Deeptech Mentorship Program 2026 (Call for Participants)

Moldova has talent. Researchers, founders, students, and professionals with real potential to build and scale transformative ventures in advanced technology. What’s missing is structured access to applied experience, strategic guidance, and international networks. The Deeptech Mentorship Program is built to bridge exactly that gap.

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📅 Program period: May 4 – June 8, 2026

💻 Format: Online

25 participants. 10 mentors. 5 weeks.

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Timeline

March 25 – April 5 — Call for Mentors open

April 13 – 29 — Call for Participants open

April 30 — Results announced

May 4 — Program starts

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🧭 How does the program work?

The program runs on a dual-track mentorship model combining collaborative learning with personalized guidance:

→ Group Mentorship — Participants are organized into 5 thematic groups of 5. Each group is co-facilitated by 2 mentors with complementary expertise. Sessions focus on collaborative problem-solving, peer-to-peer learning, and exploring industry challenges and opportunities.

→ Individual Mentorship — Each participant receives 2 dedicated one-on-one sessions with their assigned mentor, tailored to their specific needs — whether refining a research concept, developing a business model, or navigating career decisions.

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📌 Who should apply?

✓ Researchers & Scientists looking to understand the commercial application of their work

✓ University Students — final year Bachelor’s, Master’s, or PhD in STEM fields

✓ Startup Founders working on tech-intensive products or services

✓ Industry Professionals & Business Analysts from health, agriculture, biotechnology, cybersecurity, and energy seeking to integrate deeptech into their work

✓ AI & Tech Enthusiasts with a strong technical background, driven to build solutions with real impact

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Meet your Mentors

The Deeptech Mentorship Program 2026 brings together 10 national and international experts committed to guiding the next generation of deeptech innovators in Moldova across AI, biotechnology, energy, agriculture, cybersecurity, health, and finance.

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Alex Felman Founder & Chief Exponential Officer · Exponential U · Latvia

Serial entrepreneur and founder of Felman Family Office, with a background in Molecular Toxicology and Bio-entrepreneurship from UC Berkeley and Copenhagen Business School. Advises family offices worldwide on biotech, healthcare, and emerging tech investments. His focus in the program will be on fundraising, business development, and bringing deeptech products to market.

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Phillip Sparks Managing Director · ICanDo 52 Incubators · Germany

Managing Director of ICanDo52 Incubators and founder of Learn-on-Demand, an AI-driven EdTech platform, with over 30 years of experience in IT, cybersecurity, digital transformation, and high-performance team psychology. Has guided more than 400 teams and startups through innovation projects. Brings deep expertise at the intersection of deep technology, human-centered business innovation, and applied AI.

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Irina Verlan Senior B2B Marketing & GTM Strategist · Verlan Agency · Romania

Over 8 years of experience building cloud and technology brands across Central and Eastern Europe. Led regional marketing programs for Google Cloud and Microsoft across 20+ markets. MBA from the UNESCO Chair in Interculturality, Good Governance and Sustainable Development. AI Ethics educator promoting responsible AI use and ethical change.

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Radu Revutchi ML Research Engineer · Scale AI · USA

ML Research Engineer at Scale AI in San Francisco, with a background in AI research from Carnegie Mellon University. Has deployed AI agents to over 100,000 students and worked on multilingual AI systems at Moveworks. Brings a rare mix of academic depth and real-world product experience, with a genuine passion for supporting Eastern European founders building with AI.

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Calum Cameron Director of Digital Innovation · DP Innovation Labs · Mentor at Plug and Play Tech Center · Estonia

Builds alliances between startups, industry, government, and academia across Europe. Track record of early-stage investments in 27 startups. Former Managing Director at Startup Wise Guys and Dealmaker for Accelerate Estonia. Strategic Partnership Manager at eID Easy. Brings a rare ability to connect innovators with the right partners, investors, and institutions.

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Alexei Levițchi Healthcare Data Analyst & Biomedical Research Specialist · Spain

Data Analyst and R&D Project Lead with a PhD and over 15 years of experience bridging biomedical research, digital health, and data science across academia, startups, and international organisations including the WHO and World Bank. Former Chief Medical Officer and Head of R&D at Mental ID. Brings a pragmatic, data-driven perspective to teams working at the crossroads of research, product development, and healthcare markets.

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Oleg Ciubotaru AI Engineering Lead · US Government · ex-Meta · USA

Currently building large-scale AI systems for the US federal government, leading one of the largest AI deployments in the federal space. Previously at Meta, scaled AI-powered advertising products from zero to global reach. Former Director of Engineering at a Silicon Valley startup. Brings a rare combination of startup-speed thinking and the discipline of deploying AI responsibly at enterprise scale.

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Florin Păun EIC Jury Member · France

Deep tech strategist and jury member at the European Innovation Council (EIC), with a PhD from ISAE-SUPAERO and over 20 years of experience driving disruptive innovation across corporations, governments, and research institutions. Former senior roles at ONERA — the French Aerospace Lab and Akka Technologies. Brings the strategic depth to help founders turn deep tech into scalable ventures.

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Andrian Adam UX/Product Designer · Ex IBM · Moldova

Andrian Adam is a UX/Product Designer working at the intersection of startups and enterprise, with experience at large-scale organizations including Orange and IBM. He works closely with product teams to turn complex ideas into validated, testable products, from early problem framing and user research to MVP definition and execution. Combining product thinking with hands-on design, he helps teams move fast, make better decisions, and avoid building the wrong thing. In this program, Andrian will support participants in shaping their ideas into real products, validating assumptions, and preparing for growth and investment.

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Cătălin Rusnac Founder at Replifactory · Austria

Cătălin Rusnac is the founder of Replifactory, a platform for affordable, scalable bioreactor experiments deployed in universities worldwide, with a background in bioinformatics and hands-on experience as a scientist in Austria. He has led projects spanning hardware development, data analytics, and experiment design, turning complex scientific processes into robust, real-world systems others can build on and scale. In this program, Cătălin will help participants move from idea to execution, sharpening problem definitions, stress-testing assumptions, and building MVPs that actually work outside of slides.

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Are you a Participant ?

We are looking for 25 ambitious individuals — researchers, students, startup founders, industry professionals, and AI & tech enthusiasts — ready to accelerate their deeptech journey with the support of experienced mentors and a strong network.

📝 Call for Participants: April 13 – 29, 2026

📢 Results announced: April 30, 2026

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Organized by Technovator · Supported by UMAEF