The Policy-Startup Feedback Loop: How Tech Entrepreneurs Can Shape Better Grant Programs

• Author(s): Elisha Oloruntobi Adeboye ; Ekere Victor Ifeanyi ; Gbemisola Labisi
• Paper ID: 1709193
• Page: 373-379
• Published Date: 30-04-2022
• Published In: Iconic Research And Engineering Journals
• Publisher: IRE Journals
• e-ISSN: 2456-8880
• Volume/Issue: Volume 5 Issue 10 April-2022

Abstract

This paper examines the fundamental disconnect between startup realities and public grant program design, calling for a systemic transition to collaborative policymaking. Startups, being pioneering front-line innovators, find themselves facing out-of-date criteria, overbureaucratic paperwork, and ill-timed funding mechanisms that suppress their growth and discourage participation. Through real-time research and global antecedents, including the EU's Horizon programs and street-level startup mobilization campaigns, the article illustrates how startup feedback through surveys, roundtables, open letters, and advice boards can inform superior and more distributive funding regimes. It argues for a cultural revolution: policymakers must engage startups as co-creators, rather than recipients, while startups must own their agency in shaping innovation policy. By incorporating structural feedback loops and adopting co-creation models, the future of grant funding can be more dynamic, fair, and accepting of innovation. It is not only cost-saving this collaborative approach is critical to the upkeep of an active entrepreneurial economy.

Keywords

Startup-Centered Grant Design, Co-Creation in Innovation Funding, Feedback-Driven Public Grants, Entrepreneur-Policy Collaboration, Inclusive Startup Funding Models

Citations

IRE Journals:
Elisha Oloruntobi Adeboye , Ekere Victor Ifeanyi , Gbemisola Labisi "The Policy-Startup Feedback Loop: How Tech Entrepreneurs Can Shape Better Grant Programs" Iconic Research And Engineering Journals Volume 5 Issue 10 2022 Page 373-379

IEEE:
Elisha Oloruntobi Adeboye , Ekere Victor Ifeanyi , Gbemisola Labisi "The Policy-Startup Feedback Loop: How Tech Entrepreneurs Can Shape Better Grant Programs" Iconic Research And Engineering Journals, 5(10)