Incubators 4 Change Erasmus Project

Project Title

Incubators 4 Change

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; Disabilities – special needs; Gender equality / equal opportunities

Project Summary

At a time when social entrepreneurship is slowly spreading in Europe as a third way between companies and charities, Incubators 4 Change (I4C) will draw on the learning from the field to create 3 new Incubators of social enterprises programmes in HEIs from the Mediterranean (Spain and Turkey) and MENA (Morocco/France) regions.
This project responds to the need of students in Europe and beyond who are becoming increasingly aware of the need for their future companies to have a societal engagement as shown by the recent climate change students movement and other petitions for enterprises to become more socially and environmentally responsible.

The objectives for I4C will be:
– to create new knowledge around the field of incubators of social enterprises in HEIs across Europe and beyond
– to use this knowledge to develop new curricula for students around social entrepreneurship in HEIs including practical experience through the incubators, with a focus on disability-related projects and female entrepreneurship
– to provide non-financial support to social entrepreneurs and help them become sustainable
– to connect local/regional actors of social innovation in the test bed territories for the support and sustainability of the social enterprises
– to disseminate teaching and training tools in local languages and in English in order to maximise the scope of potential adopters of the methodology to build new incubators of social enterprises in HEIs.

Incubators 4 Change will involve 1500+ students in the social entrepreneurship programmes of the 3 HEIs over 3 years through new curricula that will combine theoretical and practical input depending on the type of courses elected by the students.
At the same time Incubators 4 Change will support 18/24 social enterprises across the 3 test-beds (6/8 per test bed) and through them help 180/200+ beneficiaries within the implementation year.

The process for drawing new curricula and the implementation of the incubators in 3 HEIs will provide data and learning for 7 intellectual outputs, 4 for academic and teaching purposes, 3 for adult professional training purposes.

The intellectual outputs will be disseminated to a large network of not only HEIs but also stakeholders from the social innovation sector in test bed communities (Europe, the MENA region) and beyond, i.e. local authorities, funders and investors interested in supporting social enterprises or developing incubators in their area.

The project will follow a collaborative action research methodology, with literature and practice reviews in the preparation phase, the implementation of 3 incubators for social enterprises in HEIs (based on the reviews), and a social impact evaluation and dissemination phase in the third year.

Expected long term impacts will include:
– the creation of new curricula on social entrepreneurship in the consortium HEIs and beyond with a specific disability strand
– the training/awareness raising for 1500+ students over 3 years, with an expected 5% choosing a career/internship in ‘societal good’
– the creation of 40 jobs in social enterprises and 400+ beneficiaries of these social enterprises over 2 years
– the creation of 15+ new local partnerships connected through incubators of social enterprises in the test beds through local stakeholders such as local authorities and funders/impact investors.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 298842 Eur

Project Coordinator

ASSOCIATION GROUPE ESSEC & Country: FR

Project Partners

• SIA SOCIAL IMPACT AWARD GEMEINNUETZIGE GMBH
• TED UNIVERSITESI