The European Commission is currently seeking proposals under its Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI) programme for Transaction cost support for social enterprise finance.
The European Programme for Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI) 2014-20202 is a European-level financing instrument managed directly by the European Commission to contribute to the implementation of the Europe 2020 strategy, by providing financial support for the Union’s objectives in terms of promoting a high level of quality and sustainable employment, guaranteeing adequate and decent social protection, combating social exclusion and poverty and improving working conditions.
The objective of the call is to test a transaction cost support scheme in the form of a grant to be combined with financial instruments as a means to address the mismatch of needed and sustainable ticket sizes. More particularly, it aims at catalysing smaller risk-capital investments of below EUR 500 000 that otherwise would not happen.
Examples of activities to be funded
- travelling to meet (potential) investees;
- screening and processing investment applications;
- preparing legal documents, potentially with a lawyers’ advice;
- carrying out the due diligence, including assessing (potential) impact;
- providing investment readiness, scaling readiness or business restructuring support;
- bringing in co-investors;
- managing the investments and monitoring social impact.
Funding information
The total budget earmarked for the EU co-financing of projects under this call is estimated at EUR 3 million. The EU grant requested should indicatively be between EUR 300 000 and EUR 1 million. Under this call for proposals, the EU grant may not exceed 80 % of the total eligible costs of the action.
Eligibility criteria
a) by place of establishment:
Legal entities properly established and registered in the following countries are eligible as
applicants (sole or lead and co-applicants):
- EU Member States;
- Iceland in accordance with the EEA Agreement;
- Albania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey.
b) by type of entities:
To be eligible, the applicant (sole or lead and co-applicants) must be:
- An investment fund, a Fund-of-Funds, a special purpose vehicle, in any form, established or to be established. In this case, there are 2 options:
Either the legal entity of the investment fund, the Fund-of-Funds or the special purpose vehicle can be an applicant.
Or the (future) manager of the investment fund, of the Fund-of-Funds or the special purpose vehicle (established or to be established) can be applicant. For the avoidance of doubt, the (future) manager must already be an established and
registered legal entity at the time of the submission of the application. - A (co-) investment scheme in any form (including managed accounts and other types of contractual arrangements) established or to be established. In this case, either the (future) manager of the (co-) investment scheme / the managed
accounts must be applicant or the parties of the (future) contractual arrangements must be applicants (in a consortium).
The (future) manager or the parties to the (future) contractual arrangements must already be established and registered legal entities at the time of the submission of the application. - A foundation
Deadline
15 July 2017
How to apply
For further information, guidelines and to apply, please visit the EaSI website.