Successful Final Conference of iEER project was held in Brussels 10.10.2019

Over 120 participants were present in iEER (Boosting Innovative Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Regions for Young Entrepreneurs) final conference in the Committee of the Regions in Brussels.

News18.10.2019

The main message from conference was that European Union need to invest into policies and programmes that support the development and connectivity of entrepreneurial ecosystems in European regions and cities also in the next EU programming period 2021-27. Besides this, entrepreneurial education should be embedded in both SME and education policies in Europe.

iEER is an Interreg Europe funded flagship project gathering together 10 regions around Europe. Initiated by a majority of European Entrepreneurial regions, iEER aimed to define smart paths and solutions for partners to boost and orchestrate regional entrepreneurship ecosystems supporting young entrepreneurs.

Laurea acted as a partner responsible for leading thematic focus group on Startup and Acceleration support. One of the many results of the project is iEER Handbook Boosting Innovative Entrepreneurial Ecosystems in Regions For Young Entrepreneurs. Laurea cooperated closely with the project coordinator, Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Council.

iEER project results in numbers

Interregional learning and capacity building

14 interregional events1
104 local events/meetings
1600 participants involved

Policy action plans and commitment to invest

10 regional action plans = 50 actions
Investment of €27.4m (€7.1m ERDF+ €12.3m ESF+ €8m other funding)

Contribution to the EU policy

European Commission’s start-up and Scale-up initiative
Committee of Regions’ opinion “Contribution of cities and regions to the new EU policy framework on SMEs”

“All in all iEER has had a ROI of 1004% “, says iEER Project Manager Christine Chang of Helsinki Uusimaa Regional Council, “if you think that iEER Budget was €2.3 million and iEER region's investment has been €27.4 million by 10/2019.”

Mr. Markku Markkula, the First Vice President of the European Committee of the Regions, closed the conference by saying that support for scaling up as well as helping SMEs to follow a sustainable development path should be the focus of the future SME Strategy for Europe.