Social economy enterprises: capacity building and business opportunities for social circular enterprises (SMP-COSME-2024-SEE)

DEADLINE: 10 December 2024

Description

This call for proposals in the field of social economy under the Competitiveness of Enterprises and SMEs strand of the Single Market Programme (SMP COSME) comprises two topics.

Topic 1: SMP-COSME-2024-SEE-01 - Stepping up the organisational and entrepreneurial capacity of SMEs in the social economy.

This topic aims to improve the quality of management and organisational excellence of SMEs in the social economy through the design and implementation of capacity building, training, coaching and advisory services. The activities developed by the selected proposals should be replicable by capturing the designed services in modular blueprints.

Themes and priorities (scope)

Under this topic projects must consider all the following aspects when identifying the targeted SMEs in the social economy to be supported:

Sectoral activity (e.g. recycling, social services, retail, tourism, agri-food, health and care services, manufacturing, etc.).
Type of SMEs in social economy (e.g. social enterprises, different type of cooperatives, non-profit associations, Work IntegrationSocial Enterprises, foundations and philanthropic organisations, social service providers, etc.).
Territorial dimension (e.g. SMEs in the social economy in a particular country, region(s), city/ies and social economy cluster(s) or similar territorial partnerships with social economy actors involved.
Degree of maturity in terms of organisational excellence of the targeted SMEs in the social economy.

Themes and specific modules

Although projects are free to focus on specific themes, add themes and specific modules, the following non-exhaustive themes could be included in the capacity building, training, coaching and advisory offer towards SMEs in the social economy:

Governance of the Organization. Purpose: Governance of the organisation is conducted in a quality manner.
Strategy of the organisation. Purpose: The organisation defines or updates its strategy, including anticipatory elements.
General management of the organisation. Purpose: The management of the organization is done in a transparent way with as much as possible participatory / democratic decision-making.
Human Resource Management. Purpose: Human resource management runs in an efficient and effective manner and focuses on the personal development of employees and competence enhancement of the staff.
Financial management of the organisation. Purpose: The financial management of the organization is aligned with the core mission of the company and to the long-term strategy of the organization. The resources are managed properly and transparently.
Change management. Purpose: Companies are ready to properly implement changes within their organization.
Stakeholder management. Purpose: Knowledge sharing between stakeholders is increased
Marketing & public relations (PR). Purpose: products and services are attractively promoted and placed in physical and online markets.
Local embedding. Purpose: The organization engages with the local community and works towards sustainable local anchoring and development.

Topic 2: SMP-COSME-2024-SEE-02 - Partnerships for circular value chains between mainstream businesses and SMEs in social economy.

This topic aims to increase the contribution of SMEs in the social economy to the development of circular economy value chains. For this, it will promote and support partnerships between the social economy and mainstream (for-profit) businesses.

Themes and priorities (scope)

Under this topic, applicants are encouraged to focus on one or more specific sector(s) or waste streams (e.g. Waste of Electric and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), textiles, consumer goods, food, construction materials, plastics, bio-based materials etc.) and the choice must be clearly explained in the proposal. Applicants are invited to describe which aspect(s)/phase(s) of the circular cycle the project will focus on and why.

Priorities envisaged under this topic will focus on:

Facilitate access to new markets for SCEs and fostering B2B collaboration on circularity (local, regional national and cross-border);
Local sectoral market research helps to identify economic opportunities linked to one or more potential circular streams, value chain opportunities and challenges, competitive advantage and business partnerships in a certain geographic context (local, regional, national or European). Such research also helps to design sectoral strategies for sectoral support organisations or circular clusters hubs and other types of multiple-actor partnerships;
SCEs improve their market position and attractiveness for collaboration, e.g. by enhancing their organisational and innovation capacity, by obtaining labels15 and certifications and identifying relevant standards for future business collaboration;
New circular services and products are to be tested and scaled by SCEs. Optionally projects could focus on: • support the creation of circularity hubs or clusters to promote and develop long-term circular partnerships and a joint circular strategy;
support the use of technologies that are adapted, developed, tested and widely used to accelerate circular offers and processes of SCE. Projects supported will ensure the sharing and replication of good practices in a transnational context, where relevant.

Call budget

Total available budget: EUR 8 000 000

For Topic 1 - Stepping up organisational and entrepreneurial capacity of SMEs in social economy: EUR 6 000 000
For Topic 2 - Partnerships for circular value chains between mainstream businesses and SMEs in social economy: EUR 2 000 000

Eligibility

Applications will only be considered eligible if their content corresponds wholly (or at least in part) to the topic description for which they are submitted.

Eligible participants (eligible countries)

n order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:

be legal entities (public or private bodies)
be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.: EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs)) or non-EU countries. Listed EEA countries and countries associated with the Single Market Programme (list of participating countries).

Entities from other countries (not listed above) are exceptionally eligible, if the granting authority considers their participation essential for the implementation of the action.

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

(a) Geographical representation:

− at least six independent entities from at least three different eligible countries;

− from at least three of the following groups of countries (groups are defined to ensure geographical balance and involve countries with different levels of GDP per capita):

Group 1: EU countries with GDP per capita above EU27 average: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Sweden.
Group 2: Southern EU countries: Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Spain.
Group 3: Central/Eastern/Balkan EU countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia.
Group 4: non-EU SMP countries: EEA countries and countries associated to the Single Market Programme (list of participating countries).

(b) Type of entities:

− at least one social economy ‘enabling organisation’ 21 (intermediary) per participating country involved in the consortium; the organisation can be operational at national, regional or local level

− at least one and maximum two ‘social economy enabling organisations’ active at EU level22

− For the topic 1 (SMP-COSME-2024-SEE-01) the following partner(s) must be added to the consortium:

at least one training provider, vocational education and training (VET), business school or business support organisation with experience in capacity building, training, coaching and advisory of businesses and management in the social economy.

− For the topic 2 (SMP-COSME-2024-SEE-02) the following partners must be added to the consortium:

For every participating country in the consortium, one ‘mainstream sectoral federation or business support organisation’ with experience in the circular economy, (intermediary), being operational at national, regional or local level
one ‘mainstream sectoral federation or business support organisation’ representing or supporting businesses and with experience in the circular economy (such as sectorial member federations and associations or networks) at EU level.

Important for submission

When applying to the call, on top of mandatory standard Application Form Parts A & B, you must upload the following mandatory annex:

Annex 5 to Part B - Eligibility checklist - to be uploaded under ‘Other annexes’ field:

- For Topic 1: SMP-COSME-2024-SEE-01 — Stepping up organisational and entrepreneurial capacity of SMEs in social economy

- For Topic 2: SMP-COSME-2024-SEE-02 — Partnerships for circular value chains between mainstream businesses and SMEs in social economy

Informative session

On 17 October 2024, EISMEA will host an online informative session on the call SMP-COSME-2024-SEE, covering both topics “Stepping up organisational and entrepreneurial capacity of SMEs in social economy” and “Partnerships for circular value chains between mainstream businesses and SMEs in social economy”. For more information and registration, visit the info session event page.

More information can be found here:

COSME

Opportunity