European Commission

EEPA – The European Enterprise Promotion Awards, recognises outstanding projects from across Europe that are working to support entrepreneurs and small businesses across six different categories.

This year the fifth category of the EEPA “Supporting the Development of Green Markets and Resource Efficiency” is back after a temporary suspension in 2017. This category recognises initiatives that support SME access to green markets and help to improve their resource efficiency through, for example, green skills development and matchmaking, as well as funding.

Netherlands: HAS Food Experience

Portugal:Matosinhos Carbon-zero Living Lab enhanced by local carbon market

Serbia: Rural HUB

Slovakia: Green bicycle

Turkey: İzmir Development Agency, Eco-efficiency Program (IEP)

Come back to Promoting Enterprise every week to discover the national winners across the other five EEPA categories: Promoting the entrepreneurial spirit, Investing in Entrepreneurial Skills, Improving the business environment, Supporting the internationalisation of business and Responsible and inclusive entrepreneurship.

Want to know who will be judging the 2018 projects? Meet the EEPA 2018 Jury here on the Portal!

EEPA – The European Enterprise Promotion Awards, recognises outstanding projects from across Europe that are working to support entrepreneurs and small businesses across six different categories.

The fourth category of the EEPA “Supporting the Internationalisation of Business” recognises initiatives that encourage enterprises and particularly small and medium-sized businesses to benefit more from the opportunities offered by markets, both inside and outside the EU. This year the category has nine different projects competing to win, so who will make it onto the European shortlist? Find out at the end of September after the EEPA 2018 Jury meeting!

Bulgaria: Supporting the internationalization and digitalization of SMEs in Bulgaria and Europe

Denmark: Lean Landing

Estonia: Development of the Estonian timber sector as the biggest exporter of wooden houses in the European Union

Finland: Kasvu Open – company growth sparring programme

Hungary: Startup Budapest Programme

Malta: Enabling the digital transformation of Maltese SMEs

Slovenia: Innovative business model 2COUNTRY

Spain: Misión Inversa del Vino y la Alimentación

Turkey: Cyberpark Accelerator Program (CAP): An Internationalization Pathway Business

Come back to Promoting Enterprise every week to discover the national winners across the other five EEPA categories: Promoting the entrepreneurial spirit, Investing in Entrepreneurial Skills, Improving the business environment, Supporting the development of green markets and resource efficiency and Responsible and inclusive entrepreneurship.

Want to know who will be judging the 2018 projects? Meet the EEPA 2018 Jury here on the Portal!

Who else will be competing for a place on the European shortlist for EEPA 2017? Time to find out about the European projects competing in Category 3: Improving the business environment! Don’t forget to have a look at the national winners in Category 1 and Category 2.

Category 3 recognises initiatives that support enterprise start-up and growth, simplify legislative and administrative procedures for businesses. In 2016 the prize was won by the Leader SME programme from Portugal for their activities to support national SMEs.

This year there are 8 projects competing for a European title in this category. Congratulations to all the national winners and we look forward to finding out who is on the EEPA 2017 shortlist!

Austria: Innovation to Company

Czech Republic: Třebíč is lively

Ireland: Mayo Ideas Lab

Italy: Progetto Manifattura – Polo Meccatronica

Netherlands: Innofest

Slovenia: Podjetno v prihodnost

Spain: Reempresa

Turkey: Business Friendly Uskudar Municipality

As the jury decision for the European Enterprise Promotion Awards (EEPA) shortlist draws closer it is time for us to meet all of the outstanding projects from across Europe that are competing on European level! Promoting Enterprise will be presenting all of the national winners that are being considered for the European shortlist as well as the categories that they are competing.

This week is the turn of Category 1: Promoting the entrepreneurial spirit, which recognises initiatives that promote an entrepreneurial mindset, especially among young people and women. In 2016 the prize was won by the entrepreneurship stronghold Lyon Ville de l’Entrepreneuriat from France.

This year there are 18 projects competing in this category and competition is fierce! Good luck to all the projects and we look forward to finding out who is on the EEPA 2017 shortlist!

Croatia: BUDI UZOR®/BE THE ROLE MODEL™

Cyprus: The Future in our hands:  Creating European entrepreneurs

Czech Republic: Jaudelam.cz

Denmark:
Fonden for Entreprenørskab som national, ansvarlig aktør for implementering af entreprenørskab i uddannelserne.

Estonia: Enterprise Village

Finland: Pikkuyrittäjät – Mini company program for primary school

France: Start’Up Lycée

Germany: BIRTH – Business Innovation Responsibility and Technology @Hansenberg

Greece: PATRAS Innovation Quest (Patras IQ)

Hungary: Startup Campus Program

Italy: 3D 4-Uman Technology is not uniquely human

Latvia: Information campaign “Support for entrepreneurs

Lithuania: KTU Startup Space

Romania: Doing innovative business based on advanced research and public communication

Serbia: Caravan of Youth Entrepreneurship

Slovakia: I will do it.sk

Turkey: Supporting Entrepreneurship, Skills and Future of Children and Youth Programme

United Kingdom: Made in North Tyneside

We are up to Category 5 of our European Enterprise Promotion Awards (EEPA) shortlist showcase…have you been keeping up so far?

This week is the turn of the national winners competing in Category 5 – Supporting the Development of Green Markets and Resource Efficiency. These projects have made it onto the shortlist because of their support for policies and initiatives at national, regional or local level that support SME access to green markets and help to improve their resource efficiency. From renewable energy to sustainable development, the top contenders for EEPA Category 5 are tackling important issues and are definitely ones to watch.

The Lime Trees & Honey Bees for Sustainable Development of the Danube Microregion project in Serbia strengthens the competitiveness of beekeeping in the Fruška Gora region and motivates young people to start beekeeping businesses. The project aims to increase the market share of Fruška Gora lime honey by investing in human resources and skills development, improved knowledge through scientific research, education and the introduction of new technologies. In addition, it ran a high-profile promotional campaign to raise public interest and created a marketing plan that changed the ad hoc approach of 8 beekeeper associations to a value-added, branded product, with export potential. Check out their video to learn more!

The Renewable Energy and Environmental Technologies Financial Support Programme is the first regional programme in Turkey to focus on renewable energy and environment. Nine projects dedicated to the design and production of renewable energy systems and environmental technologies were supported, as were 18 solar energy, 6 wind energy and 6 hybrid (solar + wind) systems. At the start of the project there were no systems for unlicensed electricity production connected to the grid in İzmir, making the energy capacity achievements of the programme (8.7 MW) all the more impressive. Watch this video to find out more!

An overview of the previous four categories presented:

• Category 1: Promoting the Entrepreneurial Spirit,
• Category 2: Investing in Entrepreneurial Skills,
• Category 3: Improving the Business Environment,
• Category 4: Supporting the Internationalisation of Business national winners.

In total, 343 National EEPA entries were received from 31 participating countries in 2016, which were then narrowed down by the national EEPA coordinators to 57 projects put forward for the European level of the competition.

At a meeting in Brussels on 27 September, the EEPA Jury drew up a project shortlist for each of the EEPA’s six project categories.  Let´s meet 18 shortlisted winners for EEPA 2016!

The winners are spread pretty evenly across Europe, with only Serbia featuring on the list more than once, with winning projects in the Promoting the Entrepreneurial Spirit and Supporting the Development of Green Markets and Resource Efficiency categories. We will present all of the shortlisted projects, category by category, on the Promoting Enterprise blog over the next six weeks.

The winner in each category will be revealed at the EEPA Awards Ceremony during the SME Assembly on 24 November in Bratislava, Slovakia, when the Grand Jury prize-winner will also be announced. All of the national winners will have their costs covered to send one representative to attend the SME Assembly, while shortlisted projects will be able to send two representatives.

Congratulations to all of the shortlisted projects – they are all worthy winners, and the EEPA Jury will have a difficult task in selecting the winning projects in each category. We wish them all the best of luck at the SME Assembly in November.

I started Ekapici because I love e-commerce. We are currently the only online takeaway ordering service in Turkey that delivers orders in 30 minutes and that has low minimum delivery costs. We save people time and money. We have just secured investment to expand in İzmir, and we hope to set up franchises in Ankara and Istanbul within the next three years.

If I were in charge of start ups and SMEs, I would ensure that they had access to decent investment so they could make their dreams happen.

“Entrepreneurs like me are important to society because we innovate; we help construct the national economy and create a broad vision for our country.”

Hero(es): Hakan Bas

Start up capital: Family and bank

Growth rate p.a: 100%

Mentor(s): No

Can you code?: No

Employees: 9

Education / Training: Mechanical Engineering

Product / Service: Online takeaway services

The seven winners of the eighth annual European Enterprise Promotion Awards (EEPA) were announced in Naples at the SME Assembly, which is the cornerstone of European SME Week.

The Grand Jury Prize was awarded to Encouraging Business Start-ups by Mothers with Young Children, a Hungarian project that seeks to help mothers develop the skills and mind-set to launch and run successful businesses. It offers online resources and training programmes. The project also holds the Entrepreneurial Women’s Roundtable to help mothers navigate the world of business and build relationships with one another.

Winners in the six official categories included organisations from Lithuania, Bulgaria, Spain, Italy, Germany and Portugal. These and many other initiatives encompassed areas as diverse as technology, sustainability and textile and proposed innovative solutions to a range of issues from pollution to lack of corporate social responsibility.

Below is the breakdown of winners and runners-up in each of the six competing categories.

Category 1: Promoting Entrepreneurial Spirit

Winner:

Lithuania – Mobile Apps Laboratories

Responsible organisation: App Camp, JSC

Runners up:

Austria – AplusB build!

Responsible organisation: build! Gründerzentrum Kärn GmbH

Netherlands – 20-80 Learning

Responsible organisation: Willem van Oranje College

Category 2: Investing in Entrepreneurial Skills

Winner:

Bulgaria – Brandiko

Responsible organisation: Ministry of Economy & Energy

Runners up:

Germany – Brennerei Next Generation Lab

Responsible organisation:  Wirtschaftsförderung Bremen GmbH

Serbia – Western Balkans Business Challenge

Responsible organisation: Junior Achievement Serbia

Category 3: Improving the Business Environment

Winner:

Spain – Start-up in 3

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

Runners up: 

Italy – Grow and Compete with Business Network  Contracts

Responsible organisation: Unioncamere Emilia-Romagna

United Kingdom – The Sharp Project

Responsible organisation: The Sharp Project

Category 4: Supporting the Internationalisation of Business

Winner:

Italy – Mirabilia: European Network of UNESCO Sites

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

Runners up:

Netherlands – Get in the Ring

Responsible organisation: Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship

France –The Living Heritage Company Label

Responsible organisation: Directorate for Competitiveness, Industry and Services

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

Winner:

Portugal – AMS – Thinking Ahead

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

Runners up:

Malta – EU LIFE+ Investing in Water

Responsible organisation: Malta Business Bureau

Turkey – Developing a Widely Applicable, Low-Cost Model for Clean Production in the Textile Finishing Industry

Responsible organisation: Uludağ Textile Exporters Association (UTEA)

Category 6 – Responsible and Inclusive Entrepreneurship

Winner:

Germany –Wiesbaden Engaged

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

Runners up:

Poland – Consortium of the design “Construction and equipment of the Intramunicipal Vocational Rehabilitation Centre”

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

France – The Entrepreneurs Team

Responsible organisation: National Association of Designer Groups (ANGC)

Special mentions:

United Kingdom – Primary to Professional

Responsible organisation: Gower College Swansea

Austria – Sources of Strength

Responsible organisation: Industrie- und Wirtschaftsentwicklung Murtal GmbH

Portugal – DO IT – Ideas of Portuguese Origin

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

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.

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: