10 years of Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs: stronger than ever a decade later

2019-04-25

Since its launch in 2009, the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs  (EYE) programme has helped to facilitate more than 7,000 collaborations between new and experiences entrepreneurs across the EU, enabling over 14,000 entrepreneurs to benefit from this EU-funded programme.

In 10 years, the programme has helped entrepreneurs to stimulate innovative business practices, develop new products and services, and expand into new markets .

One of the institutions engaged in the Programme in Poland is Poznan Science and Technology Park (FUAM). For the past 8 years we have supported almost 80 young and would-be entrepreneurs, helping them to organize the exchange and taking care of formalities. Thanks to PPNT (FUAM) and EYE (Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs) they got a chance to develop their soft and business-related skills by taking part in the international exchanges. EYE helped the young entrepreneurs to flourish – both in terms of developing their business ideas and their labour market position in general.

Poznan Science and Technology Park joined the Programme in 2011. During that time it helped to organize numerous European exchanges, including organizing they stay of almost 20 young people from abroad in Polish companies. Domestic entrepreneurs by becoming mentors gained a lot too: broadening of one’s international network, upgrades in organisational culture and sometimes even gaining a business representative in new markets.

– We have quite an experience when it comes to organizing the exchanges and a passion for all EYE activities. I think this is one of our success factors in choosing us as Intermediary Organisation. What is also our advantage is the fact of having a number of international contacts that we put to use to support our participants. Some of our Programme partners include leading institutions in their respective regions, like for example UnternehmerTUM from Munich (Center for Innovation and Business Creation at TUM), Fondazione Politecnico di Milano or Tetuan Valley Madrid – says Natalia Rymarczuk from PPNT.

– I’m happy that such a program exists in our world. Because it helped to find out ways to improvement and allowed my ideas to be implemented step by step too.  Now I can see that the idea that I had with EYE program is obviously more complex and requires much more time and knowledge to implement than I expected but nevertheless without EYE my idea would become forgotten. Thank you. I always tell to other good people about your program.  Will be pleasure to tell that now I’m like middle developer in Python and working with interesting projects/improving myself, and that’s because of your program – says one of the PPNT FUAM’s participants, Max.

– Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs is highly appreciated by entrepreneurs because it helps them boost their business in a tangible way. It helps to create new companies and jobs, and supports entrepreneurs on their path to growth. For example, between 2014–2016, over 250 new companies and more than 2,000 jobs were created thanks to the EYE experience. I want to see this programme grow in importance, with more and more successful entrepreneurs, more start-ups and more SMEs growing and scale-up within – says Kristin Schreiber, Director for the COSME Programme at the European Commission in the Directorate General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs.

The EYE programme facilitates the exchange of entrepreneurial and management experience across the EU. It matches a newly established or potential entrepreneur with a well-experienced entrepreneur running a small business in another country. The exchange is partially funded by the European Union under the COSME programme,  Europe’s programme for small and medium-sized enterprises.

To mark the impact of the programme, Nelly Davtyan and Ioannis Polychronakis were selected as the EYE Entrepreneurs of the Decade during the award ceremony that took place in Brussels on 18 March. The event brought together the network of nearly 200 local contact points that implement the programme across Europe, as well as Members of the European Parliament, and representatives from the European Commission, the Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME).

About the winners

Nelly Davtyan (Armenia) was awarded as EYE New Entrepreneur of the Decade. In 2016 Nelly put together a team of experienced IT developers and founded ‘IT Solutions’, a company for mobile and web-based applications. After her exchange in Malta in 2018, Nelly has managed to turn her start-up into a sustainable growing IT business with the help of the EYE programme and her host entrepreneur. She aspires to encourage more young women from small countries to run their own business.

In the EYE Host Entrepreneur of the Decade category, the prize went to Ioannis Polychronakis (Greece). Ioannis runs a family business in the design and construction sector, offering customised design/building and consulting services on the island of Crete. The company focuses on the natural preservation, implementing environmentally friendly house solutions (energy passive houses, green energy solutions, recycling solutions). Since joining EYE in 2015, Ioannis has hosted 5 new entrepreneurs from various countries.

Join EYE, check the details here.