A central element of the project is to create local inclusive entrepreneurship and social innovation hubs (ISI HUBs) that support women, disabled and young entrepreneurs. The ISI HUBs offer personalized development programmes to help target group members improve their competitiveness and achieve their business goals.

The project is led by the Krakow University of Economics and involves representatives from Austria, Croatia, Poland, Hungary, Germany and Italy. The project partners will conduct workshops and develop entrepreneurship curricula to support target groups in launching and scaling up sustainable entrepreneurial activities.

On 2-3 December, the next partner meeting of the project was held in Budapest at Impact Hub Budapest, where the participants discussed the current progress of the project and the next steps, followed by a press conference at the end of the professional programmes.

In his speech, Tamás Fehérváry, the Executive Director of the Hungarian Economic Development Agency said: „In our international cooperation projects we work for businesses, our goal is to learn about and share good practices in business development on an international level, thereby developing innovative and high-quality products and services. The special value of the TASK4ISI project is that it helps disadvantaged entrepreneurs to become more competitive.

The long-term objective of the TASK4ISI project is to stimulate social innovation and develop entrepreneurial skills through a transnational network of 108 members, which can have a significant impact on entrepreneurial ecosystems in the participating countries.”

„Impact Hub Budapest has been supporting businesses and social enterprises since 2016. We have several currently running business development programmes, with more than 1.000 programme participants so far, and reaching 10.000 people on social media platforms. We build bridges between government, civil society and business. We act as an innovative catalyst in Budapest as an event venue and coworking office, a member of the international Impact Hub community, which operates in more than 120 cities around the world.” – said Beatrix Bedő, co-founder and CEO of Impact Hub Budapest.

Zsuzsanna Lakatosné Lukács, Executive Director of the SEED Small Business Development Foundation said: „Entrepreneurship and support for disadvantaged groups is a key factor for the economy of every country. In the case of special entrepreneurial groups also supported in the programme, in addition to developing skills, providing social capital, gaining entrepreneurial experience, learning about and adopting entrepreneurial best practices is the most effective form of support. This is confirmed by the fact that in 2024, in the European Enterprise Development Award competition announced by the European Commission, the Personal Entrepreneurship Mentoring Programme, which focuses on women and young entrepreneurial groups, could be among the 3 best practices.”

The TASK4ISI project is being implemented through the Central Transnational Programme with the support of the European Regional Development Fund, co-financed by the European Union and the Government of Hungary.