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Entrepreneurial Diversity (ENTREDI)
Start date: Dec 31, 2009, End date: Dec 30, 2011 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Entrepreneurial activities have quite an enormous impact for the economic performance of regions and the renewal of regional knowledge. Fostering entrepreneurship with (semi) public funding contributes to a more prosperous regional economy and can reduce the unemployment rate significantly. The experiences of the project partners as well as acknowledged studies show that entrepreneurial initiatives are successful if different types of services are provided for latent nascent entrepreneurs, nascent entrepreneurs and young entrepreneurs: Assessment, Training, Ongoing Consultation, Facilities and Networks.Common business services providers mostly don’t consider these facts due to a limited philosophy: They are providing their services according to a sector, size of business, or a specific target group. This philosophy is insufficient. The only way of overcoming these gaps, coping with the challenges and taking the increasingunemployment rate as a chance to boost Entrepreneurship on regional and local level is to shift from a fragmented support system to a holistic approach. Therefore, a well-developed related network of involved government agencies, regional economic development providers, labour offices, chambers, universities, associations, media and banks is necessary. Those regional networks are providing support to all potential and young entrepreneurs to overcome the initial hurdles of launching their businesses. A well developed network operates much like a public transit system. There are various bus and tramway stops where one can set forth or switch over to another line and a schedule, the business start-up roadmap. The network should also be based on the entrepreneurial diversity approach. Focusing on financial and market economics aspect considering by personal assessment, information and orientation and training seminars targeted to identify their potential and needs.Active networks of public and private institutions as well as target group orientated consultation and qualification approaches are already implemented in some ENTREDI partner regions. All these activities and approaches and good practices should be gathered in a pool, where all regions can find methods, tools or some examples, waiting to be installed or to be improved due to their regional requirements the entrepreneurial spirit and basic conditions. After the successful formal conclusion of the ENTREDI project other European regions can benefit from the pool of experiences, methods and tools. 7 regional action plans on devolopment/improvement of enterpreneurship support will be signed by the respective of ROP managing authorities. The mainstreaming guideline will support the transfer and the sustainability of the integrative support programme of ENTREDI and the level of awareness of ROP managing activities policy about ENTREDI will be 50%. Achievements: The ENTREDI partnership consists of 7 partners from 7 regions from different European Countries with Kompass – Zentrum für Existenzgründungen Frankfurt (Hesse) as project leader as well as Component 2 coordinator and Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council (South East UK) as Component 3 Coordinator. During the first semester the partners had very intensive exchange and collaboration, documented by carrying out one orientation day, three study visits, two transfer workshops and nine training sessions on own Good Practices. The direct participation in these interregional activities has already led to the increased capacity of 19 people as staff members of the ENTREDI partner organisations. All partners have also developed a first draft of their Regional Action Plan (RAP) during the first semester. For SWOT documentation of the current regional start-up support infrastructure in their regions and for development of the RAP the partners have agreed on a common structure following Kompass’ 4+1 process oriented model according to the stages of entrepreneurship and applying the socio-economic approach. Based on the training sessions all partners have pre-selected those Good Practices from the ENTREDI Good Practice Pool which they consider as appropriate and applicable in order to improve the own regional entrepreneurship support system. In addition to the interregional activities numerous bilateral and multilateral meetings with own regional stakeholders have already been performed by the ENTREDI partners in order to create a consensus about the focus of their Regional Action Plan and the import with adaptation of the pre-selected Good Practices from the partner regions. This consensus with regional stakeholders and the responsible managing authorities of the respective Regional Operational Programme are currently the strongest challenges for most of the ENTREDI partners due to different reasons. For example some partners are facing political changes due to elections and restructuring, in other cases the question is raised whether other regional or local mainstream programmes are more appropriate for later implementation of the RAP to be developed. In order to promote the ENTREDI process oriented and socio-economic approach as well as to make other organisations and regions aware of the ENTREDI project and its Good Practice pool, ENTREDI partners are very active in communication and dissemination. Beside the website www.ENTREDI.eu and the published ENTREDI brochure the ENTREDI partners have participated in eight dissemination events (beside multilateral meetings with regional stakeholders), six of these were (co)organised by ENTREDI partners. One highlight among the dissemination activities was the co-organisation and active participation of ENTREDI partners in the AER Training Academy Woman Entrepreneurship in June in Istanbul with very positive feedback from participants and official representatives of several regions. Another highlight and a Good Practice of integration of transfer activities with dissemination activities was the three day meeting in Basingstoke (South East UK) when all ENTREDI partners participated in the inauguration of the innovation centre, followed by a workshop on local entrepreneurship support, and in the Basingstoke & Deane Borough Business Partnership with parallel brainstorming sessions on the SWOT analyses of the regional entrepreneurship support with approx. 30 regional stakeholders and entrepreneurs.
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  • 78%   1 081 195,00
  • 2007 - 2013 Interreg IVC
  • Project on KEEP Platform
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