Better Incubation at the SEED Capacity Building Webinar on Social Entrepreneurship Posted on January 10, 2023 by Better Incubation WEBINAR | “Social entrepreneurship: insight on its development, multiple nature and false friends” on the 24th of January, 12.30 CET. The Webinar is organized by Università di Bologna in collaboration with: ART-ER, Better Incubation, Fa’ la cosa giusta, Fondazione CRT, Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini, Inkubator Sežana, Politecnico di Torino. The field of social entrepreneurship is various and complex. It includes multiple actors and it’s developing more and more. The webinar aims to give insights on this field, presenting recent research data about Europe and Italy. The data helps to depict a clearer situation, even if social entrepreneurship is still growing and constantly changing. After the first introductory contribution, the webinar focuses on specific cases and approaches which favour the development of social entrepreneurship. Specific approach to sustain social entrepreneurship are presented, such as the tight partnership of a public actor with social entrepreneurs and incubators, and policy recommendations on how to sustain inclusive incubation. Afterwards, Italian and European actual cases of social enterprises are described and commented, in order to share with participants potentialities and criticalities of social entrepreneurship. Agenda: Introduction by Unibo Social entrepreneurship and social ecosystems – Paolo Landoni, Politecnico di Torino Key regional stakeholders for social innovation and social entrepreneurship – Kristian Mancinone, Art-ER, Chiara Davalli, EBN / Better Incubation CASES OF SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP • FabriQ (Italy) – Deborah Greco, Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini • Inkubator Sežana (Slovenia) – Dorijan Marsic, Director of Incubator Sezana • Case to be defined – Zoe McDonagh, Fondazione CRT, • Si parte dal Bosco (Italy) – Piero Brunod, Fa la cosa giusta Network Q&A: check on Miro blackboard whether participants interact and read out loud what they wrote + open the discussion in the call for questions and comments. Register to the event
Better Incubation Switch Pitch Series 2022 | recordings are available online! Posted on December 29, 2022January 10, 2023 by Better Incubation Did you miss the Better Incubation Switch Pitch Series? Don’t worry! Recordings are now available online! The series facilitated informal conversations between a diverse range of investors for impact and business support organisations with regards to pipeline building. Switch Pitch with Seed Capital Bizkaia & Ship2B In this episode of the Switch Pitch Series, Oscar Ugarte Gamboa, Seed Capital Bizkaia, and Xavier Pont Martin, Ship2B, explain how they work with incubators and accelerators – and how this collaboration can be improved to better support impact driven businesses. Switch Pitch with Cartier Women’s Initiative In this episode of the Switch Pitch Series, Wingee Sampaio, Cartier Women’s Initiative, explained how they work with incubators and accelerators – and how this collaboration can be improved to better support impact driven businesses. Switch Pitch with Feelsgood Capital and Portus Buda Group FMC In this episode of the Switch Pitch Series, Renata Brkic, FeelsGood Capital, and Elemér Eszter, Portus Buda Group FMC, explained how they work with incubators and accelerators – and how this collaboration can be improved to better support impact driven businesses. Switch Pitch with World Startup In this episode of the Switch Pitch Series, Jan Verkooijen, World Startup, explained how they work with incubators and accelerators – and how this collaboration can be improved to better support impact driven businesses. Switch Pitch with INCO In this episode of the Switch Pitch Series, Jean Michel Lecuyer, INCO, explained how they work with incubators and accelerators – and how this collaboration can be improved to better support impact driven businesses. Switch Pitch with FASE In this episode of the Switch Pitch Series, Markus Freiburg, FASE, explain how they work with incubators and accelerators – and how this collaboration can be improved to better support impact driven businesses.
Memories from the 2022 EBN Techcamp powered by Better Incubation “Untapped Innovation Potential” | watch the event video now! Posted on December 27, 2022December 28, 2022 by Better Incubation One of the best memories of this year is linked to one of the flagship events organised by Better Incubation in 2022: the 2022 EBN Techcamp Powered by Better Incubation “Get ready for the future of innovation – Untapped innovation potential”. Back in October, over 80 international business support experts, thought leaders, and innovation practitioners gathered in Lipica, Slovenia, to explore the European innovation ecosystem’s untapped potential in becoming more inclusive and diverse and how to re-strategize, upskill and expand business support services to service a new generation of impactful start-ups. It was co-hosted by EU|BIC Inkubator Sežana and was powered by Better Incubation, a project funded by the European Union Programme for Employment and Social Innovation. Here is a 3-minute video to take us back to those incredible days of networking and peer learning around impact driven and inclusive incubation practices, tools and strategies. Enjoy! Don’t forget that you can still access all experts’ presentations and watch the event pictures here.
The last issue of Better Incubation Newsletter is out! Posted on December 21, 2022December 21, 2022 by Better Incubation The eighth and last issue of the Better Incubation Newsletter is now available online. In this issue: Better Incubation final event at EVPA Annual Conference 2022 Better Incubation latest publications: the Better Incubation Roadmap, the Insights Paper, and the Final Policy Recommendations – including the 15 regional manifestos summarising the key outcomes of the regional policy workshops that took place in September and October 2022 in 14 European countries. Better Incubation highlights for the 5 target groups of underrepresented entrepreneurs: factsheets, videos and training modules. Find out more information about Better Incubation news by reading the newsletter here: Better Incubation Newsletter 8_December 2022
Better Incubation Policy Recommendations are out! Posted on December 20, 2022 by Better Incubation The European Action Plan “Building an economy that works for people: an action plan for the social economy” (2021-2030) launched by the European Commission recognises the importance that the mainstream BSOs have in the support of social economy entities (p.14): The Commission calls on Member States to encourage mainstream business incubators to extend their support to social economy entities, to improve business investment readiness support opportunities. The ‘Better Incubator’ pilot launched by the European Commission can serve as inspiration. The final objective of Better Incubation is to kick-start an “eco-systemic” change by bringing incubation and business support services closer to society and contributing to societal needs through entrepreneurship and self-employment based on job creation, skills development, and provision of opportunities for unemployed and vulnerable people to fully participate in the society and economy. To achieve this goal, BSOs are called to act in synergy with the wider entrepreneurial ecosystem, as individual business incubators are not going to be able to change the culture and institutional practices around social and inclusive entrepreneurship alone. Besides focusing on the internal capacities of BSOs, the Better Incubation project approach is also outward-looking to the wider ecosystem, considering broader cultural and institutional change needed to meet the objectives stated above. This report presents the key findings resulting from the work carried out by the Better Incubation Consortium over the last 2 years and involving several European stakeholders in a series of learning, experimentation, and reflection activities on the role mainstream BSOs can play in better promoting and supporting social and inclusive entrepreneurship in Europe and beyond. Download it here: D2.3_Better Incubation_Policy Recommendations_Edit Based on the insights from the preliminary research on existing inclusive incubation practices, the learnings from the 21 Better Incubation pilots, offering incubation services to more than 130 entrepreneurs/would-be entrepreneurs in 19 EaSI countries, and the existing recommendations in the Better Entrepreneurship Policy Tool and EU policies, CoPs elaborated policy recommendations. Better Incubation Policy Recommendations were validated and enriched during 15 regional policy workshops that involved more than 260 stakeholders in 14 European countries. These discussions resulted in 15 regional policy manifestos highlighting regional priorities and steps needed to better promote and support social and inclusive entrepreneurship in those territories and ecosystems. These are available at the end of this document. Following an in depth discussion with the Better Incubation Advisory Board members (ENSIE, Cooperatives Europe, Caritas Europa, EMES), a final validation was performed in Brussels on December 2nd, 2022, during the Better Incubation EU Policy Workshop, that saw the active participation of 22 stakeholders representing European policy makers, researchers, regional and national public authorities, investors, incubators, entrepreneurs, social actors, and non-governmental organisations contributing to the European social and inclusive entrepreneurship ecosystem. We are now glad to release the Better Incubation Policy Recommendations, a set of reflections and ideas aimed at providing some inspiration for BSOs and other stakeholders to work together towards a more inclusive and impact-driven entrepreneurship ecosystem across Europe. We recommend reading the Better Incubation key publications to get more details about these findings and the background information informing these final recommendations: Better Incubation Best Practices Better Incubation Toolkit Better Incubation Insight Paper Better Incubation Roadmap
A Network of Networks fostering inclusion and accelerating impact in the European entrepreneurial ecosystem(s) Posted on December 5, 2022 by Better Incubation Capacity Building. Perspectives. Networks. During the closing session of the final event of Better Incubation at the EVPA Annual Conference 2022, we asked the Better Incubation project managers of IHUB, EVPA and EBN to summarise their project experience in one word. Lucia Radu, IHUB, highlighted the intense capacity building programme offered by Better Incubation through the Communities of Practice and the online Training Courses on Social Entrepreneurship, Inclusive Etrepreneurship and Impact Management and Measurement. More than a training opportunity, rather a dedicated space for BSOs to learn from peers and other relevant stakeholders committed to promote and support entrepreneurship as an opportunity for all in society – especially among the so-called Underrepresented and Vulnerable Groups. Valeria Balzarini, EVPA, used the word perspective to explain how EVPA and its members used the Better Incubation project to rethink their approach to Underrepresented Entrepreneurs (UREs), this by connecting and working with BSOs and UREs directly. Chiara Davalli, EBN, stressed the importance of Networks, of a Network of Networks like Better Incubation to achieve so many important results over a relatively short period of 2 years, where more than 133 entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs from URGs received incubation programmes from 21 organisations in 14 European countries. EBN, IHUB and EVPA, with the support and advice of Caritas Europa, ENSIE, EMES, Cooperatives Europe, managed to mobilise the European entrepreneurial ecosystem thanks to the active engagement of their members (EU|BICs, Impact Hubs and invesotrs for impact) who took this opportunity to rethink their programmes, their organisations and their ecosystems in a more inclusive and impact-driven way. The event started in the morning with an EU Policy Workshop aimed at sharing and validating Better Incubation Policy Recommendations with policymakers, researchers, BSOs, investors for impact, regional development agencies, national agencies for social innovation and pan-European networks like Eurocities and Euclid. An interactive workshop where 25+ participants where asked to discuss the 6 issues identified by the project as the ones the entrepreneural ecosystem(s) in Europe need to consider and address to boost social and inclusive entrepreneurship in Europe. Some of these policy recommendations were taken into account by Mrs Brigitte Fellahi-Brugneau, Head of Unit at DG Employment, that during the afternoon session shared some reflections from the policymakers’ point of view on how Better Incubation contributed to promote and support social and inclusive entrepreneurship in Europe, by leveraging the knowledge, the competencies, the networks of mainstream business support organisations. Then it was the turn of the Directors and Managers representing EVPA, IHUB and EBN who shared some insights on the relevance of the Better Incubation programme for their communities. They all agreed that as organisations, the project offered a unique opportunity to grow knowledge, tools and methodologies for BSOs and investors for impact willing to broaden their scope to social and inclusive entrepreneurship. Moreover, Better Incubation enabled the three networks to involve their members and let them cooperate directly, this leading to new partnerships, opportunities and wider impact. The event continued with the VOICES of Better Incubation: seven “ah-ah moments” telling the stories of EU|BICs, Impact Hubs, Investors for Impact and other stakeholders involved in the project activities. Regional policy workshops’ organisers, inclusive incubation programmes managers, CoPs experts and facilitators, trainings and networking events’ participants, investors mentoring winners of the Better Incubation Contest, Scaling Impact. These the perspectives represented in this crowded and emotional panel, a conversation that showed how Better Incubation successfully managed to kick-start an ecosystemic change in the incubation ecosystem. Last but not least, the winners of the Better Incubation Contest were on stage to share how the scaling programme of Better Incubation project is helping them understanding and moving the first steps into new markets in Europe. Believe, dare, learn and amplify your impact without giving up! This in a nutshell their advice to would-be entrepreneurs! It was a great conclusion of two years of intense project activities. You can still watch the Better Incubation Project Finale recordings online!
Better Incubation Project Finale|Towards a more inclusive and impact driven approach to innovative entrepreneurship Posted on November 23, 2022December 1, 2022 by Better Incubation The European Action Plan “Building an economy that works for people: an action plan for the social economy “ (2021-2030) launched by the European Commission recognises the importance that the mainstream BSOs have in the support of social economy entities (p.14) : The Commission calls on Member States to encourage mainstream business incubators to extend their support to social economy entities, to improve business investment readiness support opportunities. The ‘Better Incubator’ pilot launched by the European Commission can serve as inspiration’ . Better Incubation aims to enhance the inclusiveness of BSOs by stimulating a wider cultural change in the incubation ecosystem, therefore involving regional and EU stakeholders (investors, policymakers, social actors, BSOs) that can contribute to this paradigm shift. After 2 years of project activities, it is time to share key learnings on how to boost the promotion and support of impact-driven and inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystems in Europe and beyond. Organised in the framework of the EVPA Annual Conference 2022, the session “Better Incubation: Project Finale | Towards an impact-driven and inclusive approach to innovative entrepreneurship in Europe” is structured in 4 key moments: How BSOs can contribute to the implementation of the Social Economy Action Plan? Brigitte Fellahi-Brognaux, Head of Unit, European Commission DG EMPL Beyond Better Incubation – Partner Networks’ reflections on the way forward A conversation with Tatiana Glad, IHUB; Roberta Bosurgi, EVPA ; Laura Lecci, EBN “Voices of Better Incubation” We’ll hear different experiences of Better Incubation. What did the programme offer to their orgnisations, their territories and communities? What are the plans for the future? Scaling Impact. Meet the Winners of the Better Incubation Contest 2022. We’ll discover the entrepreneurial journey of the three finalists of the Better Incubation Contest 2022| Scaling Impact. Their stories, their plans, their impact The session starts at 14.30 CET and it is going to be live streamed on Better Incubation Twitter account, LinkedIn page and EBN YouTube Channel. AGENDA Room Orangerie, on the 2nd floor & Live Streaming 14:30-14:40 Welcome and introduction about Better Incubation, Chiara Davalli, EBN 14.40-15.10 How BSOs can contribute to the implementation of the Social Economy Action Plan? Brigitte Fellahi-Brognaux, Head of Unit, European Commission DG EMPL Beyond Better Incubation – Partner Networks’ reflections on the way forward A conversation with Tatiana Glad, IHUB; Alessia Gianoncelli, EVPA ; Laura Lecci, EBN 15.10-15.30 “Voices of Better Incubation” moderated by Lucia Radu, Impact Hub We’ll hear different experiences of Better Incubation. What did the programme offer to their orgnisations, their territories and communities? What are the plans for the future? Francisco Pizarro, EU|BIC Fundecyt PCTEX Viktoria Soregi, IHUB Budapest Francesco Rocca, IHUB Lisbon Hrishabh Sandilya, EPIM Gerrit Jan van ‘t Veen, WorldStartup Kristian Mancinone, EU|BIC Associate ART-ER Nayla Attas, Impact Hub Global 15.30-15.50 Scaling Impact. Meet the Winners of the Better Incubation Contest 2022, moderated by Laura Lecci, EBN We’ll discover the entrepreneurial journey of the three finalists of the Better Incubation Contest 2022| Scaling Impact. Their stories, their plans, their impact. Fela Akinse Buyi, Founder Salubata Esra Arslan, Executive Board Member at İhtiyaç Haritası Needs Map Ondřej Kolařík, CEO and Co-founder ARBO Technologies 15.50-16.00 Closing session with the three partner networks
Better Incubation Newsletter #7 is out! Posted on November 16, 2022 by Better Incubation The seventh issue of the Better Incubation Newsletter describes the upcoming opportunities : Better Incubation Scaling Programme for the 3 finalists of the Better Incubation Contest 2022 Innovation, impact, SDGs, and inclusivity of innovative entrepreneurs – the story of the 2022 EBN Techcamp by Better Incubation Better Incubation facts and figures – key project highlights Better Incubation final event at EVPA Annual Conference 2022 Find out more information about Better Incubation news by reading the newsletter here : Better Incubation Newsletter 7_November 2022
Innovation, impact, SDGs, and inclusivity of innovative entrepreneurs – the story of the 2022 EBN Techcamp by Better Incubation Posted on November 7, 2022November 7, 2022 by Better Incubation Over 80 international business support experts, thought leaders, and innovation practitioners gathered in Lipica, Slovenia, for the 2022 EBN Techcamp powered by Better Incubation. Stemming from 26 different European and neighbouring countries, participants discussed the importance of diversity in entrepreneurship support. Techcamp showcased experiences and strategies and co-developed innovation support programs to give the European innovation ecosystem a competitive advantage by embracing diversity and an impact-driven approach to supporting (tech) entrepreneurship. It was held on the 19th and 20th of October in Lipica, Slovenia, to explore the European innovation ecosystem’s untapped potential in becoming more inclusive and diverse and how to re-strategize, upskill and expand business support services to service a new generation of impactful start-ups. It was co-hosted by EU|BIC Inkubator Sežana and was powered by Better Incubation, a project funded by the European Union Programme for Employment and Social Innovation. Inkubator Sežana is one of our quality-certified EU|BICS who decided to join the Better Incubation project. They quickly became an example for the community by designing a successful and effective incubation support programme for hearing-impaired entrepreneurs. Their motivation and success, as well as the celebration of their 30th anniversary, are one of the sources of inspiration that brought the EBN Techcamp to Lipica. The EBN Techcamp is the second of our yearly events and the one that most showcases methodologies, practices, techniques, and tools that the community can bring back to their country and region to better support entrepreneurial innovation. This year, our focus on impact-driven and inclusive entrepreneurship is in large part because we know the challenges the community is facing. We wanted to empower them with the tools that can bring long-lasting resolutions – by increasing the pool of entrepreneurs, diversifying the type of companies they support, and more completely investing in their region’s (sustainable and social) economic development. Laura Lecci, CEO at EBN As remarked by the EC and the OECD, inclusive entrepreneurship is an integral part of growth. A widespread business creation by people of all groups helps generate jobs and combat social and financial exclusion while stimulating economic growth. Evidence shows that women, youth, seniors, immigrants, and people with disabilities are often underrepresented in the entrepreneurial space and, on average, less likely to succeed in creating high-growth firms due to a lack of networks, and access to finance, and less adequate ways to gain skills needed grow a company. At the same time, social enterprises are longstanding agents of inclusive growth and have proved remarkably resilient in the face of economic adversity. By design, social enterprises address socioeconomic challenges in innovative ways and engage citizens to become part of the solution. Over 8 parallel deep-dive sessions, the 2022 EBN Techcamp offered EU|BICs, and BSOs a space to share, debate, and test practices, methods and tools for impact-driven and inclusive entrepreneurship promotion and support. Some of them resulted from the involvement of EBN and IHUB members in 21 Better Incubation pilots that led to new inclusive incubation programmes that involved more than 130 entrepreneurs over 6 months. Tools, methods, and recommendations have been shared during the Techcamp, and are also available in the Better Incubation Toolkit, the Better Incubation Collection of Best Practices, the Inspirational Videos, and the upcoming Better Incubation Insights Paper (focus on programmatic level) and the Better Incubation Roadmap (focus on organizational level). Photos by Jan Antonac from VSS Sežana There is evidence that business incubators and business accelerators can be effective supports for new and growing businesses, and evaluations suggest similar results can be achieved in business incubators that focus on supporting entrepreneurs from underrepresented and disadvantaged groups. The keys to success for these initiatives include offering strong preincubation services, building strong linkages with mainstream business support providers and investors, delivering support in flexible modules, and ensuring incubator staff is trained to support the targeted entrepreneurs. This year’s EBN Techcamp empowered its participants to support a new generation of impactful tech start-ups – companies that are both profitable and work to improve society, operating ‘’double bottom line’’ business models – and to leverage diversity and inclusion and become relevant, competitive, and gain an advantage. Cristina Fanjul, President of EBN The event counted on the contribution of many local and international speakers who shared their experiences and best practices for innovation support. Speakers included: Dr. Aida Kamišalić Latifić, the secretary of state at the Slovenian Ministry of Digital Transformation, and David Škabar, Mayor of Sežana, who spoke of the importance of innovation and digitalization in Slovenia for its future; Cristina Fanjul, EBN President, Dorijan Maršič, Director at Inkubator Sežana, both addressing the importance of increased inclusivity for the future of European innovation and sharing their personal experience in the subject; and Tobias Temmen, Venture Partner at Kellogg-WHU, Stanford Change Labs, Andreja Jaklič, Professor at the University of Ljubljana – Faculty of Social Science, and Flora Rosenow, Global Brand Strategy & Communication for Impact expert, who lead workshops on the creation of incubation modules, guaranteeing its societal value from innovation ecosystems, and measuring and communicating its value to others – respectively. Better Incubation is a joint initiative of EBN, Impact Hub and EVPA, funded by the European Union, to kickstart an “eco-systemic” change by bringing incubation and business support services closer to society as a whole and to promote entrepreneurship and self-employment as means to create jobs, develop skills, and give the unemployed and vulnerable an opportunity to fully participate in the economy and improve the inclusivity of our societies (www.betterincubation.eu)
Better Incubation | Toolkit Posted on October 12, 2022 by Better Incubation About this Toolkit This Toolkit is a comprehensive collection of handson tools and methodologies for business support organisations aiming to make their incubation and other business support programmes more inclusive and accessible. The Toolkit is based on the experience and exchange among members of the Communities of Practice of the Better Incubation initiative. It invites managers and contributors to incubation and other business support services to an honest analysis of their practices and gives them tools to go beyond the usual suspects as participants in their programmes. Being based on the experiences of the inclusive pilot programmes run within the Better Incubation framework, it is not an exhaustive list but offers itself as a starting point for all business support organisations to go beyond the status quo, i.e., mainstream entrepreneurship. This pilot has been running in many European countries: Spain, Portugal, United Kindom, France, Luxemburg, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Italt, Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey. How to use the Toolkit The Toolkit is organised in line with the common steps of designing and running a business support programme. You can easily navigate these different steps below and jump directly to where you are at, or you can read from beginning to end to get a better grasp of the many facets and perspectives when it comes to inclusion and accessibility in incubation and business support. For each step, different tools are listed and you can pick out what best fits your reality. Speaking of the steps of designing and implementing a business support programme: one important suggestion this Toolkit makes is to add step 2: Removing barriers to processes of developing and running business support programmes. Transforming your spaces and offerings to be more inclusive is not a one-time moment. It needs to happen throughout the programme cycle. However, having accessibility as a step just like “designing the programme” or “selecting participants” highlights the importance of gaining awareness about barriers that people may face in accessing programmes. This approach resonates with a wider mission of the Better Incubation project of placing incubators as catalysts in the entrepreneurship ecosystems and thus allowing them to go beyond their intermediary role. The 5 Groups in Focus Woman The European business and entrepreneurship ecosystem is far from being diverse and inclusive. According to the OECD report , women were half as likely as men to be self-employed , while the share of women who started their own business only increased by 2%. This gap can be explained by deep structural imbalances against female business founders, such as lack of access to finance, low opportunity perception regarding entrepreneurship among women, lack of role models or competing demands on time, with a double burden on home and work responsibilities for women. Migrants and Refugees In 2020, the number of refugees and asylum seekers in Europe increased to an unprecedented 23 million . Entrepreneurship therefore represents a great opportunity for refugees and other migrants to rebuild their lives and contribute to the economy and society in their new home country. Relevant business support services can help address these challenges, but it needs to be accompanied by a change of mindset in the sector to better reflect on the real needs of migrant entrepreneurs. Youth Youth unemployment represents one of the major social and economic challenges in Europe, with more than 16.5% of them being unemployed in 2018 . In response to the challenges the youth encounters when searching for jobs, entrepreneurship offers an alternative pathway to economic self-sufficiency. Critical success conditions can be provided by training and incubation programmes targeted at the youth to nurture their entrepreneurial attitudes and skills. Seniors With the ongoing demographic change and the ageing population in Europe, supporting entrepreneurial skills and becoming self-employed could be considered as innovative ways for middle-aged group workers to continue their professional activity . These include difficulties with mastering digital skills, health issues or social isolation. These demographic changes also affect business incubation support services because a new growing client group is emerging. People with disabilities The complexity of this group stems from the fact that disabilities are extremely diverse and are not fixed characteristic of individuals . People with disabilities face many barriers in the labour market, and employer discrimination is frequently reported. Tools for… Desinging inclusive support programmes Empathy interviews Co-creation with organisations in the field Personas Flexible modular design Removing barriers Analyse application data Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Training Scouting for and selecting diverse participants Community Mapping Channels Mapping Equity-informed selection Delivering the right programme support Needs assessement Business model basics Safer space Onion principle and confidence building Connecting participans to supportive people Intentional mentor matching Purposeful hosting Peer-to-peer support Facilitating access to capital Map funding possibilities Pitch training Offer funding Manageing impact Impact mesurement platform Exit interviews with participants Competence framework You can find more informaton HERE
Better Incubation #6 Newsletter is out Posted on August 16, 2022November 16, 2022 by Better Incubation The sixth issue of the Better Incubation Newsletter describes the upcoming opportunities : Better Incubation Contest 2022 | Scaling Impact – deadline to apply is September 1st, 2022 Better Incubation Toolkit is out Future activities and events Focus on the upcoming Switch Pitch appointments Find out more information about Better Incubation news by reading the newsletter here : Better Incubation Newsletter 6_August 2022
EU Award for Gender Equality Champions | First Edition Posted on July 26, 2022 by Better Incubation This new award is the European Commission’s initiative to recognise and celebrate the outstanding results achieved in the implementation of gender equality by academic and research organisations. The application process to this first edition of the EU Award for Gender Equality Champions is now open. Deadline for applications is 13 October 2022 at 17.00 (CET). The EU Award for (Academic) Gender Equality Champions aims to complement and boost the requirement for higher education and research organisations applying to Horizon Europe to have in place a Gender Equality Plan (GEP) as an eligibility criterion be a tool to advance inclusive gender equality plans and policies in the framework of the new European Research Area (ERA) policy agenda act as an enabler for the transformation agenda for universities set in the new ERA, and in line with the new European Strategy for Universities The prize also intends to raise public awareness of the importance of addressing gender equality in academic and research organisations through institutional change and incentivise a high degree of commitment to implementing inclusive gender equality plans. The prize will create a community of champions which can inspire other academic and research organisations to become gender equality champions themselves. The European Research Executive Agency (REA) manages the prize and its winners are selected by an independent expert jury for each prize category. There are 3 prize categories: Sustainable Gender Equality Champions | Organisations that can demonstrate a significant and sustained record of activity and a high level of achievement through the implementation of their Gender Equality Plan. Apply now Newcomer Gender Equality Champions | Organisations that have recently started implementing a Gender Equality Plan and can demonstrate the most progress in its implementation and achieved results. Apply now Inclusive Gender Equality Champions | Organisations that have developed the most innovative inclusive Gender Equality Plan addressing intersections with other social categories such as ethnicity, social origin, sexual orientation and gender identity (LGBTI+) or disability. Apply now Applicants (universities, higher education institutions, and research performing organisations -public or private – established in an EU country or a Horizon Europe Associated Country) can only apply to 1 of these 3 categories. Each prize winner will receive €100,000. There will be 2 winners in the prize category Sustainable Gender Equality Champions, 1 winner in the prize category Newcomer Gender Equality Champions, and 1 winner in the prize category Inclusive Gender Equality Champions. Check out all the information about the call, the eligibility and award criteria here Source: https://ec.europa.eu/info/research-and-innovation/funding/funding-opportunities/prizes/eu-award-gender-equality-champions_en