Projects

Projects

SocialTech4EU

SocialTech4EU

The SocialTech for Europe for Resilient and Responsible Ecosystems, SocialTech4EU, is a two-year project that kicked off in September 2022 and is co-funded by the EU, more specifically the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA) through the Joint Cluster Initiatives (EUROCLUSTERS) for Europe’s recovery (SMP-COSME-2021-CLUSTER).

The largest support and capacity building programme in Europe for social enterprises

Discover more about SocialTech4EU on ECCP webpage

Presentation of the project

Social media accounts: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIN.

For any further questions, please contact socialtech4EU@fondazionebrodolini.eu

Social economy organisations often face structural difficulties related to the access to new digital and green business models and their implication in the twin transition. Challenges are related to weak financial sustainability and access to finance, lack of skills and talent attraction capacity, low competitiveness on the market compared to traditional SMEs. These challenges hamper their potential to create more jobs and address societal challenges on a larger scale while inspiring systemic changes in the mainstream economy.

This project aims at strengthening the resilience and innovation capacity, competitiveness, and sustainability of social economy ecosystems and of start-ups and SMEs of the social economy, with a special focus on technology social ventures. The project will do this through providing them with support in the form of grants, vouchers and professional services. New digital and green business models enabled by new technologies are at the core of this project, as well as clusters’ support to agile forms of public-private partnerships and new forms of cooperation between private and public sectors within and across different value chains and territories, to accelerate the delivery of innovative impact solutions that would not be achieved otherwise.

This project is one of the 14 Industrial Ecosystems – linked to the EU industrial Strategy and is part of the Proximity and Social Economy Industrial Ecosystem. In September 2022, 30 Euroclusters have been launched to implement the EU Industrial Strategy. Euroclusters are cross-sectoral, interdisciplinary and trans-European strategic initiatives of industry clusters and other economic actors such as research organisations, companies, etc. Learn more and access the European Cluster Collaboration Platform here.

Project activities

Work Package 1 will focus on the project management and coordination

Work Package 2 will focus on auditing and mapping. In this WP, the needs and challenges will be identified that are preventing SEs twin transitions and resilience and the social impact generated by the sector will be monitored. New collaboration models between European cluster organisations and other key actors will be built and the knowledge in the public sector and of public officials of social enterprises’ needs and characteristics is aimed to be improved, with the eye on more tailored policy design and policy making.

Work Package 3 has a focus on inspiring, up-skilling and re-skilling. The aim is to create awareness among SEs on how new technological solutions could be used to increase effectiveness and efficiency of their service and business models, as well as for increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of their operating model for better inclusiveness. Moreover, up- and re-skilling will be fostered and the aim is to raise the skills and capacity of EU SE cluster managers.

Work Package 4 will connect to innovate. Promising SEs will be identified and selected, both for innovation support in WP4 and acceleration after WP4. The selected social enterprises will exchange with other parties, resulting in new-to-firm products or services in the focused ecosystem. In this WP, internationalization actions will be supported.

Work Package 5 will support the social enterprises in the uptaking and upscaling of innovation and will bring their innovative solutions to the market, will support social enterprises accessing new financing opportunities and will facilitate cooperation with international business partners (corporates, investors, procurers, etc).

Work Package 6 focusses on communication & dissemination and will ensure synergies with other Eurocluster activities.

Documents

Leaflet SocialTech4EU Download

SocialTech4EU invitation to register in the Registry of stakeholders and providers for social economy

Are you a local, national, European, or international stakeholder interested in working in and for the social economy sector?

The SocialTech4EU project is looking for training providers, higher education institutions, research organisations, tech providers, incubators and accelerators to become part of a registry which social enterprises selected by the project will consult to support their twin transition.

Find the application form here and text of the invitation here.

You can find all information here

Documents

Download
SocialTech4EU Invitation Registry of Stakeholders and Providers for Social Economy Download

Latest news

Green Digital Together Event: Follow-up of the SocialTech4EU successfull final event

On June 27, 2024, the SocialTech4EU project successfully hosted a pivotal conference in Brussels, bringing together more than 50 participants from across Europe to discuss the future of social innovation. The event focused on fostering an environment conducive to both green and digital transitions, leveraging the transformative power of clusters. Attendees included social entrepreneurs, cluster and Eurocluster managers, social economy networks, and EU policymakers.

Check out the report ! Green Digital Together (ensie.org)

Be the first to register to SocialTech4EU Final conference !

The SocialTech4EU project is organising its Conference ' GREEN AND DIGITAL TOGETHER ' on the 27th of June 2024 in the European Economic and Social Committee (in Rue Van Maerlant 2, 1040 Bruxelles, called INT Section, room VMA22). Bringing together a diverse array of social entrepreneurs, clusters and Eurocluster managers, Social Economy Networks, EU policymakers; the conference will serve as a forum to discuss the enabling environment needed to foster social innovation, digital and green transition within and through the transformative power of clusters.

All the info here !

10 organisations selected for the acceleration call !

SocialTech4EU officially entered its third and final phase: the acceleration phase. This call is designed to bolster the resilience, innovation capacity, competitiveness, and sustainability of Social Enterprises through financial support of up to €37,000. Ten selected entities are now actively accelerating the digital and green transition.

SocialTech4EU partners met online for their 11th Steering Commitee Meeting !

On the 20th of January, SocialTech4EU held its 11th Steering Committee Meeting, an opportunity for the partners to monitor and exchange on the implementation of the selection of the 3rd and last call for acceleration, taking stock of the lessons learned, and get prepare for the several events aiming at disseminetaing the outcomes of the project.

It was also an opportunity to be prepared the Final Event, talking place in Brussels, end of June !

2nd stage of the evaluation for the call for acceleration !

This friday 15th March, SocialTech4EU hosted 2 stage of the evaluation of the acceleleration call.

SocialTech4EU is thrilled to support these innovation projects, such as the implementation of digital and/or green solutions.

This was a great moment gathering

  • One panel of enthousiastic jury experts !
  • 39 participants defending, supporting, or evaluating these great projects !
  • 5-min pitch sessions

 

2nd info session recording about SocialTech4EU Acceleration Call !

As promised, here is the ​recording of the session and we also attach the presentation !

This presentation gave an detailed explaination on all you need to know about the call for acceleration. Moreover, we have also explained the pitch session with the external jury that will take place on 15 March from 10am to 12pm.

Check it out ! 2nd info session recording about SocialTech4EU Acceleration Call ! (ensie.org)

Acceleration Open Call info session recording + slides available !

On friday 12th of January SocialTech4EU hosted an infosession on the Acceleration open Call. To help all applicants to best prepared, you can find here the slides and the recording of the session, check it out here !

 

 

SocialTech4EU partners met online for their 10th Steering Commitee Meeting !

On the 12th of January, SocialTech4EU held its 10th Steering Committee Meeting, an the opportunity for the partners to monitor and exchange on the implementation of the 2 firsts calls, taking stock of the lessons learned, and make the acceleration open call even more swift and successful.

It was also an opportunity to discuss the format of the upcoming events, including the Final Event, which could (spoiler alert...) take place during the first rays of summer...

Lauch of the Acceleration Open Call !

SocialTech4EU provides financial support to the awarded social enterprises from within the SocialTech4EU Call for Social Enterprises in Europe – Financial support for Innovation to carry out an innovation project in collaboration with providers. 

Applicants to this Call can request financial support up to € 37.000.  At least 10 social enterprises will be selected. The deadline is the 8/03/2024 15:00 CET

All needed information here: SocialTech4EU - Call for acceleration (ensie.org)

The Tool Library is now available!

SocialTech4EU is excited to announce the publication of one of its most important outcomes of the programme: The Tool Library is now available!

https://library.coompanion.eu/

You will find more than 40 links to education materials for Social Enterprises. 
 
Capacity Building and access to knowledge is one of the key aspects to foster resilience for impactfull entrepreneurs. This library is a great entry point gathering pre-existing content that was spread-out in the web.

Please share any feedback or suggestion !

SocialTech4EU: FAQ on the Call for Innovation

We have collected the most common questions asked by social organisations about the Call for Innovation and provided clear answers. Have a look, the answer to your question may be in there!

Download it here: FAQ on the Call for Innovation (ensie.org)

Survey on Social Entreprises (SEs) in Europe

(SURVEY HAS ENDED)

The SocialTech4EU partners are launching a survey on Social Enterprises in the EU! 

Purpose of the survey

The survey aims to understand the needs and blockers preventing Social Enterprises (SEs) to innovate, to make the most of digital transformation, to embrace the twin digital & green transition, and to become more resilient. 
The results from the survey will inform the design of voucher and grant schemes for education, innovation, and acceleration activities for Social Enterprises across EU.

Who is conducting the survey
A consortium of 6 partners implementing the SocialTech4EU project: Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini and Torino Social Impact, represented by Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini (IT); ADV Romania Foundation (RO); Coompanion Örebro (SE); Silicon Vilstal gemeinnützige UG (DE); Asociacion Investigacion, Desarrollo E Innovacion En Aragon (ES); European Network of Social Integration Enterprises (BE).

Survey Period: 21 November - 28 february 2023

We appreciate how precious your time is and we would like to reward your effort:

  • You will get an invitation to join a European cluster of Social Enterprises and the European Map of Social Enterprises, so you can connect with other social enterprises across Europe, as well as other stakeholders in the social economy ecosystem (e.g. training and tech providers, incubators/accelerators, Universities;)
  • You will get informed when the project will launch the Calls for vouchers/grants described above.

 

Slides info call innovation

On the 8th of August the info call for the Call for Innovation within the SocialTech4EU project took place. This second call follows the first one, which focused on financial support for training and for which 100 social enterprises have been awarded. SocialTech4EU wants to offer the possibility to those 100 social enterprises to receive additional financial support to carry out a feasibility study, in collaboration with providers, for the development of an innovation project for their organisation.  Applicants to this Call can request financial support up to € 20.000.  At least 20 social enterprises will be selected.

Please find the slides of the info session here

SocialTech4EU project launches Call for social enterprises for innovation

The project has just launched a Call for social enterprises providing financial support to carry out a feasibility study, in collaboration with innovation providers, for the development of an “innovation project” for their organisation, that is, for the development and/or customization of digital and/or tech solutions.

The Call is targeted to the social enterprises awarded/contracted under the SocialTech4EU Call for social enterprises for financial support for training. Applications must include the participation of at least 1 and up to 3 innovation providers.

Applicants to the Call can request a financial support of up to € 20.000.  

Deadline to apply is 18 October 2023. 

Find all information and apply here

Steering Committee July 2023

On the 10th of July, the SocialTech4EU consortium held another steering committee. The project partners looked back at the first stage of the project, namely the application process and possible lessons learned. The SocialTech4EU consortium is currently finalizing the signature of the grant agreements with the 100 social enterprises selected in the first call for financial support for training.

In the first call, 211 applications were received from 24 countries: a strong interest for this unique innovation journey!The list of awarded organizations will be published soon.

In the meantime, the map of providers has been launched. The stakeholders on the map will support the awarded organisations with their training journey to embrace the twin transition. Please find the map on the website of ADV. If you are provider, apply to the map!

Steering Committee May 2023

On the 31th of May, SocialTech4EU held a steering committee, discussing the evaluation of the social enterprises to award in the framework of the Call for financial support for training.  

Find all information about the meeting here

Steering Committee April 2023

On the 5th of April, SocialTech4EU held a steering committee, discussing the approaching deadline (21 April 2023, 12.00 CEST) for the call for social enterprises for financial support for training. The project has received many interesting applications so far and is preparing for the final selection process.

You can read all information here

Slides Info Call Training

On the 14th of March the European info session of SocialTech4EU took place. As largest support and capacity building programme in Europe for social enterprises, the EU-funded project SocialTech4EU aims at strengthening the resilience and innovation capacity, competitiveness, and sustainability of social economy ecosystems and of start-ups and SMEs of the social economy. Please find the slides and more information of the info session here!             

 

Steering Committee meeting SocialTech4EU

The SocialTech4EU project consortium gathered online on the 20th of February for a steering committee meeting. The Innovation Journey has now really started with the launch of the survey, the invitation to the registry for stakeholders, the open call for social enterprises and linked to that the info call. Discover the full article here.

Info Sessions on Call for Social Entreprises

Would you like to apply for the Open Call for social enterprises but still have some questions? SocialTech4EU is organising an info-session on the Call for social enterprises for financial support for training!

Info session in German online: 7 March 2023, 16:00 – 17:00 Brussels time. Please find the link to the meeting here

Info session in Italian online: 10 March 2023, 10:00-11:00 Brussels time. Registration is mandatory, please register here

Info session in English online: 14 March 2023, 11:00 -12:00 Brussels time.  Registration is mandatory, please register here

 

Open call for enterprises for financial support for training

This project SocialTech for Europe for Resilient and Responsible Ecosystems - SocialTech4EU is a EU-funded project that aims at strengthening the resilience and innovation capacity, competitiveness, and sustainability of social economy ecosystems and of start-ups and SMEs of the social economy, with a special focus on technology social ventures. In the framework of the project, a Call for Social Enterprises in Europe - Financial support for training is launched

Fill in your application HERE 

Find the Guidelines for Applicants HERE

You can read more information HERE

 

SocialTech4EU invitation to register in the Registry of stakeholders and providers for social economy

Are you a local, national, European, or international stakeholder interested in working in and for the social economy sector?

The SocialTech4EU project is looking for training providers, higher education institutions, research organisations, tech providers, incubators and accelerators to become part of a registry which social enterprises selected by the project will consult to support their twin transition. Find the application form here and text of the invitation here.

You can find all information here

Socialtech4EU Steering Committee

The project partners met in Torino on January 10th for a Steering Committee meeting! It was the first time they were able to met in-person! 

It was interesting to share the latest news from the project and to prepare the next steps, in particular regarding the survey gathering input from social enterprises about their experience on innovation. 

If you want to know more about the project and the meeting, just go here! 

Kick-off meeting

On September 21st 2022, the Kick-off meeting of SocialTech4EU took place. During the upcoming 24 months, the 6 project partners will focus on supporting digital and green business models in relation to social economy enterprises. The project is one of the 14 Industrial Ecosystems – linked to the EU industrial Strategy, namely the Proximity and Social Economy Cluster.

You can find the whole summary here! 

Project opportunities

Ensie

 

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.