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Encouraging community building around the issue of women entrepreneurship – Management and running of the WEgate platform
Date de clôture : 5 sept. 2019  
APPEL À PROJET CLÔTURÉ

 Entrepreneuriat et PME
 Innovation
 Start-up
 Web-Entrepreneuriat
 Innovation sociale
 Égalité des sexes
 COSME
 Gestion d'entreprise
 Développement des affaires
 Web

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a crucial role in reaching the objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy1. Whereas they are considered as crucial engines for growth and job creation, their competitiveness is affected by a limited exploitation of international opportunities and innovation prospects in the Single Market and beyond.

In this context, the Programme for the competitiveness of enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises (2014-2020)2, (COSME), aims to promote growth and to strengthen the competitiveness and sustainability of enterprises in the European Union (EU).

The Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises3 (hereinafter referred to as "EASME" or the "Agency") is entrusted by the European Commission (EC) with the implementation, inter alia, of parts of the COSME programme.

In this respect, this call for proposals, managed by EASME, implements parts of the Support Measures of the COSME Work Programme 2018, as last amended on 7 December 20184.

1.1. General policy context

Achieving gender parity is a key element of the Sustainable Development Goals5 launched in 2015. The Goals recognise the need to take many more steps to ensure that women across the globe can fulfil their potential. Investing in women is one key way to ensure that their ambitions become a reality.

The European Commission strategic engagement for gender equality 2016-20196 is the framework for the European Commission's future work towards full gender equality.

The strategic engagement focuses on five priority areas, one of which is to increase female labour market participation and the economic independence of women and men. Therefore, there is a need to develop policies and good practices to develop an effective ecosystem to support women entrepreneurship.

To bring Europe back to growth and create new jobs, we need more entrepreneurs. The Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan7 is the European Commission's answer to challenges brought by

the gravest economic crisis in the last 50 years. It is a blueprint for action to unleash Europe's entrepreneurial potential, remove existing obstacles and revolutionize the culture of entrepreneurship in the EU. It aims to ease the creation of new businesses and to create a much more supportive environment for existing entrepreneurs to thrive and grow.

Policy makers shall support female entrepreneurs by promoting a positive attitude and female role models, offering training courses and mentoring, facilitating access to finance, and ensuring that their policies help women to participate in the labour market.

Policy makers shall explore the gender gap in entrepreneurship, the differences between male-and female-owned businesses, and the unique challenges that female entrepreneurs face when it comes to starting a business.

1.2. Specific policy context

1.2.1 Women entrepreneurs in Europe

In 2015, women outnumbered men in the EU by approximately 12 million people (260.2 million women to 248.2 million men) (Eurostat, 2016).While there has been a sharp increase in women’s labour market participation over the last 50 years, women are still less likely to be active than men. At the EU-level in 2015, 78.3% of men were active in the labour market, whereas only 66.8% of women were. This gap, however, varies substantially across EU Member States. The gap was the greatest in Malta (27 percentage points, p.p.), Italy (20 p.p.) and Romania (18.6 p.p.), but was virtually non-existent in Finland (2.8 p.p.), Lithuania (3.3 p.p.) and Sweden (3.6 p.p.).

According to the OECD/EC Missing Entrepreneurs 2017 Report8, there were 9.6 million self- employed women in the EU in 2016, representing 9.9% of working women, as opposed to 17.5% men in self-employment. Between 2012 and 2016, 2.8% of women in the EU were owners of a business or trying to set up a business, as opposed to 5.3% of men; 4.3% of women were established business owners, as opposed to 8.4% men.

For the same period, while women entrepreneurs are as likely as men to offer new products and services to the market, women tend to operate smaller businesses: less than 25% of self-employed women in the EU had at least one other employee, whereas approximately 33% of men did (in 2016).

On average, self-employed women work more hours per week than women who work as employees and those self-employed with employees tend to work more than those without (47.3 hours vs. 43.9 hours).

 

Women’s confidence in their skills and knowledge to start a business is lower than men: for the same period, only 34.1% of women in the EU felt they could start a business, relative to half of men (49.9%); 52.2% of women reported fear of failure, relative to 43.3% men9.

Key messages from the “Policy Brief of Women’s Entrepreneurship’ OECD, 201810:

  •   Women are under-represented among the population of entrepreneurs. They tend to operate smaller and less dynamic businesses than men, and are more likely to operate in non-capital intensive sectors including personal services, which often have lower potential for generating a high and sustainable income.

  •   Women entrepreneurs tend to have different motivations and intentions in entrepreneurship than men. Some women appear to be more likely to go into self-employment to better manage their work-life balance and others start businesses to avoid the “glass ceiling” in employment. While it is important for individuals to have a range of choices in the labour market, women tend to have latent entrepreneurial potential that is not realised. Policy makers need to unlock this potential, recognising that women are a heterogeneous group with many differences in their motivations, intentions and projects.

  •   The challenges that women identify in starting a business include discouraging social and cultural attitudes, lower levels of entrepreneurship skills, greater difficulty in accessing start- up financing, smaller and less effective entrepreneurial networks and policy frameworks that discourage women’s entrepreneurship. Traditional instruments such as training and grants are used to address these barriers but these approaches need to be expanded because they have not had a full reach into the population.

  •   Several new policy approaches to supporting women in entrepreneurship are starting to emerge. Many countries are exploring the potential of using public procurement to open up market opportunities for women and providing more support for growth-oriented women entrepreneurs with dedicated business incubator and business accelerator programmes and the creation of an infrastructure for risk capital.

  •   The broad institutional conditions also need to be improved. One aspect is culture. Entrepreneurs are strongly influenced by role models and social context. It is therefore important to promote women entrepreneurs as role models and ensure that the education system is gender-neutral and does not discourage women from going into STEM fields (i.e. science, technology, engineering and mathematics). Finally, more targeted actions can be taken to ensure that family policies, social policies and tax policies do not discriminate against entrepreneurship by women.

    Extract 1: Measuring women’s entrepreneurship activities “Policy Brief of Women’s Entrepreneurship’ OECD, 201811:

    Self-employment is one of the measures used in economic analysis to proxy entrepreneurial activity. In labour force surveys, self-employed are defined as those persons who own and work in their own business, as employers or own-account workers, unless they are also in paid employment which is their main activity, in that case they are considered to be employees.12

In some countries, incorporated self-employed (owner/manager of incorporated businesses) are counted as employees rather than as self-employed (OECD, 2012).13It is important to acknowledge that self-employment data does not capture the true extent of entrepreneurial activity, including that by women (FSB, 2016).14 Not all the self-employed are necessarily entrepreneurs. Many individuals who work as freelancers for only one client may report themselves to labour force surveys as self- employed rather than as employees although under some views working for a single client would not be considered as entrepreneurship. Equally many self-employed may not be counted as such if they have another primary occupation (i.e. “hybrid entrepreneurs”).

One well-known entrepreneurship survey, conducted by a consortium of academic institutions and consulting companies, is the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. This survey asks people about whether they have taken steps to launch a business, whether they own and operate a “new” business (i.e. up to 42 months old), whether they own an “established” business (i.e. more than 42 months old) or whether they have closed down a business. This can provide useful information about the gender gap in the proportion of women and men who are entrepreneurs.

The OECD-Eurostat Entrepreneurship Indicators Programme, which aims at developing policy- relevant and internationally comparable measures of entrepreneurship and its determinants, has contributed to improve understanding on gender differences in entrepreneurship (OECD, 2012). The programme has shown that relevant evidence on women’s entrepreneurship can be produced with indicators organised along three main axes: i) business demography indicators for women and men owned enterprises; ii) characteristics of women and men entrepreneurs; and iii) determinants of women’s entrepreneurship, also based on secondary data sources on the business and policy environment.

Access to finance remains a great challenge for female entrepreneurs. In March 2017, the OECD reported that women are less likely than men to report that they can access the financing needed to start a business in all countries except for the United States, Mexico, Greece and Indonesia, where men and women are equally likely to report to have access to finance (see figure below)15. This gender gap can be associated with women having lower levels of experience, operating in highly competitive and low-growth sectors, as well as gender-biased credit scoring and gender stereotyping in investment evaluations. Women are also often hindered by less access to basic financial services (e.g. checking and savings accounts).

Consequently, women entrepreneurs are more reliant on self-financing. Furthermore, self-employed women are more likely than self-employed men to be discouraged borrowers, i.e. people who do not apply for loans because they believe that the loans are not appropriate or that their application will not be successful.

Public policy can facilitate access to finance for women and address market failures, including information asymmetries and financing gaps. The most common approaches are to offer grants, loan guarantees and microfinance. There is also a growing trend in public policy to improve access to risk capital for women entrepreneurs with growth-oriented businesses. Approaches include attracting more women investors and advisors into venture capital and business angel networks and forming women-led networks to invest in women-owned enterprises. There is also a small number of initiatives that invest in women-led ventures in exchange for an equity stake.

 

An additional hurdle, female entrepreneurs are significantly less represented in R&D intensive and high-tech sectors. In the EU, it was estimated that only between 5 and 15 % of high-tech businesses are owned by women (McClelland et al. 2005). Female entrepreneurs are also less represented among fast growing start-ups and SMEs. In fact, empirical data show that only around 15% of high- tech start-ups of the EU in 2012 were founded by female entrepreneurs. This gap becomes even more striking when considering the sources of funding for young, innovative companies. According to an Axios analysis of PitchBook data in 2017, women make up just about 9% of decision-makers in US venture firms, with little indication of the European scene being more female friendly. Academic research has repeatedly shown that a skewed gender distribution of investment committees and other formalized decision-making bodies is likely to promote skewed investment outcomes.

1.2.2 Support Actions for Women Entrepreneurship at EU level:

Public policy support for women’s entrepreneurship dates back to the 1970s as a response to the growing numbers of women entering the labour market. Since this time, women’s entrepreneurship policies and programmes have become common in both developed and developing countries. While much progress has been made in helping women overcome barriers to business creation and self- employment, women continue to face barriers, calling for continued public policy action. Within the European Union, this trend is clearly articulated in the Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan16, which calls for awareness raising, entrepreneurship training, improved access to financing, stronger networks and support in reconciling business and family life.17

Considering the scenario above introduced, the European Commission has taken several actions to promote women's economic empowerment and women entrepreneurship. Indeed, pro-active policies ensuring women's full contribution to the labour market can create sizable economic returns for our economies and societies.

Based on the needs expressed by existing and aspiring women entrepreneurs during meetings and workshops, the European Commission has developed initiatives that aim to encourage networking, community building and exchanges of good practices, promote inspiring role models and awareness raising, as well as offer mentoring and training.

a) The European e-platform for women entrepreneurship WEgate18

In order to support women who would like to start or expand their business, the European Commission created in 2016 an on-line, Europe-wide platform called WEgate. Since September 2016, this platform serves as a hub for connecting women entrepreneurs with local, national and European support organizations, thus facilitating their access to mentoring and business networks across Europe.

WEgate offers information, such as where to get help and access to finance or business networks, as well as training, learning opportunities and mentoring programmes. To inspire women, the platform displays case studies and success stories, and relevant news and events are advertised to raise awareness. WEgate also includes links to national and local organizations and other platforms supporting women entrepreneurs. It includes a WEgate Directory, which is a database with profiles of users registered through an online form. Further, registered users can opt for receiving the WEgate newsletter and e-mail alerts.

 

In addition, a communication and outreach campaign is running in the first half of 2019. The focus is on five target countries: Finland, Germany, Italy, Poland and Romania. The objective is not only to make the e-platform more widely known but also to engage support organisations to provide editorial content for WEgate and help promote the platform. WEgate also maintains a public video channel.19

Through an ongoing service contract20, the European Commission is working on improving the e- platform by targeting a larger audience and addressing business support organisations engaged with women entrepreneurs. Consequently, the WEgate e-platform is currently subject to a rationalisation that will improve its content, structure and design, including a planned reduction of its navigation and content languages to English, French and German.

The rationalised WEgate is planned to be online in the first semester of 2019. The applicant is requested to visit the WEgate e-platform regularly before the deadline of the present call for proposals.

A technical sheet about WEgate is in annex 5.
b) The European network to promote Women's Entrepreneurship (WES)21

The WES is a policy network with members from 31 European countries, including the EU-28, Iceland, Norway and Turkey, representing national governments. They are responsible for promoting and supporting female entrepreneurship at national level. WES members provide advice, support, information and contacts regarding existing support measures for female entrepreneurs. They also help identify good practices.

c) The European network of Female Entrepreneurship Ambassadors22

Female Entrepreneurship Ambassadors are successful entrepreneurs campaigning to inspire women of all ages to become entrepreneurs. The Ambassadors help to raise the confidence necessary for setting up and creating successful businesses. They also inspire other women to become entrepreneurs by telling their own stories. This network, which was supported by European Commission’s grants up to 2013, is made up of around 320 entrepreneurs in 22 European countries who act as ambassadors across Europe. There is also a national contact point in each country.

d) The Enterprise Europe Network (EEN)

With funding of the COSME programme, the European Commission is supporting the creation of European-wide networks by organizing several workshops on women entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education. The goal is to encourage a peer-learning process between relevant stakeholders and a transfer of good practices across European countries.

The Enterprise Europe Network23 has a Women Entrepreneurship Sector Group24 that gathers 21 partner organizations in 14 countries. The group connects to the Network's business and innovation

 

The Enterprise Europe Network helps businesses innovate and grow on an international scale. It is the world’s largest support network for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with international ambitions. The Network is active in more than 60 countries worldwide. It brings together 3,000 experts from more than 600 member support activities, but also provides concrete support services to women entrepreneurs, such as business partnering, seeking cooperation with local women entrepreneurs’ networks and access to EU funding. The Enterprise Europe Network help them internationalise, innovate and provide customized advice on EU legislation or EU funding. The Network is running an online campaign called “Ready to Grow” that will feature successful women entrepreneurs.25

The Enterprise Europe Network Women Entrepreneurship Sector Group incorporates all the elements that strengthen the reasons why community building is a crucial element, playing a catalysing role for women entrepreneurs to encourage networking, community building and exchanges of good practices, promote inspiring role models and awareness raising, as well as offer mentoring and training.

In 2018, the Women Entrepreneurship Sector Group launched a communication and outreach strategy targeting local and national stakeholders supporting women entrepreneurship. It aims to establish partnerships with these stakeholders.

As a result, enhancing the cooperation with women’s networks and investors allows the Enterprise Europe Network Women Entrepreneurship Sector Group to tap into the right target community of women-led companies and women ventures.

e) The European Community of Women Business Angels for Women Entrepreneurs

The European Commission is also working to encourage the emergence of more women business angels in the EU and increase access to alternative sources of funding for women entrepreneurs, by setting up a "European Community of Women Business Angels and women entrepreneurs".

The four ongoing Women Business Angels pilot projects26 cover 14 EU countries and will run until mid 2019. Their goal is to raise the awareness of business angels, train women who would like to become business angels and help women entrepreneurs to present their business ideas to potential investors. As part of these projects, information was collected on the ground on the obstacles to female angel investment and presented in a study27.

In a number of South and East European Member States , the concept of business angel investment was not sufficiently known and thus the first priority became raising awareness in general also among male investors.

organisations – all renowned for their excellence in business support. Member organisations include: i) technology poles ; ii) innovation support organisations ; iii) universities and research institutes ; iv) regional development organisations ; v) chambers of commerce and industry. https://een.ec.europa.eu/.

 

f) Enhancing the participation of women entrepreneurs in the Horizon 2020 SME instrument.

Two projects aiming at enhancing the participation of women entrepreneurs in the Horizon 2020 SME Instrument were launched in October 2017 and will last for 2 years28. They cover 9 EU countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Spain, Croatia, Italy, Lithuania and Sweden) and are being implemented by 10 organisations of the Europe Enterprise Network. The objectives are to raise awareness on the potential of the SME Instrument for women entrepreneurs as well as to provide the latter with information, advice and mentoring to support their successful participation. In addition, identified women entrepreneurs (WE) are encouraged to participate in all EEN activities to help them internationalise, innovate and customized advice on EU legislation or EU funding.

g) The EIB study on Access to finance implications of the gender gap in research and innovation.

The main objective of the study is to analyse key access-to-finance challenges for women-driven companies such as female founder or female chief executives, as well as key access-to-market challenges for female investors active in strategic sectors for innovation in the EU, based on market data and existing studies.

On the basis of this study, it has become imperative to encourage more stakeholders to use WEgate to share information about successful initiatives effectively supporting women entrepreneurs on the ground. Further, there is a need for more collaboration and networking between stakeholders active in supporting women entrepreneurship across Europe.

The European Commission is aware that the content of the WEgate e-platform has to be adapted to the needs of the stakeholders. The ideal solution is to engage the stakeholders in the management and update of the WEgate e-platform, as well as in its promotion across Europe.

The European Commission’s intention is to transform WEgate into a real connecting hub linking women entrepreneurs with support organizations all over Europe. Consequently, to develop this platform further, the Commission intends to hand over the WEgate platform and all its functionalities to the successful grant applicants, so that the platform is developed into a tool to foster women entrepreneurship directly by those concerned.

 

2. OBJECTIVE(S) – THEME(S) – ACTIVITIES – OUTPUTS

2.1 General and specific objectives

The general objective of this call for proposals is to enhance women entrepreneurship in Europe by:

(i) Facilitating networking and sharing good practices between actors such as intermediary stakeholders, in order to improve the support effectively delivered to women entrepreneurs and to motivate more women to start their own business or to support the development of their business across Europe. For the purpose of this call for proposal, “stakeholders” are defined as (list non exhaustive):

o Associations, public bodies and private organisations, sectoral or generalist, actively promoting women entrepreneurship at European, national, regional and local level in the COSME countries, including training centres, universities, incubators, authorities represented in the European network to promote women's entrepreneurship - WES), and organisations supporting the access to finance for women entrepreneurs, such as Business Angels organisations or banks or other entities supporting women entrepreneurship and related initiatives, EU initiatives with an interest for women entrepreneurs, such as the EEN sector group on women entrepreneurship.

(ii) Entrusting stakeholders themselves with the management, update and promotion of the WEgate e-platform.

The specific objectives of this call for proposals are:

(i) To develop a "European women entrepreneurship community of practice" (“the Community”), which will complement and build on past, current and already planned initiatives in this area (i.e. inter alia those mentioned in section 1.2. of this call for proposals)

(ii) To engage more stakeholders actively supporting women entrepreneurs - rather than women entrepreneurs themselves - with an emphasis on face-to-face exchanges and networking, in complement to online connexions.

2.2 Eligible activities

In line with the objectives mentioned above, the present call for proposals will support the following type of activities:

(a) Organisation of meetings/events gathering public authorities, women entrepreneurs and all other relevant “stakeholders” interested to share experience; the organization of a launch event is required, to be followed by yearly events open to the widest possible “Community” of stakeholders.

(b)Organisation of “Peer learning workshops” allowing stakeholders and women entrepreneurs active in EU Member States and COSME signatory countries to get a practical understanding of successful initiatives conducted in other countries (study visits)29. The organisation of workshops involving at least three member states will be considered as an advantage.

(c) Communication activities, consisting of a comprehensive strategy and outreach activities targeting relevant stakeholders and women entrepreneurs, including through a social media launch campaign, with a minimum of one topical campaign per year, as well as promotion and awareness raising of EU initiatives and programmes to encourage women entrepreneurs’ participation in these programmes. Other activities will be considered as an advantage, such as: organizing matchmaking activities for mentoring, creating a branding around WEgate to raise the website’s profile (i.e., through connected initiatives such as WEtour, WEschool etc), reaching out to all age groups, particularly to high school and university students, in order to raise awareness of female entrepreneurship and encourage the development of entrepreneurial skills.

(d) Community building activities for women entrepreneurship at European level, including developing new contacts and linking up with Enterprise Europe Network member organizations and sector groups.

(e) Project management activities required for coordination with EASME, including a kick-off meeting in Brussels planned within 10 days from the signature of the grant agreement, followed by an inception report and project meetings, on the spot and/or by remote means of communication to monitor the progress made by the projects. Additional opportunities for interactions (in written or via meetings – direct or at distance) with the European Commission and EASME can be considered in order to facilitate political guidance by the European Commission and effective desk monitoring by EASME. Applicant consortia are free to propose further more specific deliverables and/or results relevant to the objectives of this call for proposals.

(f) The management and continuation of the WEgate e-platform to be used as the common online tool, in particular to help participants in the ”Community” to get together and to disseminate information on relevant initiatives launched at EU and national levels (such as for example, peer-learning workshops, study visits and other events). Keeping the blog and the forum alive and ensuring a reasonable response time to questions and comments.

For the eligible activities under (f) the following will have to be taken into account:
i. The hosting, maintenance, upgrade and update of the WEgate e-platform will entail:

o WEgate and its system must be well secured to ensure confidentiality and protection of data, including the protection of personal data. There shall be no regressions regarding the current state of the e-platform.

o Any important security upgrades of Drupal (or patches) or the LAMP stack must be applied and technical documentation shall be kept up to date (see annex 5).

o The website shall be subject to intellectual property rights and personal data protection rules according to the applicable EU and national legislation in force.

o Accessibility of the e-platform shall be ensured after the end of the grant agreement for at least 12 months.

ii. The current features of the website are continued: managing the database of the WE gate directory of registered users; providing a one-stop-shop for the users’ questions, including a FAQ section; offering a feedback function; producing regular statistics data;

Applicants are free to propose additional types of activities, if duly justified as fulfilling the objectives of this call for proposals.

Proposals shall also outline the methodology, which will be used to measure the impacts of the overall action and to ensure its multiplier effects, with a particular attention to setting up and evaluating qualitative and quantitative indicators on the performance of the WEgate e-platform.

 

2.3 General expected results (for outputs or deliverables)

The project proposal shall target the following general expected results:

  •   A relevant number of meetings/events gathering public authorities, women entrepreneurs and all other relevant “Stakeholders” interested to share experience, including a yearly event to be open to the “Community”. The proposal shall indicate the number of meetings/events planned to be organised and justify the choice.

  •   A relevant number of Peer learning workshops allowing women entrepreneurs, public bodies and all other types of stakeholders active in different countries to get a practical understanding of successful initiatives conducted in other countries. The proposal shall indicate the number of workshops planned to be organised and justify the choice.

  •   A WEgate e-platform fully operational, managed and updated.

  •   Considerable linkage and synergy effects between the activities mentioned in 2.2 and the SME support networks, as well as events and activities supporting entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education. A sound communication and outreach activity plan effectively implemented.

  •   Action impacts measured

  •   Effective management and quality control and evaluation.
    The applicant is free to add other, more specific, results relevant to the project proposal. This can

    take the form amongst others of concrete deliverables in line with the expected results and impacts.

    2.4 General indicators

    Applicants must ensure that the project outcomes and impacts are presented against all the following indicators:

Impact indicators (audiences' behavioural change) in order to compare the WEgate activity and recommendations over time.

Result indicators (audience remembering messages and intention of action):

Number of replies and satisfaction level of the users of the WEgate e-platform (based on feedback functions on WEgate and surveys) and analysis of the recommendations

Number of organisations having effectively contributed to WEgate (e.g. by sending articles or by promoting the platform within their membership) at the end of the project

Number of good practices published on WEgate e-platform

Satisfaction level of participants to the meetings/events on quality, relevance and added value

Satisfaction level of participants to the peer learning workshops on quality, relevance and added value

Output indicators (outreach towards audience):

 Timely and quality updates of the WEgate e-platform (i.e. coverage of all major events and appropriate topics)

 Number of visitors of the WEgate e-platform
 Intensity/frequency of visits of the different sections of WEgate e-platform

  Number of registered users (including by category, sector, country...)

  Social media indicators

  Media indicators (number of articles, mentions at TV, radio, magazines, events, etc)  Number of participants to the meetings/events (per year and in total))
 Number of participants to the peer learning workshops (per year and in total))

Moreover, specific outcome SMART indicators have to be defined for each project proposal, depending on the concrete results/outcomes foreseen for the specific project.

The awarded project must report on these indicators and integrate them into their project’s monitoring scoreboard.

2.5. General requirements
2.5.1 Requirements for the preparation of the proposals

The project proposal must:

 Be clear. Applicants are requested to divide the actions into work packages, having clear objectives, a clear description of the work, deliverables, milestones, and expected results measured by performance indicators. To do so, partners must fill in the template "Description of Work", provided together with this call for proposals.

 Be coherent. The proposal needs to clearly elaborate – among others - on the following aspects:

  • a) Shortcomings and specific needs to be addressed;
  • b) Identification of the target group(s) and its justification/rationale;
  • c) Logical link between identified needs, specific objectives, proposed actions and expected results;
  • d) Complementarity of the project with other actions being carried out (if any) by the applicants.

 Be supported by a concise and realistic action plan. The proposal needs to briefly elaborate – among others - on the following aspects:

  • a) Status quo (SWOT or similar) analysis of the current situation;
  • b) Analysis of alternative solutions to address the identified needs and their cost- effectiveness;
  • c) Description of and reasons for the chosen solution as proposed in the project proposal;
  • d) Estimation of costs and revenues and financial effectiveness, for the chosen solution in the medium term and a business plan after the EU co-financing period ends;
  • e) The extent to which the outputs are likely to lead to clear and tangible results;
  • f) Estimated impact of the proposed actions on target groups and on the local economies (indicators, data sources, tools and methodologies to measure short and medium-long term benefits/impact of proposed actions);
  • g) Any evidence of transformative or spill over effects, including the extent to which additional value is or may be created by the chosen solution's adoption more widely across Europe.

 Be technically and financially sustainable. The project proposal needs to identify the management structure and explain how this will enable the project to meet its goals. It has to also identify the staff to be involved and the distribution of tasks between partners and staff members.

The project needs to develop a medium-to-long-term communication/promotion strategy. Therefore, the project proposal shall clearly refer to how the action will be further developed after the end of the co-financing period, both technically and financially.

 Generate real measurable results and long-term impacts. The expected results of the project have to be clearly outlined (both short–term and medium-long-terms results) and they must be quantifiable and measurable. The proposal needs to indicate how the results can be measured (i.e. which indicators and sources can be used to measure the results, also after the end of the project).

The work packages need to also contain a final evaluation of results clearly demonstrating whether and how the relevant results (as well as other results specific to the proposal) have been achieved.

 

3. TIMETABLE

a) Deadline for submitting applications

05/09/2019 17:00 h Brussels time

b) Evaluation period*

06/09/2019 – 30/09/2019

c) Information to applicants*

18/10/2019

d) Signature of grant agreements*

10/12/2019

e) Starting date of the action*

01/01/2019

* indicative.

 

4. BUDGET AVAILABLE AND FUNDING OF PROJECTS

The total budget earmarked for the co-financing of projects is estimated at EUR 850 000 . The maximum grant per project will be EUR 850 000 .
EASME expects to fund one proposal.
The grant is limited to a maximum reimbursement rate of 90% of eligible costs.

EASME reserves the right not to distribute all the funds available.

 

5. ADMISSIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

The following requirements must be complied with:

  •   Applications must be submitted no later than the deadline for submitting applications referred to in section 3;

  •   Applications must be submitted in writing, using the electronic system specified in section 16;

  •   Applications must be drafted in one of the EU official languages30.

Failure to comply with those requirements will lead to the rejection of the application.

Incomplete applications may be considered inadmissible. This refers to the requested administrative data, the proposal description and requested grant amount, and any supporting documents specified in this call for proposals.

 

6. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

6.1 Eligible applicants

a) Type of applicants
Applicants can be either legal entities or natural persons as mentioned in point 6.2 below. Applicants can be only entities forming a consortium.

Legal entities may include both profit-making or non-for-profit legal entities as well as fully or partly public or private bodies. In the case of private bodies, they must be properly constituted and registered under national law.

 

Here is below a non-exhaustive list of types of eligible legal entities:

  • -  public and private entities responsible for or active in the fields of enterprise, business support and related issues;

  • -  chambers of commerce and industry, chambers of (handi)crafts or similar bodies;

  • -  business support organisations;

  • -  business associations and business support networks;

  • -  public and private entities providing business support services;

  • -  public and private entities providing support services related to women entrepreneurship

  • -  international organisations;

  • -  universities or educational institutions;

  • -  research centres;

  • -  profit making entities;

Natural persons are eligible as set out in point 6.2.2 b. below.

b) geographical eligibility

Only applications from legal entities,, established in or natural persons established/being nationals of the following countries are eligible:

  •   EU Member States;

  •   Countries participating in the COSME programme pursuant to Article 6 of the COSME Regulation31.

  •   For British applicants: Please be aware that eligibility criteria must be complied with for the entire duration of the grant. If the United Kingdom withdraws from the EU during the grant period without concluding an agreement with the EU ensuring in particular that British applicants continue to be eligible, you will cease to receive EU funding (while continuing, where possible, to participate) or be required to leave the project on the basis of Article 34.3.1(b) of the grant agreement.



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