Financial Support for Social Economy SMEs in Agrifood Sector

Through the GRAINS Financial Facility Program up to 60 Social Economy SMEs will be selected to support financially the implementation of their greening projects in their agrifood businesses in EU Members States and Ukraine.

The activities for which social economy SMEs may receive financial support are:

• training (upskilling and reskilling),
• consultancy and labelling for greening their operations,
• tailored advisory services to develop local markets,
• other elements necessary for greening their enterprises (eco certifications, eco packaging, digitalisation and technologies, etc.),
• additional path of coaching and mentoring on development of the green transition for social enterprises.

For the implementation of their projects, selected Social Economy SMEs will have to contract verified service providers financed through the grant provided to them by the GRAINS project. GRAINS – Greening Agrifood in Social Economy, is a project funded by European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency.

The GRAINS project aims at building the capacity of Social Economy SMEs in agrifood by providing training and workshops on sustainable practices and on how to reduce their environmental footprint, namely:

• Supporting the transition towards sustainable and environmentally friendly practices and production processes;
• Promoting the adoption of sustainable technologies and innovations;
• Building the capacity and competitiveness of social economy SMEs through knowledge transfer and skills development about sustainable practices;
• Fostering transnational cooperation, best practice sharing, and promoting sustainable practices through awareness-raising efforts.

Financial Facility Programme Aims

The Financial Facility Programme is a monetary support program, and aims to:

• Improving the capacity of Social Economy SMEs in agrifood to transition to a green business model by improving efficiency.
• Modernizing the way of working through the use of digitalisation and technology.
• Encouraging cross-sectoral cooperation and knowledge transfer between social economy SMEs, start-ups, traditional enterprises, consultancies, business support centers, and incubators to increase the adoption of green skills and the development of more sustainable products and services.
• Promoting sustainable innovation processes by social economy SMEs to increase their competitiveness and creating new market opportunities.
• Encouraging further investment by social economy SMEs in sustainable alternatives, capacity building, and knowledge transfer.

Funding Information

• Social Economy SMEs selected under the Call for Proposals in the Financial Facility Programme will receive an amount of max € 8.175,00 of financial support to implement their projects with the support of one or several service providers choosing the most appropriate provider from the pool of providers created through the specific Call for Service Providers in frame of GRAINS project.
• The total amount of funding that will be provided to Social Economy SMEs is EUR 490,500.
• The project runs between 1 October 2023 and 30 September 2025.

Criteria

• In order to be eligible, the applicants must:
  • be legal entities;
  • be established in one of the eligible countries:
    • EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs)
    • Ukraine
  • only small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Social Economy sector operating in the agrifood sector are eligible to apply.

For more information, visit European Union.