Each team is coached by experienced Fraunhofer researchers. The program ends with one week and a final conference day in Jerusalem/Tel Aviv.

What does a program run look like?

Phase 1 / Kick-off

• Introduction of challenges
• Entrepreneurship 101
• Intercultural team building

Phase 2 / Virtual Incubation

• Technical development
• Remote coaching

Phase 3 / Final event

• Industry lectures
• Project finalization
• Final presentation

Involvement of the corporate partners – training, knowledge sharing and access to the results

Who’s behind GIPA

Fraunhofer SIT in Darmstadt and the Cybersecurity center at the Hebrew Univerity of Jerusalem organize GIPA, formerly known as GIPA. It connects one of Europe‘s leading research locations with Israel‘s vibrant start-up scene. GIPA addresses top cybersecurity talents of computer science and engineering from Israel and Germany, and brings them together.

German and Israeli participants will jointly work on cutting-edge cybersecurity challenges focusing on network technologies, internet infrastructure security, software security and other relevant topics with the goal to develop innovative cybersecurity solutions or to identify vulnerabilities in existing mechanisms.

How is GIPA different?

We truly believe that startups can unlock human potential in an unrivalled way. However, only 2 percent of all companies emerging from top accelerators have a successful exit. The common failure: execution of a flawed plan. These companies spend months and months in planning, strategizing and writing comprehensive plans to convince everyone that their idea will work. Consequently, they are lacking time to interact with the customer, test their solution and experiment around it.

That’s’ why for GIPA we turned things upside down: We start without a business model and will be working, experimenting and probing on real problems for three month. By the end, we will have created actual prototypes. We will use real companies and experts as a sounding board to determine if they are demanding what we are creating. And only then, if we see the potential, will we add a plan.

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