European Commission

The European Enterprise promotion Awards (EEPA) are an opportunity for outstanding projects from across the European Union and COSME countries to be recognised for their work in supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses.

Austria: Corporate development programme (UEP)

Bulgaria: Innovation Academy

Croatia: Education for Success

Cyprus: IDEA Innovation Centre & Incubator – Accelerator for Start-up

Finland: MindBusiness – Promoting Higher Education Students’ Entrepreneurial Mindset and Agency

Hungary: Junior Achievement Foundation Hungary (JAM) – Entrepreneurial Volunteer Program

Italy: FactorYmpresa Turismo

Poland: FABLAB MAŁOPOLSKA

Portugal: Programa INOV CONTACTO – Programa de Estágios Internacionais de Jovens Quadros

Serbia: GIFT – Generate Ideas For Transfer

This year this category received 10 entries from a variety of programmes, including investing in youth entrepreneurship and developing entrepreneurial skills of existing business owners to allow their enterprises to thrive.

Keep coming back to the News Portal each week to discover the national winners in each category for EEPA 2019!

About the EEPA selection process

The competition has two stages. Applicants must first compete at national level to be eligible to compete at European level. For the national competition, each country selects up to two entries to be nominated for the European competition.

A shortlist of nominees will be chosen by a European jury. All nominees from the national and European competitions will be invited to attend the final awards ceremony. The ceremony recognises the winners for their efforts and gives them the opportunity to present themselves in a pan-European environment.

The European Enterprise promotion Awards (EEPA) are an opportunity for outstanding projects from across the European Union and COSME countries to be recognised for their work in supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses.

The European Enterprise Promotion Awards 2019 have closed and the jury will deliberate over the outstanding national winners submitted by each National Coordinator. But who is in contention for a spot on the shortlist? Time to meet the contenders in Category 1: Promoting the entrepreneurial spirit!

Belgium: Port Incubator CVBA-SO, a safe port for young experimentation. Haven (Port)

Croatia: R1novatorR1

Denmark: Game Hub Scandinavia

Estonia: Huppelaud (Spring Board) Summer School

France: Start-1ère©

Hungary: Start your own businesses Józsefváros! idea competition

Ireland: Community Entrepreneurship – An Innovative Approach to Create Change Agents for the Community

Lithuania: Moksleivių  socialinio verslumo skatinimas: JuniorSO

Malta: National campaign to promote employment opportunities in the manufacturing sector and ‘MAKE IT’ Campaign

Poland: Pilska Akademia Umiejętności

Serbia: The path of the young entrepreneur

This year this category received 10 entries, with a variety of projects ranging from youth business programmes to supporting specific sectors with employment opportunities and many more.

Good luck to all of the national winners, and keep coming back to the News Portal to discover the national winners in each category for EEPA 2019!

About the EEPA selection process

The competition has two stages. Applicants must first compete at national level to be eligible to compete at European level. For the national competition, each country selects up to two entries to be nominated for the European competition.

A shortlist of nominees will be chosen by a European jury. All nominees from the national and European competitions will be invited to attend the final awards ceremony. The ceremony recognises the winners for their efforts and gives them the opportunity to present themselves in a pan-European environment.

The European Enterprise Promotion Awards (EEPA) 2019 have opened across Europe and national competitions are well underway. Today on Promoting Enterprise we are having a look at one specific country, Belgium.

Belgium has been an active EEPA participant since 2006, submitting many projects at both national and European level. In its first EEPA year, Belgium won the Investing in entrepreneurial skills category with Fondation pour la Recherche et l’Enseignement de l’Esprit d’Entreprendre (FREE) and went on to win the same category the following year (2007) with Cap’Ten, sois capitaine de ton projet. The next win for Belgium came in 2013 when Starterscontracten voor Ondernemers won the Improving the business environment category. In addition to three European level wins, Belgium has also been nominated by the EEPA Jury on four occasions for the European shortlist.

This year Belgian EEPA candidates will have until Thursday 9 May 2019 to submit their projects to be considered for the 2019 national competition.

For more information on the Belgian EEPA 2019 competition, read the flyer in FR and NL, or visit the FR and NL websites. For specific questions, please contact the Belgian EEPA National Coordinator.  

The European Enterprise Promotion Awards (EEPA) celebrate the best of Europe and allow for the diversity of enterprise and entrepreneurial support schemes across the EU to shine through. As such, each country has its own deadlines and variations for its national competition, all of which is coordinated by a designated national coordinator.

In order to understand the EEPA 2019 requirements in your country you will need to have a look at your national factsheets. Each factsheet (available in your national language) gives a breakdown and explanation of the six active competition categories, as well as the Grand Jury Prize. You can also find the central European Commission website for EEPA related information, as well as all of the specific contact information for your National Coordinator, including their email address and your national EEPA website.

Have a look at your national factsheet, get in touch with your National Coordinator and prepare your EEPA 2019 application today!

For further support and information contact the EEPA Secretariat and the EEPA Communications Team.

With the European Enterprise Promotion Awards (EEPA) officially launched for 2019 it is time to get to know the important people that run the national awards in each country…your National Coordinators!

National Coordinators ensure that the national EEPA competitions run smoothly and that all applicants are supported throughout the competition process. They also have the very important role of nominating the two lucky projects that will represent their country at the European level of the EEPA competition.

If you are considering applying for EEPA 2019 then be sure to get in touch with your National Coordinator as soon as possible and make your application as strong as possible. Find all of the contact details for the 2019 National Coordinators below and don’t hesitate to contact the EEPA Secretariat for more information.

Find out more about EEPA participation and the national competitions for 2019 here.

Keep coming back to the News Portal every week for the latest EEPA 2019 information as well as the freshest updates from the worlds of entrepreneurship and enterprise.

What happens behind the scenes of EEPA? What goes into organising a national campaign? Today on Promoting Enterprise Estonian National Coordinator Kaupo Sempelson shares what has been going into the Estonian EEPA 2018 campaign.

How have you been preparing EEPA 2018 so far?

We finalised all of our preparations and launched the Estonian national competition on the 8^th of February, for which the deadline is the 6^th of April. However, we have recently begun the national process and we are hoping for a lot of active participation.

What are your top 3 pieces of advice for reaching out to potential applicants? 

The most important piece of advice I can give is to spread the invitation to apply across different networks, but also to send direct invitations to potential candidates. The direct approach is sometimes the most cost efficient solution. In Estonia we have also made use of the ministry’s Facebook page to disseminate the information about the EEPA national competition.

What will be the main aspects of your EEPA 2018 campaign?

We will not run a media campaign, as we are focusing our efforts on reaching potential candidates directly. We have found that this is particularly effective and allows us to secure quality entries.

What advice would you give to projects applying in the newly re-instated category ‘Supporting the development of green markets and resource efficiency’?

It is a very good opportunity for a potential project to get publicity. I think that the potential of this category is as yet undiscovered by potential projects. The entrepreneurial spirit category is very popular each year, so I think that we need to put some extra effort into reaching the green markets projects so this newly re-instated category can be just as strong.

What is the most important thing you have learnt during your experience as National Coordinator?

During my time as Coordinator I have seen a lot of initiatives worth rewarding and I am convinced that the EEPA competition is a very good award scheme for these projects to gain the recognition they deserve. The fact that the competition is on a European level is definitely an important aspect and one that has a positive effect on the projects.

Interested in what goes on behind the scenes of other national EEPA campaigns? Have a read of interviews with the Spanish and Swedish EEPA national coordinators here on Promoting Enterprise.

The entry deadline for the European level of the EEPA competition closed on 3 July 2017. The entries are now being checked and prepared for evaluation by the Jury.

In 2017 305 National EEPA entries were received from 32 participating countries. 56 projects were then selected by the National Co-ordinators as the best of the best and were put forward for the European level of the competition.

Interested in finding out who will be competing for the European awards? What does each country have to offer this year? Promoting Enterprise will be introducing you to all the categories and national winners throughout the summer…so stay tuned!

Who will be judging the entries? This year the diverse EEPA 2017 jury is made up of eight representatives from across different sectors and professions:

The EEPA Jury will meet in Brussels in September to decide on a project shortlist for each of the EEPA categories. The shortlisted projects will be announced soon after the Brussels meeting, and the winner in each category will be revealed at the EEPA Awards Ceremony during the SME Assembly on 23 November in Tallinn, Estonia.

Keep up with all the latest EEPA news right here on Promoting Enterprise, and good luck to all competing projects!

The national competitions for the European Enterprise Promotion Awards (EEPA) 2017 have been taking place across Europe and some of the national winners have already been announced! Here on Promoting Enterprise we have announced and presented the Dutch national winners and today national coordinator Juliane Kummer tells us about the German campaign and the two German national winners who will go on to compete at European level.

How many applications did you receive in total for EEPA 2017? Is this number higher than in 2016?

Juliane Kummer, German EEPA Coordiantor

We received 31 applications, but two of them were not eligible for the competition yet, so overall we had 29 projects. This number is higher than in 2016 when we received 30 applications of which 27 were eligible and competed at the national level.

What categories were the projects competing in?

We received applications in each category for 2017. 19 of them were competing in “Promoting the Entrepreneurial Spirit”, 5 in “Investing in Entrepreneurial Skills” and 3 in “Improving the Business Environment”. One project applied for the category “Supporting the Internationalisation of Business” and another for “Responsible and Inclusive Entrepreneurship”.

How did you reach out to potential EEPA applicants? What was your strategy for encouraging applications?

Our strategy had various elements. Firstly we spread the news about EEPA widely to make it popular, which was also complemented by individually contacting interesting projects and trying to encourage them via personal appeals to participate. To spread the news and cultivate public relations, we contacted more than 1.000 multipliers and informed them about the German campaign. We used our social media channels and communicated via the official German EEPA-Website, we issued a press release for our launch and we contacted PR Managers at relevant institutions and asked them to spread our news concerning the competition via their website and/or other communication instruments such as newsletters. For the second part of our strategy, we researched EEPA-suitable projects and programmes and contacted them directly to invite them to participate in the competition.

In addition, we developed a simplified application form for the German competition before the 2017 campaign started which we also provided on our website as an online-application-form.

How were your winners selected? Can you tell us about your jury and your selection process?

The German winners were selected by a jury of national experts. We sent all the application documents to the jury members before meeting to select the German winners. At first, the jury discussed all the entries and then voted for the top 10. These top 10 were then discussed again and a second vote was held to select the two German winners.    

German EEPA 2017 Jury

Who are the national winners?

One of our winners is “BIRTH – Business Innovation Responsibility and Technology @ Hansenberg”, competing in the category “Promoting the Entrepreneurial Spirit”. The BIRTH-Concept at the Hansenberg boarding school connects the topics of “MINT“ (“STEM”) and economic issues with enthusiasm for technology, delight in experimentation and responsible team work. Pupils from 14-18 years old receive entrepreneurship education in combination with knowledge about natural sciences and economics, business games, interdisciplinary competitions and cooperation between businesses and universities. It is an integrated project that aims to increase young people’s motivation, cooperative skills and their innovative and technological mind-set, helping them to become responsible adults.

The other German winner is the “Import Promotion Desk”, competing in category “Supporting the Internationalisation of Business”.  The Import Promotion Desk (IPD) serves an important hinge function between European importers and SMEs in selected developing and emerging countries. The aim is sustainable and structured import promotion of certain products from partner countries – in compliance with high quality, social and ecological standards. For this purpose, the IPD matches European importers and exporters from emerging markets as trade partners.

Follow updates on the German competition via the official German EEPA-Website and here on Promoting Enterprise!

The 2017 edition of the European Enterprise Promotion Awards (EEPA) is in full swing, and a lot of national deadlines are approaching…so get those applications in!

Today we meet Spanish EEPA National Coordinator Antonio Fernandez Ecker, who gives us a glimpse into the Spanish campaign and his advice for promoting EEPA 2017.

How have you been promoting EEPA 2017 so far?

The promotion for EEPA 2017 has been focused on providing relevant information and getting it to the right people. Part of this is including the relevant information about EEPA 2017 on the web page of the Ministry for Industry and SMEs and disseminating it via social media and email.

For our email dissemination we have directed our communications to specific entities such as:

• Members of the State Council for SMEs: an advisory board for SME affairs which is made up of representatives of the general state administration as well as representatives from the autonomous communities and local entities
• Chambers of commerce
• Business schools
• Universities
• Points of care for entrepreneurs (a network of unique one stop shops which exist in Spain, for information and electronic administration services for entrepreneurs and companies)
• 2016 prize winners

What are your top 3 pieces of advice for reaching out to potential applicants?

• Motivate them to participate by showing them that they are running an initiative with good results
• Prepare a good application that reflects why the project is good
• Give them relevant information about previous editions

What are the main aspects of your EEPA 2017 campaign?

To increase the dissemination of information amongst interested actors in the SME environment, with the goal of getting them to present success stories which take place in local environments which normally would not have as much publicity. We have also been taking a direct contact approach, providing information via email or telephone, so as to resolve any doubts that projects may have before presenting themselves as candidates.

What is the most important thing you have learnt during your experience as National Coordinator?

In my brief experience as a National Coordinator, I have only been in this role from September 2016, I have learnt that knowing, sharing and disseminating examples of successful initiatives in different EU countries is very important. It allows us to learn from each other, avoid previously made mistakes and put into practice initiatives that would otherwise have been difficult to implement. Overall, I believe that EEPA is extremely useful for promoting entrepreneurship in our countries.

Thinking of applying? Contact your national coordinator before your national deadline!

The preparations for the 2017 European Enterprise Promotion Awards (EEPA) are underway and National Coordinators across the participating countries have been working hard to promote the awards and find innovative and interesting entries to compete on European level for the 2017 titles!

Today Swedish EEPA National Coordinator Maria Evertsson gives us a glimpse into the Swedish campaign and her advice for promoting EEPA 2017.

How have you been promoting EEPA 2017 so far?

I have been promoting EEPA online with information and a simplified on-line-tool for applicants to fill in, which is supported with tweets about our EEPA web page. On the basis of the applications we receive our national jury will pick two national winners. Those two winners will then fill in the full application.

I have also reached out to actors involved in European Structural and Investments Funds and asked them to spread the word about EEPA 2017.

What are your top 3 pieces of advice for reaching out to potential applicants?

1. Address actors with good local and regional knowledge who can help spread the word.
2. Focus on the benefits for applicants in terms of visibility, European networking and international recognition.
3. Make it easy and attractive for applicants to participate.

What are the main aspects of your EEPA 2017 campaign?

• An attractive web page combined with social media.
• A simplified submission procedure.
• Link to last years’ EEPA to help potential candidates understand what it is all about.

What is the most important thing you have learnt during your experience as National Coordinator?

There are a lot of things happening which means that you may not reach your target audiences despite great efforts. You need to repeat information and find ambassadors with good knowledge about what is going on who can help you spread the word about EEPA. People do not necessarily understand that they could be EEPA material. It can help to give examples from previous years.

Thinking about applying? Need more advice or information? Find your national coordinator’s contact details here and ask them everything you want to know about EEPA!