Two COSME calls open for applications

The European Commission has published two specific calls under the EU programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (COSME). The calls are the following: Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs - COS-EYE-2015-4-01 which closes June 3, 2015, and Statistics for Family Businesses - COS-DCFB-2015-3-01-1 with a submission deadline of June 16, 2015. The budgets are € 6 million and € 300,000 respectively.

The Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs call aims to expand and strengthen the existing network of Intermediary Organisations (IOs) which act as local contact points for newly established entrepreneurs as well as experienced entrepreneurs in the participating countries. IOs will be selected to implement the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs programme at local level.

Aim of the Statistics for Family Businesses
call is to provide policy-makers and relevant stakeholders for credible, comparable and systematic information and indicators on the role of the family businesses in national economies and to offer usable and practical information to stakeholders for their decision making. The projects selected should also support the development of statistics for the first time in countries which have not collected yet statistics on family business.

The COSME programme aims to make it easier for SMEs to access finance in all phases of their lifecycle - creation, expansion, or business transfer.