EEPA 2023 National Winners - Responsible and Inclusive Entrepreneurship

We have already introduced you to the national winners in the first five categories (Cat. 1, Cat 2, Cat 3, Cat 4 and Cat 5) in this year’s European Enterprise Promotion Awards (EEPA). Today it is the turn of the national winners in EEPA Category 6 – Responsible and Inclusive Entrepreneurship. From 301 projects that entered the national competitions in 30 countries, a total of 55 projects will now advance to the European stage of the competition, including 12 projects in Category 6.

Category 6 – Responsible and Inclusive Entrepreneurship recognises initiatives that promote corporate social responsibility among small and medium-sized enterprises and entrepreneurship among disadvantaged groups such as the unemployed, legal migrants, disabled, or people from ethnic minorities. This year, the national winners come from 12 different countries and these projects will now compete for a place on the final shortlist, to be selected by the EEPA 2023 European jury.

With 12 national winners in this category, there is a lot of variety in the projects going forward. Let’s take a closer look. All the national winners in Category 6 are presented in alphabetical order by country below.

• Cyprus: CyprusInno - Collaborative Entrepreneurship for Social and Economic Development is an award-winning social venture working towards building an island-wide entrepreneurial ecosystem in Cyprus via a hybrid platform of digital tools and live events.
• Denmark: IVDK Hub for Ukrainians is helping 1,100 Ukrainian refugees develop entrepreneurial skills, start a business and contribute to the rebuilding of their country.
• Finland: Startup Refugees: Business Programme provides participants information, skills and an approach towards entrepreneurship with the help of training, market validation, business advice and events.
• France: Impact Programme is designed to support impact entrepreneurs but also to encourage “traditional” companies to focus on their social and environmental impacts.
• Greece: City of Athens’ initiatives to promote the access of Third Country Nationals to employability and entrepreneurship integrates refugees into the labour market, through regular information, digital mapping of support services and initiatives, as well as the exchange of good practices.
• Italy: AdAstra Project – Space for your Future is a free training-work course in the food and beverage sector aimed at young people, aged 18-27, with only a middle school diploma.
• Luxembourg: SLEEVESUP supports refugees in creating a business in Luxembourg, including with practical training in the administrative aspects of business creation.
• Malta: MWAM’s Kitchen Project creates a safe space for asylum seekers, refugees, and migrant women to meet regularly to plan and prepare home-produced, healthy and affordable meals.
• Netherlands: National Network Social Cooperative Entrepreneurship (NaNeSCE) offers as many people on welfare as possible the opportunity to discover and use their talents and strengths, by supporting social cooperatives and municipalities.
• Poland: Respektrum aims to support entrepreneurs in breaking down barriers in hiring and recruiting people on the autism spectrum.
• Slovakia: Women Academies offer IT skills courses for women, including software testing, data, SQL, UX, project management, programming languages, and so on.
• Turkey: Smart Village is the first smart village in the world that includes advanced agricultural technologies and IoT applications for family farmers living in rural areas and brings technology to the farmer.

All the EEPA national winners will receive invitations to the Awards Ceremony at the annual SME Assembly in Bilbao in November, where the winners in each category will be announced. This year the event will be co-hosted by the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union and the European Commission. At the SME Assembly, the jury will also announce the winner of the Jury’s Grand Prize, which can be from any category - the Grand Prize goes to the entry that the jury consider to be the most creative and inspiring entrepreneurship initiative in Europe.

If you would like to find out more about the European Enterprise Promotion Awards, visit the Promoting Enterprise News Portal, where we will also publish news on the national winners in the other EEPA categories. To stay up to date on EEPA news, make sure to check in to the portal regularly, and don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for all the latest news.