A new European Programme for Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI) PROGRESS Axis Call aims to mobilise existing network(s) of mainstream business incubators to expand their outreach to inclusive and social entrepreneurship.
Optimally, this will be combined with support for scaling and replication of social enterprise and social innovation business ideas through the dissemination of knowledge and understanding of potential market opportunities in other territories. This type of knowledge transfer can be ensured by involving pertinent partners as co-applicants and/or by qualified experts directly involved in the project implementation.
Proposals must be centred around activities promoting the concepts ‘inclusive and social entrepreneurship’ amongst all individual member organisations of the network or the consortium of networks. Activities shall focus on transferring knowledge and building capacities amongst the member organisations, so that they will be well equipped to work with (potential) entrepreneurs.
The types of activities which may be funded include:
- Gathering, production and diffusion of relevant information materials.
- Study visits and exchange of good practices.
- Training activities, webinars, seminars, conferences, etc
- Developing business support services for inclusive and social entrepreneurs, including toolkits, templates, manuals and other support material.
- Actions aiming at creating and improving connections to stakeholders in inclusive and social entrepreneurship.
- Awareness and dissemination actions amongst the network’s members and towards the wider audience.
Applications are accepted from legal entities properly established and registered in the following countries as single, lead applicant or co-applicants:
- EU Member States.
- Iceland and Norway in accordance with the EEA Agreement.
- Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey.
The supported action needs to cover a large part of the EU Member States / EaSI participating countries including regions and cities outside of the capital area of countries. The aim is also to achieve a geographically balanced coverage of countries (North, South, East, West of Europe).
The total budget earmarked for the EU co-financing of projects under this call is estimated at €1.3 million. The EU grant requested should indicatively be between €1 million and €1.3 million. The EU grant will not exceed 80% of the total eligible costs of the action. The applicants must guarantee their co-financing of the remaining amount covered by the applicants’ own resources or from sources other than the EU budget.
The Commission expects to fund one proposal.
The deadline for applications is 30 April 2020.
Content source: www.grantfinder.co.uk