GIMED
The development of a green economy in the Mediterranean area to combat environmental degradation represents a great opportunity for jobs creation, particularly for young graduates and women who are three times less likely to be employed than men.
Strengthening eco-innovative entrepreneurship is a recognised solution even though green ventures face a complex set of challenges including limited access to funding, underdeveloped markets and fragmented support from sector stakeholders.
GIMED aims at boosting the development of eco-innovative ventures in order to create employment and drive the green and circular economy in the Mediterranean. The project will implement a United Nations-backed ‘Green Entrepreneurship Standard’ that will standardise the supportive inputs needed to generate successful ventures and will give those ventures a mark of quality to better access finance and markets. On the ground, the project will train and coach eco-innovators and encourage financiers to invest in the Mediterranean eco-innovation sector.
Partenaires
Spain, Lebanon, Palestine, Tunisia, Egypt, Italy
What will be improved ?
20 new companies will be created, employing a minimum of 2 people each, and 100 existing companies will be supported in order to access new finance and trade opportunities, increasing their growth potential in the green and circular economy sector. Besides, a cluster of financiers will be established and partners will work closely with public administrations to help them better support green startups in terms of Intellectual Property Rights, policy and procurement schemes.
What will be improved ?
20 new companies will be created, employing a minimum of 2 people each, and 100 existing companies will be supported in order to access new finance and trade opportunities, increasing their growth potential in the green and circular economy sector. Besides, a cluster of financiers will be established and partners will work closely with public administrations to help them better support green startups in terms of Intellectual Property Rights, policy and procurement schemes.
Expected achievements
- 100 capacity-building initiatives dedicated to entrepreneurs on eco-design and green business modelling
- 200 coaching sessions on access to finance and markets
- 8 sub-grants to consolidate business creation and development
- 10 networking events to connect entrepreneurs and investors
- 5 training sessions dedicated to public institutions on the support to eco-entrepreneurship
- 1 Green Entrepreneurship Standard Framework developed and piloted
- 1 green incubation programme in Lebanon
- 1 policy paper containing recommendations to improve green and circular economy and support eco-innovative ventures
Call for Applications 2022
The programme will include a ten-day indicative initial training course focusing on the analysis and creation of socially and environmentally sustainable business models, market and finance access. At the end of the training, the most promising projects will be selected to access the next phase of the program: group coaching sessions and One2One coaching sessions for each of the selected participants. The participants who will conclude the training and support course, will participate in a competition that will give them a chance to win a grant of € 7,500 to support the development of their companies.