STRENGTHENING SOCIAL ECONOMY
FOR INNOVATIVE AND RESILIENT REGIONS

About

SOCRATES will support the first theme and priority (scope) of the call SMP-COSME-2021-RESILIENCE-SEM Social Economy Missions for community resilience “Improving business environment and supporting sustainable business models based on social economy” through transnational social economy missions for interregional mutual learning and exchange of good practices on enabling supportive business environment for the social economy.

Local action plans of the social economy will be elaborated in collaboration with relevant social economy stakeholders (e.g., public administration, civil society, SMEs, and business community) to raise the social economy’s awareness, visibility, and recognition. Nevertheless, the project will formulate replicable recommendations to enable the local social economy ecosystem, improve the legal, policy, and regulatory frameworks, access finance, and strengthen public-private dialogue. Therefore, the project will reinforce the local social economy’s resilience and support the social economy’s twin transition towards sustainability, aligned with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Topic

Improving business environment and supporting sustainable business models based on social economy
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Local Acion Plan for the Social Economy​
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Access to market and funding
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Social innovation and technologies​
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Sustanable buisness models

Vision

The vision of SOCRATES is to improve the business enviroment for social economy by:

  • raising the awareness and promoting social economy for improved welfare of the local community,
  • preparing suitable themes for regional development programs
  • creating local action plans for social economy in the frame of municipalities, considering the needs and expectations of the local stakeholders.

Objectives

Through a strong partnership with cross-border municipalities from Slovenia (Municipality of Novo mesto, region of Jugovzhodna Slovenija/Southeast Slovenia) Poland (City of Poznan, region Wielkopolska/Greater Poland) Hungary (region Hajdu Bihar), and Croatia (City of Zagreb, region Zagreb), we will boost territorial resilience and empower local social economy stakeholders to build an efficient ecosystem and supportive business environment, contributing to inclusive growth and fair recovery, thus supporting the Single Market Programme objectives.

The specific project objectives are:

  • Develop transnational

    Develop transnational collaboration between social economy stakeholders from Slovenia, Poland, Hungary, and Croatia to improve the business environment, promote the internationalization of social enterprise, and raise the awareness of available EU support.

  • Foster mutual learning

    Foster mutual learning, sharing, and replicating good practice at the regional and transnational level in enabling business environment and creating appropriate sustainable business models for social economy through three thematic Social Economy missions.

  • Promote social entrepreneurship

    Promote social entrepreneurship as a sustainable business model contributing to growth, jobs, and social inclusion to build local welfare and resilience.

  • Develop four local action plans

    Develop four local action plans to improve the business environment and support sustainable business models based on social economy in collaboration with existing social economy stakeholders at the regional and local levels.

Project Timeline

Give us your FEEDBACK about Social Economy in your region!

As a part of project SOCRATES we are preparing four local action plans for Social Economy in Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia and Poland. The local action plans will address the challenges of improving the awareness on the beneficial impact of SE, skill enhancement of the business development support, access to public procurement processes, new business models, and strategies for growth to create a positive change within the communities. In addition, the Local action plans will provide suggestions for improvement of relevant policies, improve access to funding, training, and education, and enable engagement of multiple stakeholders in policy development with specific objectives, timelines, and expected results.

Please give us your feedback on the provided objectives and recommendations.