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

Overview

Objectives

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/actions supported

The non-exhaustive list of possible additional types of activities related to training and skilling is as follows:

• Production of training materials addressing the specific needs of local and regional authorities, social economy SMEs, mainstream businesses and business support organizations;
• Identification and planning of concrete next steps and actions that social economy SMEs should take to pursue the objectives of the call in the longer term (e.g. financing of infrastructure and upskilling of the workforce); 
• 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 social economy SMEs’ capacity and skills to improve their use of new digital technologies for green purposes resulting in new business models.

Anticipated outcomes

The call for proposals targets 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;

Institution providing the funding

European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA)

Size of funding

EUR 6 000 000

Conditions

Overview of eligibility criteria

Proposals must be submitted by a consortium of applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities) which complies with the following conditions:

• at least six independent entities from at least three different eligible countries;
• at least one social economy intermediary13 per participating country involved in the consortium;
• a minimum of one and a maximum of two support organisations active at EU level14 such as sectorial member federations and associations or networks representing social economy entities. 

In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must be legal entities (public or private bodies) established in one of the eligible countries (i.e., EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs); listed EEA countries and countries associated to the Single Market Programme or countries which are in ongoing negotiations for an association agreement and where the agreement enters into force before grant signature (list of participating countries); Ukraine, as stipulated in the Eligibility Criteria section of the revised SMP Work Programme 2022, Annex 2

Overview of award criteria

• Relevance (30points)
• Quality (60points)
• Impact (10points)

Procedures

Application procedures

All proposals must be submitted directly online via the Funding & Tenders Portal Electronic Submission System. Paper applications are NOT accepted. 
Submission is a 2-step process: 

• create a user account and register your organisation : To use the Submission System (the only way to apply), all participants need to create an EU Login user account. Once you have an EULogin account, you can register your organisation in the Participant Register. When your registration is finalised, you will receive a 9-digit participant identification code (PIC).
• submit the proposal: Access the Electronic Submission System via the Topic page in the Search Funding & Tenders section 

Submit your proposal in 3 parts, as follows: 

• Part A includes administrative information about the applicant organisations and the summarised budget for the proposal. Fill it in directly online.
• Part B  (description of the action)covers the technical content of the proposal. Download the mandatory word template from the Submission System, fill it in and upload it as a PDF file
• Annexes. Upload them as PDF file. Excel upload is sometimes possible, depending on the file type. 

The proposal must keep to the page limits; excess pages will be disregarded. 

Documents must be uploaded to the right category in the Submission System.

The proposal must be submitted before the call deadline. 

Application support available

For individual questions on the Portal Submission System, please contact the IT Helpdesk. Non-IT related questions should be sent by 7 February 2023 to the following email address: EISMEA-SMP-COSME-ENQUIRIESec [dot] europa [dot] eu (EISMEA-SMP-COSME-ENQUIRIES[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu). Please indicate clearly the reference of the call to which your question relates.

Link to funding opportunity

Link to the programme for more info