European Commission

The European Enterprise Promotion Awards 2019 celebrated the best of the best in a ceremony on the 2^nd day of the SME Assembly 2019. On 26 November 2019, six category winners were awarded with EEPA prizes, and an overall Grand Jury Prize winner was crowned as being the most outstanding project across the six categories for 2019.

Congratulations once again to the EEPA class of 2019!

Promoting the Entrepreneurial Spirit

Haven Incubator CVBA-SO, a safe port for young experimentation, Belgium

Investing in Entrepreneurial Skills

IDEA Innovation & Entrepreneurship Centre, Cyprus

Improving the Business Environment

Fomento de la Contratacion Publica con Pymes, Spain

Supporting the Internationalisation of Business

HealthTech Nordic, Sweden

Supporting the Development of Green Markets and Resource Efficiency

TILOS, Greece

Responsible and Inclusive Entrepreneurship

Start-Up Your Future, Germany

Grand Jury Prize

Green PAC iLab, The Netherlands

It is time to meet this year’s shortlisted projects! Over the next few weeks each of the projects that the EEPA 2019 Jury have chosen will be presented in the category in which they will be competing in the EEPA 2019 finals at the SME Assembly in Helsinki this November.

To start the introductions, we are meeting the three shortlisted projects competing for the prize in Category 1: Promoting the Entrepreneurial Spirit.

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

Haven [Port] supports and strengthens enterprising young people who want to develop a project, and offers a safe testing ground to encourage creative youth entrepreneurship to grow into socially relevant companies. By offering a risk-free environment Haven encourages entrepreneurial youth to learn, experiment and fail, and thus enhance their competences for their future enterprises. As a result, these youth will be able to address our evolving societal challenges with their ideas, and have the experience to carry them out. The project has been active for two years and has 49 young affiliates that have benefited from the scheme.

Game Hub Scandinavia, Denmark

Game Hub Scandinavia allows current gaming market students at Viden Djurs business school, to continue their education in game development at established company Dania Games. Students can establish companies in the Game Incubator, spread across four locations in Denmark and Sweden. The Incubator works with young talent to develop their businesses and teach them the specifics of the highly competitive game industry, to ensure survival of young companies. The Incubator also conducts research that can be used to guide business models for the companies of the incubator. To date, the project partners have created approximately 100 companies and 157 workplaces.

The path of the young entrepreneur, Serbia

“The path of the young entrepreneur” focuses on promoting the entrepreneurial spirit of young people, and educating them about opportunities for starting businesses and developing innovative ideas, in response to the growing problem of youth unemployment. The project has established connections between youth (over 2000), entrepreneurial initiatives (100), corporations and startups (over 50), to facilitate the construction of a stable entrepreneurial community, and provide resources and information for the youth to launch entrepreneurial careers. Project activities include youth entrepreneurship fairs, business training, entrepreneurship competitions, a startup business forum, university visits and public panel discussions and lectures.

Keep coming back to the News Portal every week to meet the 2019 shortlisted projects!

Don’t forget to have a look at all of the EEPA 2019 national winners that represent the top projects across all of the participating countries right here.

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.