The European Commission has recently published a new call for proposals aimed at supporting entrepreneurship among migrants that are already living or that are coming to the EU.

The scope of this initiative includes interventions that target legally–staying third–country nationals in the territory of the EU, who can attend training activities according to the applicable legislation in the host country. The initiative covers business support measures specifically targeting migrants, as well as those measures that are available to the general population. In the latter case, however, the focus should be exclusively on interventions that support the access of migrants to business services for the mainstream population, and on actions for the general population that foresee specific provisions and services for migrants.

Starting from the identification of potential entrepreneurs among migrants and raising from the awareness within migrant communities about entrepreneurship, this action will focus on:

• Training courses (on entrepreneurship, business planning, legal aspects of setting up a company and hiring employees);
• Mentoring schemes for migrant entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs.

The objective of the above activities will be to help migrants to become self–employed and build a successful enterprise (profit–generating and/or with social objectives).

This action will bring together organisations from different countries that are already working on the ground to help migrants to start their own independent activity. These organisations will be encouraged to share their methodologies and to build on existing best practice in order to improve and expand the services they offer to migrants.

The Commission will not support the mere continuation of existing activities. Applicants will need to explain clearly what would be the added value of the EU funding, which should help them to improve, expand or transfer their activities to support migrant entrepreneurs, and/or to set up joint projects with other organisations in different regions and countries.

Priorities

Priority will be given to projects that will be scalable and replicable in other countries than the country of origin of the initiatives. Projects that can be supported by this call shall include the following categories of actions (Work Packages):

Work Package 1: Identification of potential migrant entrepreneurs;

Work Package 2: Education and Training;

Work Package 3: Mentoring schemes for migrant entrepreneurs;

Work Package 4: Horizontal dimension: cross–border cooperation and best practice exchange.

Eligibility

 Eligible applicants are the organisations that are active in supporting the economic and social integration of migrants and/or in supporting entrepreneurs. Such entities may include:

• Public authorities and public administrations (at the national, regional or city level);
• Chamber of commerce and industry and similar bodies;
• Business associations and business support networks;
• Business support organizations and incubators;
• NGOs, non–profit organizations, associations and foundations working with migrants;
• Education and training providers (public and private).

The proposals must be submitted by a consortium (i.e. the coordinator plus its partners) composed of a minimum of three different legal entities located in at least three Member States.

For British applicants: please be aware that eligibility criteria must be complied with for the entire duration of the grant. If the United Kingdom withdraws from the EU during the grant period without concluding an agreement with the EU, ensuring in particular that British applicants will continue to be eligible, you will cease to receive EU funding (while continuing, where possible, to participate) or will be required to leave the project.

The scheduled start–up date for the action is the 1st November 2018; while the maximum duration of action is 24 months.

Budget

The maximum EU financing rate of eligible costs is 85 % and the maximum EU financing amount per project is 556.250 €.

Only four projects will be funded.

The deadline for submitting proposals is 24 May 2018.

 Further information are available at the following link.