Boosting awareness raising for mainstream enterprises to work with social enterprises ( towards a ‘buy social’ business to business market)
Registration deadline
29 September 2022 - 07 December 2022 17:00:00 Brussels timeObjectives
Expected Outcome:
Indicators (indicative):
- Number and geographic spread of countries and public authorities participating in cooperation projects;
- Number and geographic spread of Social enterprises and mainstream businesses participating in projects;
- Number of new partnerships created in the field of private procurement.
Scope:
The impact of supply chains on wider society and the environment is in sharper focus than ever before. Companies are increasingly looking to their purchasing power as an opportunity to go beyond compliance and actively pursue positive social and environmental outcomes. The development of a “Buy Social movement” over the last years has seen public authorities, businesses and consumers increasingly seeking out opportunities to buy from social enterprises.
The action will support the creation of local and regional partnerships aiming at reinforcing policy initiatives to improve collaboration in EU 27 (and other countries eligible to participate in the programme) between social economy entities and mainstream businesses in their supply chain strategies.
In particular, these partnerships will aim at helping mainstream businesses to engage with a range of social economy suppliers and embeds sustainability and diversity into their core operations and value chains. It will also help social enterprises to grow their revenues and impact by tapping into corporate purchasing power.
Eligible Activities
The action will support partnerships at local, regional or national level to boost the integration of SE entities into mainstream business supply chains and create “buy social” B2B markets.
The following types of activities (the list is non-exhaustive) can be implemented by consortia on local, regional, national or cross-border level:
− Provide branding of SE towards corporate buyers in specific local contexts. The branding should focus on raising the profile of concrete SE operating in the proximity and social economy ecosystem. The aim is to showcase and communicate the added value of engaging with SE actors.
− Setting up a centralised “buy social” (online) platform that makes it possible to make the offer of social enterprises known. This can be developed from very basic to very advanced functionalities. For example, mapping sectoral, product or service offer, partnerships such as for public procurement, or conducting market analysis.
− Provide matchmaking and facilitation services. The matchmaking between SE and regular businesses mostly occurs on local or regional level. Fostering a high degree of market knowledge, trends and the functioning of intermediary market is therefore essential in the partnerships.
− Dialogues between local mainstream businesses and SE entities to promote B2B cooperation.
− Awareness raising towards mainstream business about the SE added value (e.g., events, showcases, networking, communication, PR support).
− Setup sector or activity specific events to pitch SE offer and exchange business needs (e.g., retail, agri-food packaging, catering, pharma, construction, cleaning, landscaping, maintenance, manufacturing).
− Support in obtaining various types of certifications and standards necessary to engage as supplier as well as various forms of verification services (e.g., reliability, governance, products requirement).
− Capacity building and advisory (such as improving processes, product and service offer, financial and legal advice, communicating and branding, IT and digitalisation).
− Coaching and mentoring recruitment services, up-skilling, and reskilling of employees.
− Collaboration and experience sharing between more advanced and less advanced members of a consortium (e.g., transfer of knowledge from more experienced local communities, regions or countries to less experienced local communities, regions or countries).
The following types of activities (the list in non-exhaustive) can be implemented by consortia on EU level (collaboration between awarded consortia, facilitated by the Agency and agreed during the kick-off meeting at the start of implementation):
− Exchange events on how B2B cooperation and trade are facilitated in the different partnerships (peer learning, visits, testimonies, etc.).
− Exchange of practices on buy social campaigns, matchmaking support and readiness / capacity building.
− Setup training and advisory activities.
− Showcasing examples with good practices:
− Local B2B facilitation and matchmaking,
− B2B trade cases.
For more details see the Call document.
Beneficiaries
In 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)
− non-EU countries:
− listed EEA countries and countries associated to the Single Market Programme or countries which are in ongoing negotiations for an association agreement and where the agreement enters into force before grant signature (list of participating countries);
Beneficiaries and affiliated entities must register in the Participant Register — before submitting the proposal — and will have to be validated by the Central Validation Service (REA Validation). For the validation, they will be requested to upload documents showing legal status and origin.
Other entities may participate in other consortium roles, such as associated partners, subcontractors, third parties giving in-kind contributions, etc. (see section 13 Call Document.)
Type of aid and economic conditions
The available call budget is EUR 1 300 000. This budget might be increased by maximum 20%.
The maximum budget per project is EUR 325 000. The expected number of projects to be funded is 4.
The costs will be reimbursed at the funding rates fixed in the Grant Agreement (100% for the costs for providing financial support to third parties and 90% for all other costs categories).
Requirements
Applicable regulations
Route for processing
All proposals must be submitted directly online via the Funding & Tenders Portal Electronic Submission System. Paper applications are NOT accepted.To use the Submission System create an EU Login user account
For more details see the Call Document.
