European Commission

The 2014 EEPAs will be presented in Naples, Italy

Hundreds of projects competed in the 2014 national competitions for a chance to represent their country in the European Enterprise Promotion Awards, due to be presented in October.

A record number of 31 countries entered the 2014 EEPAs. 22 projects from 15 countries – Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Spain, Turkey and the UK – were shortlisted during the jury meeting held earlier this summer.

Commenting on the shortlist, Ferdinando Nelli Feroci, the newly appointed Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship, stressed the creativity and imagination used to produce these outstanding results. He said it proves exactly why harnessing and celebrating the entrepreneurial spirit is so important to driving the growth of European business. He believes that the 22 shortlisted projects will inspire and encourage young people and women especially, to choose entrepreneurship as a viable career path.

Shortlist for the 2014 European Enterprise Promotion Awards

Category 1: Promoting the Entrepreneurial Spirit

Austria: AplusB build! Start-Up Centre’s two main goals are to promote entrepreneurship as a career option and stimulate entrepreneurship by providing coaching, training and financial support for innovative start-up projects in the Carinthia region. Their goal is to support 8-10 new start-up projects each year, and the initiative has already funded more than 95 start-ups, with over 90 per cent of these companies trading successfully.

Responsible organisation: build! Gründerzentrum Kärn GmbH

Organisation website: www.build.or.at

Hungary: Encouraging Business Start-ups by Mothers with Young Children helps mothers to acquire the entrepreneurial skills and mindset to start a business and make it profitable. The project delivers online resources including a blog, Facebook page, e-learning training programmes and a weekly newsletter, as well as the Entrepreneurial Women’s Roundtable meeting to help mothers navigate the world of business and network with each other. The project also hosts the annual Mother Company of the Year competition and the Business Mums’ Conference.

Responsible organisation: Gazdagmami Kft.

Organisation website: www.gazdagmami.hu

Lithuania: Mobile Apps Laboratories is an initiative to promote entrepreneurship in information and communication technologies. Working in the four biggest Lithuanian education institutions, Mobile Apps Laboratories bring together young people with academics and industry professionals to deliver ‘App Camp’ during their bachelor, master or PhD dissertation works, with the objective of bringing innovative new products and services to the market. It also aims to increase the number of women starting businesses in information technology.

Responsible organisation: App Camp, JSC

Organisation website: http://www.appcamp.lt/

Netherlands: International Business College 20:80 Learning is an entrepreneurial programme for students in secondary education. The young students complete the standard Dutch secondary school course in four days per week (80%) and during the remaining time (20%) they have an International Business College (IBC) day where they set up and run their own business. There are currently 10 active IBC schools and 350 students involved in this education programme.

Responsible organisation: International Business College

Project website: www.20-80learning.nl

Category 2: Investing in Entrepreneurial Skills

Bulgaria: Brandiko educates students on how to build a brand and register the brand as a Community Trade Mark. Students establish training companies and are mentored on how to build and manage their own brand, market the brand and use it to increase sales. Pupils also learn about the importance of intellectual property protection. More than 1,700 students have completed the Brandiko programme.

Responsible organisation: Ministry of Economy & Energy

Organisation website: www.mi.government.bg

Germany: BRENNEREI Next Generation Lab enables master’s students and graduates to learn and develop new entrepreneurial approaches. Together with professionals from the science and creative industries, scholars work full-time in inter-disciplinary teams to solve the real problems of companies or public entities. The activities include analyses and finding novel approaches that are socially relevant in the areas of communication, product design, and use of new media. Approximately 60 applications from all over Europe have been received for the 2014 scholarship.

Responsible organisation: WFB Wirtschaftsförderung Bremen GmbH

Organisation website: www.wfb-bremen.de

Project website: www.brennerei-lab.de

Serbia: Western Balkans Business Challenge is a unique competition for high school students from Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. In mixed teams (4 students from each country), they compete to provide the best business idea for the challenge put before them. The initiative develops entrepreneurial and financial skills and motives the students to think proactively. At least 1,500 students and 200 business community representatives have participated in the competition so far.

Responsible organisation: Junior Achievement Serbia

Organisation website: www.ja-serbia.org

UK: Primary to Professional (P2P) engages primary and secondary school pupils introducing them to important entrepreneurial skills including creativity, innovation and risk taking and leads to a specialist enterprise academy for start-up businesses. This has developed into supporting business start-ups with the first Start up Weekend in Wales and the new Tech Hub for new Tech Entrepreneurs. More than 4,000 secondary school pupils have taken part in Young Business Dragons and enterprise is now embedded in a number of educational institutions across Swansea.

Responsible organisation: Gower College Swansea

Organisation website: www.gowercollegeswansea.ac.uk

Category 3: Improving the Business Environment

Austria: Sources of Strength has five clear objectives to improve the manufacturing economy in the Murtal-Murau region. These include building a sustainable image of the industrial/manufacturing economy, positioning this sector as an attractive employer, strengthening the integration of businesses in the region and developing an industrial tourist product and launching this into the tourism market. Since its inception, 61 leading companies have come together to strengthen the integration of industry and trade services in the region.

Responsible organisation: Industrie- und Wirtschaftsentwicklung Murtal GmbH

Project website: http://kraft.dasmurtal.at

Italy: Grow and Compete with Business Network Contracts promotes and disseminates a business contract culture and to support companies interested in setting up business networks, particularly to facilitate internationalisation processes and increase competitiveness in foreign markets. The project includes a training phase and a customised support phase for businesses expressing an intention to aggregate through network contracts. So far, the project has led to 12 network contracts being finalised, involving 50 businesses.

Responsible organisation: Unioncamere Emilia-Romagna

Organisation website: www.ucer.camcom.it

Spain: Start-up in 3 is a technology platform that streamlines and simplifies business creation and business start-up procedures, linking existing platforms through a single point of access and connecting all the Local Authorities in Spain. The aim of the project is to reduce the time between the establishment of the company and the time it takes for the enterprise to become operational to just three days which is achieved by registering the enterprise through a cloud-based system.

Responsible organisation: Ministry of Finance and Public Administration (MINHAP)

Organisation website: www.minhap.es

UK: The Sharp Project has converted a redundant distribution centre into a media hub for over 60 companies, including those specialising in digital content production, digital media and TV and film production. It is where space, power, connectivity and people converge in the inspiring surroundings to develop careers and compete on a global stage. The aim of the project is to reduce barriers that prevent creative and digital businesses from growing, creating work and generating wealth.

Responsible organisation: Manchester City Council

Project website: http://www.thesharpproject.co.uk/

Category 4: Supporting the Internationalisation of Business

France: The French Label Living Heritage Company focuses on quality assessment and is awarded by the French Government to distinguish companies with excellent craft and industrial skills. Recognised businesses are characterised by a long trading history, innovation capabilities and rare know-how that has helped establish their reputation. Since 2005, the label has been awarded to 1,157 companies, who account for 53,000 jobs and more than €11 billion in cumulative turnover.

Responsible organisation: French Government

Organisation website: http://www.dgcis.gouv.fr/

Italy: Mirabilia: European Network of UNESCO Sites links together areas of common historical, cultural and environmental significance for the first time. The project is aimed at creating a network of places recognised by UNESCO as World Heritage sites, but which are lesser known to Italian and international tourism, with the aim of promoting them in a co-ordinated and organised way to Italian and foreign tourists.

Responsible organisation: Matera Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Crafts and Agriculture

Organisation website: www.mt.camcom.it

Project website: www.mirabilianetwork.eu

Netherlands: Get in the Ring is a worldwide platform for start-ups to raise capital. It brings together the most promising entrepreneurs from around the world and gives them a chance to secure an investment of up to €1,000,000 by pitching in front of prominent international investors. There have been 1326 participating start-ups attracting over €6million in investments.

Responsible organisation: Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship

Project website: www.getinthering.nl

Category 5: Supporting the Development of Green Markets and Resource Efficiency

Malta: EU LIFE+ Investing in Water is aimed at identifying water saving measures amongst best practice enterprises, disseminating this information to others and supporting their implementation. The project is focussed on sharing information through face to face meetings, printed materials and an interactive CD, workshops and via the website. The project has identified 26 best practice enterprises and saved an estimated 141 million litres of water per annum.

Responsible organisation: Malta Business Bureau

Organisation website: http://www.mbb.org.mt/

Project website: http://www.investinginwater.org/

Portugal: AMS – Thinking Ahead set itself the challenge of becoming ‘the most efficient supplier of tissue on the Iberian Peninsula’, achieving this through innovation and differentiation. It has revolutionized traditional industrial processes by installing a pipeline connection to its pulp supplier; a unique alliance that has reduced CO2 emissions by 11,000 tonnes per year and generated significant competitiveness in external markets.

Responsible organisation: Agency for Investment and Foreign Trade of Portugal, Public Enterprise (“AICEP”) in partnership with AMS Gomà-Camps, S.A. (“AMS”)

Organisation website: http://www.portugalglobal.pt/PT/Paginas/Index.aspx, http://www.amspt.eu/

Turkey: Developing a Widely Applicable, Low-Cost Model for Clean Production in the Textile Finishing Industry is a pioneering project which develops models to reduce the quantity of raw materials used in the textile industries and promote sustainable production. The project has resulted in solid methodologies and processes that can be widely adopted and used by a multitude of manufacturing businesses at almost no cost.

Responsible organisation: Uludağ Textile Exporters Association (UTEA)

Organisation website: www.uib.org.tr

Category 6: Responsible and Inclusive Entrepreneurship

France: The Entrepreneurs Team helps young and unskilled people, including those excluded from school, to succeed in employment and autonomy. Offering teaching and coaching based on entrepreneurship, the project involves two main phases; a University Diploma in Business Creation which is accessible to the unqualified, followed by socio-professional support in conjunction with an entrepreneurship advisory body and a University. The project has supported 167 individuals; 23% have successfully created their own business.

Responsible organisation: Association Nationale des Groupements de Créateurs (ANGC)

Organisation website: www.groupement-de-createurs.fr

Germany: Wiesbaden Engaged – the corporate citizenship strategy of the city of Wiesbaden – promotes the social sense of responsibility of businesses and entrepreneurs in Wiesbaden. They have developed four key activities within the project; an annual day promoting social engagement, two long term projects promoting integration and employability, an award for engaged businesses to establish a local reputation and participation in a national corporate social responsibility networking and consultation project.

Responsible organisation: Municipality of the City of Wiesbaden – Agency for Social Work

Project website: www.wiesbaden.de

Poland: The Construction and Equipping of the Intramunicipal Vocational Rehabilitation Centre aims to improve employment opportunities for people with disabilities, particularly mental disabilities, enabling them to participate equally in society and in a professional capacity. The Rehabilitation Centre offers employment within eight departments including catering, laundry, garden maintenance, cleaning and hygiene, assembly/disassembly and recycling. Employees not only earn an income, but also receive training in vocational and social skills to encourage independent living.

Responsible organisation: Polish Association for Persons with Mental Handicap, Szczecin Branch

Organisation website: www.psouuszczecin.org.pl

Portugal: DO IT – The idea behind Portuguese Origin is a competition to use the experience, talent and dynamism of Portuguese emigrants to benefit their country of origin. Under the slogan ‘They think of it there, they do it here”, the project aims to select and promote ideas and support the realisation of social entrepreneurship projects which contribute to transforming emigration trends in an effective way for Portuguese society and the country as a whole.

Responsible organisation: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Organisation website: www.gulbenkian.pt

Take a look at past European Enterprise Promotion Awards winners: 2012; 2013; Grand Jury Prize 2006-2012.

The 2014 EEPA jury met in Brussels

Each year, an independent high-level European jury takes on the difficult task of selecting the best entries to the European Enterprise Promotion Awards in each category. This year’s jury includes representatives from government, business and academia as well as Greece and Italy – as part of their EU presidencies during 2014.

There are also two permanent representatives, one from DG Enterprise and Industry and one from the Committee of the Regions. The winner of the previous year’s Grand Jury Prize is also invited to sit on the jury. The 2014 judges are:

Joanna Drake

Chairperson

European Commission, DG Enterprise and Industry

Joanna has been Director responsible for the promotion of entrepreneurship and SMEs at the Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry of the European Commission since 2010. Previously Head of the EC Representation in Malta and prior to that Head of the Legal & Regulatory Department of Vodafone Malta Ltd, Joanna has in addition taught and researched law at the University of Malta and studied at the College of Europe, Bruges.

Prof. Thomas M. Cooney

Professor in Entrepreneurship, Dublin Institute of Technology

Thomas is Professor in Entrepreneurship at the Dublin Institute of Technology and Academic Director of the DIT Institute for Minority Entrepreneurship. He is a Member of the Danish Foundation for Entrepreneurship and Chair of the 2014 ICSB World Conference.  Thomas has taught, researched, and published widely in the area of Entrepreneurship.

Dr. Gundars Strautmanis

President of the Council, Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI)

Dr. Gundars Strautmanis is currently the president of LCCI and member of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC). Gundars has been President/Chairman of the Board of Directors of Lattelcom Ltd and Chief Executive Officer at FORMULA, the Canadian-Latvian joint venture as well as holding leading positions at the Riga Scientific Research Institute of Micro Devices of JSC ALFA.

Guiseppe Tripoli

Italian SME envoy

Guiseppe was appointed as Head of Department for Enterprise and Internationalisation within the Ministry for Economic Development in 2009 having previously been General Secretary of Unioncamere from 2001 to 2009.  He has been the SME Envoy for Italy since February 2011. In 2012 he was nominated as Italian Guarantor for micros and SMEs.

Marta Martí Carrera

Chair of BUSINESSEUROPE’s “Entrepreneurship and SME” Committee

In 2005 Marta created Tribu Respira to provide companies with valuable business management tools helping to raise productivity and to bring out the hidden talent of employees.  Her clients include many prestigious brands. A serial entrepreneur, she is developing two other companies: “Sips of Light” and Mitocondria, an audiovisual production company.

Thomas Wobben

Committee of the Regions

After studying Economics and Politics, Thomas worked for voluntary sector organisations. In 1993 he joined the European policy services of the Land Saxony- Anhalt and in 1995 he began working in the Liaison Office of Saxony- Anhalt in Brussels taking over as Director in 2000. Since March 2012 he has been Director for Horizontal Policies and Networks at the Committee of the Regions.

Dionysios Tsagkris

SME Envoy for Greece

As Head of the SME Policy Directorate, Dionysios has worked actively on SME and Entrepreneurship policy development at the Ministry of Development and Competitiveness.  He has chaired various implementation policy committees in facilitating access to finance for SMEs.  He has also coordinated the digital platform STARTUPGREECE which has a primary objective to promote the entrepreneurial spirit in Greece.

Members of the EEPA jury and EEPA secretariat meeting in Brussels

The European Enterprise Promotion Awards (EEPA) jury met on 9 July, 2014 in Brussels, to consider a record number of entries from 31 countries, including from 28 EU member states.

After much deliberation, 22 projects have been shortlisted. The winners for each of the six categories will be announced at an Awards ceremony at the SME Assembly in October.

The 2014 jury is made up of members of the outgoing Greek Presidency of the Council and the current Italian Presidency along with representatives from government, business, and academia. Joanna Drake from the European Commission’s Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry, chairs the jury.

Projects from the following countries were shortlisted: Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Spain, Turkey and the UK.

Find out more about the impact and objectives of the European Enterprise Promotion Awards.

Watch highlights from the 2013 ceremony:

Graphic courtesy of torinosocialinnovation.it

FaciliTO Giovani and Innovazione Sociale, projects set up by Turin Social Innovation Programme, have been designed to support young entrepreneurs and their projects.

Active from January 2014 to December 2015, the programme, aimed at aspiring entrepreneurs aged between 18 and 40 years old, seeks to add both social and economic value to society. It hopes to transform innovative ideas in a range of fields, from education to social inclusion.

FaciliTO is a model that the Municipality of Turin adopted to tackle the difficulties that small enterprises encounter in struggling urban areas. It won the Improving the Business Environment category of the 2012 European Enterprise Promotion Awards.

One enterprise that has benefited from FaciliTO is NISO Biomed, founded within the I3P incubator of the Polytechnic University of Turin in 2009. It develops and distributes diagnostic devices in gastroenterology and cancer prevention. Distinguished gastroenterologists around the world have tested its technology.

On the “Day of Italian Quality”, a day dedicated to celebrating the best of “Italian grown” business, NISO Biomed won the “Leonardo Start-up prize”. It was also named start-up of the year by the PNICube association of university incubators.

Turin Social Innovation’s start-up programme was also recognised as the best initiative in the sector by a group of experts appointed by six business associations: The Italian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (AIFI), Italian Association of Science and Technology Parks (APSTI), Italian Business Angels Network (IBAN), Italy Startup Network for the Promotion of University Research (NETVAL), and the Association of Incubators and Business Plan Competitions Academic Italian (PNICube). The Ministry of Economic Development, the Leonardo Committee and the ICE – Agency of Promotion and Internationalisation of Italian Enterprise, coordinated the award.

Winners of the 2012 European Enterprise Promotion Awards

Category | Grand Jury Prize

A special prize awarded to the entrepreneurial initiative considered the most creative and inspiring in Europe

Winner

Making enterprise a realistic option for the hard-to-reach

Outset, YKTO Ltd, United Kingdom

Outset is designed to show the unemployed that self-employment and enterprise is a realistic alternative to unemployment.

Specifically created to help the most vulnerable groups, including the long-term unemployed, recently redundant, under-25s, women, people from minority ethnic backgrounds, people with mental and physical disabilities and those who are over 50 years of age, the programme takes a unique approach to supporting start-ups. A national project that works in urban and rural settings, it seeks to change beliefs about the ability to start a small business.

The project ethos involves using support teams that often have similar challenging backgrounds, come from the same local areas and have had first-hand experience of being self-employed or running a business. Outset actively reaches, through all types of community spaces, from sports centres to Diwali and Chinese New Year festivals to find the people that will benefit most. This in-person outreach is reinforced by highly effective, targeted promotions including radio ads with direct response SMS facilities, quirky and enticing posters, postcards and flyers plus online and email marketing and lots of social media such as Facebook and Twitter. We use normal, jargon-free language.

Since the start of the programme, Outset has engaged with over 6,000 people. Of those, 673 have started a business, together creating 890 jobs. Outset Finance has helped its clients raise £790,258 from a variety of funding sources to either start or expand their business.

Most importantly, the businesses that Outset support do last: survival rates, particularly for women entrepreneurs, far outstrip national averages. Within disadvantaged client groups, conversion rates from engagement to start are approximately 1:5 and Outset’s new business survival rate after four years is over 80%.

Contact

Bev Hurley, Chief Executive

St John’s Innovation Centre, Cowley Road, Cambridge CB4 0WS, UK

bev.hurley@ytko.com

www.outset.biz

Category | Promoting the Entrepreneurial Spirit

Recognising actions that promote an entrepreneurial culture and mindset and raise awareness about entrepreneurship in society.

Winner

Boosting women’s entrepreneurship by providing easy access to financing Women’s Co-operative Bank Ltd Women’s Co-operative Bank ‘initiative’ Ltd, Cyprus

The Women’s Co-operative Bank seeks to boost women’s entrepreneurship by providing easy access to financing. The organisation identifies gaps in the economy, promotes support programmes for female entrepreneurs and provides free advice and guidance, as well as loans, that are tailor-made to the needs of small business owners. Since the project began, women’s entrepreneurship has increased in Cyprus overall from 12% in 2001, to 28% in 2012.

Contact

Artemis Toumazi, Chairman/Director

Sinergatikos Organismos Protovoulias, Ginekon Kiprou Ltd, 30 Pavlou Valdaseridi Street, Branches 1-4, 6018 Larnaca, Postal Code 42251 6530, Larnaca, Cyprus

womens.coop.bank@cytanet.com.cy

www.womenscoopbank.com.cy

Category | Investing in Skills

Recognises regional or local initiatives to improve entrepreneurial, vocational, technical and managerial skills

Winner

Fostering knowledge transfer and digital visualisation

Visualisation Park, Sweden

Visualisation Park in Sweden focuses on the commercial application of digital visualisation technology. Using a business park model, the location in Eksjö offers a home to a cluster of businesses with expertise in this emerging field. They are gathered around Campus i12, which offers a range of vocational courses. 50 partner companies support the educational programmes and the Park provides a meeting place for educational environment and industry to identify and develop projects. Since it was founded in July 2009 the number of partner companies has more than doubled, to over 100. Most importantly, students’ attitudes shifted. More of them are now inclined to be entrepreneurs themselves, either by launching their own start-up or freelancing.

Contact

Joakim Falkäng, Manager

Visualisation Park, Kaserngatan 26, SE-575 35 Eksjö, Sweden

joakim@vispark.se

www.vispark.se

Category | Improving the Business Environment

Recognising measures to simplify administrative procedures for businesses, particularly for start-ups

Winner

Tackling difficulties faced by SMEs in urban areas

FaciliTO, Municipality of Turin, Italy

FaciliTO is a model that the Municipality of Turin adopted to tackle the difficulties that small enterprises encounter in struggling urban areas. Micro and small businesses in Turin have faced particular difficulty in accessing credit, which is often due to the absence of project expertise. FaciliTO attempts to meet these needs by providing free consultations to support the development of business plans as well as direct financial support. Over 200 businesses have accessed FaciliTO and 93 of them have received financial support.

Contact

Elisa Rosso, Servizio Fondi europei Innovazione

Sviluppo Economico, Via Braccini 2, Cap 10144, Turin, Italy

elisa.rosso@comune.torino.it

www.comune.torino.it

Category | Supporting the Internationalisation of Business

Recognises policies to encourage enterprises and particularly small and medium-sized businesses to benefit more from the opportunities offered by markets both inside and outside the European Union

Winner

Co-operating to bring Douro wines to the world

Douro Boys, Aicep Portugal Global, Portugal

A group of five small wine producers from the Douro region worked together to create the Douro Boys brand. Designed to exchange information and support each other to steadily improve the quality of the wines they produce, the group also aims to co-ordinate a marketing strategy centred on promoting the Douro region and its wines to the world. Between 2002 and 2011, the exports of wine from the five producers increased from €4.7 million to €11 million, an increase of 134%.

Contact

Jorge Holtreman Roquette, Administrator for Quinta do Crasto SA

aicep Portugal Global, Agência para o Investimento e Comércio Externo de Portugal, EPE

O’Porto Bessa Leite Complex, Rua António Bessa Leite, 1430 – 2o Andar, 4150-074 Porto

comercial.pme.nort@portugalglobal.pt

info@douroboys.com

www.portugalglobal.pt

www.douroboys.com

Category | Responsible and Inclusive Entrepreneurship

Recognises regional or local actions promoting corporate social responsibility and sustainable business practices

Winner

Supporting disabled people into the workplace, Disabled at Work, Denizli Municipality, Turkey

Disability is a major cause of social exclusion and poverty, primarily due to the lack of employment opportunities. Disabled at Work, a joint Turkish-Dutch project, seeks to change attitudes and support the integration of physically disabled people into the labour market. The group comprises 16 organisations from Turkey and the Netherlands. The projects provide training as well as a matching programme which offers disabled people mentors as they prepare to enter the workforce. At the end of the programme, 194 people had been trained and 65 were employed.

Contact

Ms Pınar GÜLMEZ AĞIRBAŞ, Director of Survey and Project Department

Altıntop Mahallesi Lise Caddesi No:1, 20100 Denizli, Turkey

pgulmez@denizli.bel.tr

www.denizli.bel.tr