Greening SMEs in the proximity and social economy ecosystem through transnational co-operation

The call for proposals foresees the following outcome:

• Improved capacity of social economy SMEs and entrepreneurs to perform on the green transition;
• Enhanced transnational cooperation of public authorities and other stakeholders on the identification and implementation of sustainability practices for the proximity and social economy ecosystem;
• Fostered cross-sectorial cooperation and knowledge transfer between social economy SMEs and start-ups, mainstream businesses, consultancies, business support centres and incubators with regard to the uptake of green skills and the development of more sustainable products and services;
• Evidence-based integration of sustainable innovative processes by social economy SMEs and start-ups boosting their competitiveness and creating potential new market opportunities;
• Further investment of social economy SMEs in sustainable alternatives, capacity building and knowledge transfer.

Themes and priorities

The call for proposals aims at:

• supporting transnational and cross-sectorial cooperation, and exchange of good practices to enable sustainable growth of social economy SMEs and entrepreneurs regarding the green transition;
• boosting the capacities and skills of staff and management within social economy SMEs and entrepreneurs to green their operations and develop sustainable products and services;
• encouraging the uptake of sustainable alternatives and innovative solutions through capacity building, incubation and acceleration, advisory services and coaching;
• fostering cooperation between social economy entities on the one hand, and mainstream businesses, academia and public authorities on the other.

Activities must fall under at least one of the following themes:

• Improving social economy SMEs environmental footprint;
• Boosting the sustainable contribution of social economy entities to circular economy;
• Enabling the development of local green markets;
• Testing, implementing and scaling-up innovative green solutions by social economy SMEs and entrepreneurs;
• Capacity building and expertise sharing about environmental impact of social economy SMEs;
• Setting up investment or financial vehicles to finance the green transition of social economy;
• Fostering social economy SMEs’ capacity and skills to improve their use of new digital technologies for green purposes;
• Evaluating skills, infrastructure and investment needs required to enable social economy entities to meet climate targets in the long term.

Additional themes are also possible.

Activities that can be funded

Each consortium must deliver the following mandatory activities:

• Organisation of transnational capacity building activities bringing together different partners and stakeholders;
• Organisation of coaching, mentoring and business support activities targeting social economy SMEs and entrepreneurs;
• Delivering capacity building through advisory services to support social economy SMEs and entrepreneurs in identifying and implementing sustainable changes;
• Providing financial support to the SMEs.

For more details on activities and their focus see the Call document.