Better Incubation Communities of Practise at the starting blocks

Between May 18th and May 21st, the Better Incubation Communities of Practise (CoPs) meet online for their first monthly call.

Migrants and Refugees, People with Disability, Seniors, Women, Youth: these are the five thematic working groups which  serve as a social space in which participants can discover and further a learning partnership related to a common domain. The programme proposes a model to link together theoretical concepts with practices and guidelines for effective action. In this sense the CoPs foreseen in Better Incubation will serve as a powerful virtual space where participants will debate, exchange, investigate, plan, prototype and evaluate the activities in the field of inclusive entrepreneurship.

The CoPs are formed by at least 7 individuals: 4 representing members of IHUB and EBN, 1 representing Caritas Europa, and 2 external participants, either entrepreneurs from the under-represented group the CoP is working on, or experts on the subject more broadly. Coordinators from IHUB or EBN facilitate the work of the 7 representatives on each CoP, who come together online every month between May 2021 and May 2022, in 1,5 hours long sessions. 

Following a selection process that brought Better Incubation partners to assess 100+ applications from 30+ EaSI countries, 36 CoPs participants from 19 EaSI Countries were selected. 

• Impact Hubs: Amsterdam (Netherlands), Athens (Greece), Budapest (Hungary), Istanbul (Turkey), Kings Cross – London (UK), Lisbon (Portugal), Madrid (Spain), Milan (Italy), Munich (Germany), Reggio Emilia (Italy).
• EBN members: Bwcon GmbH (Germany), Accent Inkubator (Austria), Laval Mayenne  Technopole (France), BIC Euronova (Spain), Coventry University Social Enterprise (UK), Ruse Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Bulgaria), IPNincubadora (Portugal), CEEI Aragon (Spain), Entreprendre.wapi (Belgium), Fundecyt (Spain).
• Caritas: Slovakia, Serbia, Austria, Denmark, Greek-Catholic Metropolitan Caritas Association Romania
• Experts/Entrepreneurs: Hope 4 The Community (UK), Intellexi (Hungary), Project Phoenix (Cyprus), UNIRE (Italy), Project Ahead (Italy), INMI (Spain), Care Hub (Romania), BlindLook (Turkey), Oilright (Romania), Movingmood (Spain).

Moreover, EVPA  offered its members the possibility to join the CoPs as observers and get involved in specific discussions around access to finance and impact assessment. So far the following organisations are involved in the Better Incubation Communities of Practises: The Human Safety Net, Cartier Women’s Initiative, Fundacion ONCE.

CoPs participants already met on April 16th for the Better Incubation Bootcamp #1: a full day online event designed by the project partners to let CoPs participants getting to know each other, familiarising with the programme and starting drawing the “journey” the 5 CoPs will undertake between May 2021 and June 2022. The event was a mix of plenary and breakout sessions aimed at offering participants with different  opportunities to learn from and exchange with peers, also allowing for interactions between individuals belonging to different CoPs.

“The CoPs should not be seen as structures that work in silos focusing on one specific vulnerable target group, but rather as bodies activating a mutual exchange within the same community and among the other communities. The transversal CoPs will analyse the conditions that prevent specific groups from embarking on entrepreneurial careers through a series of cross-cutting lenses. Most importantly, this approach will generate several policy insights, which will become one of the key outputs of the CoPs.”