On 25 June 2019 all partners in the BASET project gathered for the final project meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria, which was scheduled a day after the international conference 'Investing in Social Challenges', organised by the project coordinator Knowledge, Innovation and Strategies Management Club (KISMC) and the project partner CEED Bulgaria, with the strong support and active participation of IDEC, Caban Capital and Creative District.

The main topics discussed during the meeting were: the upcoming conference in June and the evaluation procedures, finalization of all outputs of the project, with special attention to the final Output 3 - Train the Investors Handbook (TIH), which has to be completed by August 2019. The meeting had a great emphasis on the project dissemination and reports by the partners as well as quality assurance and overview of all project activities until the end of BASET.

Furthermore, all project partners reviewed potential opportunities for continuing the work together on the topic of social entrepreneurship and supporting mentor and investor with more concrete materials and tool.

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On 12 April 2019 all partners in the BASET project gathered for the 4th project meeting in London, UK after the organised 5-days' Training & Review on the Train the Investors Handbook + Social Impact in London. The project coordinator Knowledge, Innovation and Strategies Management Club (KISMC) and the project partners CEED Bulgaria, IDEC, Caban Capital and Creative District gathered to discuss the current status and results from the intellectual outputs so far as well as next steps for implementing the project BASET: Boost Aid for Social Entrepreneurship through Training.

The timing of the project meeting was very good, i.e. after the 2nd project training, since all the feedback collected could be discussed and reviewed for taking on board the updating of the drafts of the 3 intellectual outputs: 

• Social Entrepreneurship Development Model (SEDM)
• Train the Trainers Toolkit (TTT)
• Train the Investors Handbook (TIH)

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The training organised prior the project meeting contributed also to the discussions for the future development cycle of the project as well as post the project duration. 

During the project meeting all partners provided feedback on the training and the topics discussed with all participants such as investments in social entrepreneurship, impact investing, venture capital and best practices from Caban Capital. The project partners had an extensive overview of the current status of the project and provided insights from the training's comments and feedback on the TIH. Moreover, Caban Capital and Creative District discussed the final steps for execution of Output 3 - Train the Investors Handbook and what collaborative steps need to be taken to better support investors in social impact.

Furthermore, all project partners covered topics such as quality assurance and evaluation, dissemination of the project as well as the conference that will take place in Sofia in June 2019 to support the BASET project and the investment in social impact. The project meeting helped the entire project team sync their efforts in a direction that would be beneficial to all stakeholders in the social entrepreneurship ecosystem. ​The meeting was also focused on discussions about the project activities, financial and administration details.

On 26 October 2018 all partners in the BASET project gathered for the 3rd project meeting in Brussels, Belgium after the organised 5-days' Training & Review on the Social Entrepreneurship Model + Train the Trainers Toolkit. The project coordinator Knowledge, Innovation and Strategies Management Club (KISMC) and the project partners CEED Bulgaria, IDEC, Caban Capital and Creative District gathered to discuss the current status and results from the intellectual outputs so far as well as next steps for implementing the project BASET: Boost Aid for Social Entrepreneurship through Training.

The timing of the project meeting was very good, i.e. after the 1st project training, since all the feedback collected could be discussed and reviewed for taking on board the updating of the drafts of the 2 intellectual outputs: 

• Social Entrepreneurship Development Model (SEDM)
• Train the Trainers Toolkit (TTT)

The training orgnised prior the project meeting contributed also to the discussions for the future development cycle of the project as well as post the project duration. During the project KISMC provided a progress update on the SEDM, taking on board the additional comments and feedback from the previously held training with the educators from Bulgaria, Greece, Belgium and the UK. All partners suggested additional aspects that could slightly be improved and updated. Moreover, IDEC and CEED Bulgaria provided insights from the training's comments and feedback on the TTT and led the discussion on the structure and the development on the online platform. On the ground of all discussions, Caban Capital and Creative District took on board a collective overview of the best development of the intellectual output 3 - Train the Investors Handbook.

Furthermore, all project partners covered topics such as quality assurance and evaluation, dissemination of the project as well as project management and next steps. The project meeting helped the entire project team sync their efforts in a direction that would be beneficial to all stakeholders in the social entrepreneurship ecosystem. ​The meeting was also focused on discussions about the project activities, financial and administration details.


Author
Partners @BASET

Each partner had the chance to talk about the social entrepreneurship environment in their country whereas many case studies encouraged interesting discussions comparing the ecosystems in a variety of European regions. Furthermore, the main topic that everyone provided feedback was on the SEDM progress - such as results from the focus group that took place in Sofia, framework and suggestions for the content of the model and the main concepts, existing models and frameworks for social and business enterprises were analyzed together with previous and ongoing Erasmus+ projects on Social entrepreneurship.

The project meeting helped the entire project team sync their efforts in a direction that would be beneficial to all stakeholders in the social entrepreneurship ecosystem. ​The meeting was also focused on discussions about the project activities, dissemination strategy, financial and administration details. All partners agreed on next steps and the evaluation and quality assurance framework for the project.

Author
Partners @BASET

​On 26 October 2017 the BASET project kicked off with a meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria where all partners – the project coordinator Knowledge, Innovation and Strategies Management Club (KISMC) and the project partners CEED Bulgaria, IDEC, Caban Capital and Creative District – launched BASET: Boost Aid for Social Entrepreneurship through Training [Project No. 2017-1-BG01-KA204-036360].

The project has been successful in the Erasmus+ call in 2017 and consequently co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union for its 2-years' implementation. Erasmus+ is the European Union’s (EU) programme for education, training, youth and sport, with the EU committing £12 billion to the programme between 2014 and 2020. By 2020 it is expected that over 800,000 education and training staff and youth workers will teach or train abroad across Europe with Erasmus+. Projects provide opportunities for learners and staff to improve their skills, enhance their employability and gain cultural awareness.

During the kick off meeting in Sofia all partners discussed their previous experience in social entrepreneurship and agreed on an agenda that would focus on producing quality intellectual outputs that would assist all stakeholders in the social entrepreneurship ecosystem. 
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No matter that we have already mentioned what BASET stands for here’s a quick preview: ‘Boost Aid for Social Entrepreneurship through Training’. The project duration is 2 years and will continue running until August 2019 which will end in Sofia with an insightful conference about the produced results for social entrepreneurship in Europe.

Although the project has a set end date for its implementation under the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, we are firmly willing to continue contributing to this topic by using BASET as an already established network and community to create social value and assist finding solutions to the world’s problem our society faces.

In order to understand more about what the project is about, keep reading below...

We could easily sum up the answer in one sentence but it would hardly cover all. However, let’s sum it up in a sentence:

“We kicked off BASET because we believe that social entrepreneurs can solve crucial problems that we all face.”

But let’s dig in deeper.

After extensive research and looking back at our joint partners’ experience in social entreprneurship we discovered that specialist support for social enterprises is largely absent and where it exists it is often limited or fragmented. There is lack of mentoring and training schemes as well as investment support corresponding to the specific features of social enterprises.

The main objective of the project is to foster social entrepreneurship in Europe through elaborating, testing and providing a set of learning and training instruments to educators.

​All instruments will be tested whereas a group of educators will be trained to offer a set of resources such as training in entrepreneurial skills, mentoring focussed on designing business models and business plans, networking within the broader social entrepreneurship ecosystem and access to grants or seed capital.
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For the execution of BASET our activities will concentrate on the preparation of two methodologies and their testing:

1. Through a 5 days’ course for educators (trainers and mentors)
2. Through a 5 days’ course for investors

The methodology concentrates on a collaborative approach based on commonly accepted rules, preliminary defined tasks and critical milestones, strict reporting and effective control through an online project management platform. We believe that communication is key, therefore we have decided to work with cloud integrated platforms to enhance and ease up the collaboration among the whole consortium.
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The project outcome is a clarified learning model for training educators to contribute to the success of social entrepreneurs. The model consists of three main outputs

• Social Entrepreneurship Development model – a very practical and easy-to-use handbook for educators to understand the needs of social ventures and hands-on guidance that helps entrepreneurs carry out their social missions more effectively
• Train the Trainers Toolkit – providing educators with background knowledge, skills and practical experience, virtual space to provide Social Entrepreneurship Training and technical assistance to social entrepreneurs’ communities
• Train the Investors Handbook – equipping investors-mentors with practical knowledge and model of working with social entrepreneurs at risk

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The methods and the achieved results will contribute to the understanding of the process of social enterprise management through the eyes of the educators in Europe who are involved in the entrepreneurship development and will be able to advance to specificity of the social entrepreneurship in a long-term scale.

With the outcome of the BASET project the educators will be armed with a set of resources that will make the process of training, mentoring and networking for social entrepreneurs sustainable while facilitating their access to effective services and capital.
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In order to have longer-term benefits the project presumes creating a sustainable network of stakeholders and selection processes open to a broader number of trainers and social business cases.
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The project consortium comprises of 5 partners from 4 countries:

• Knowledge, Innovation and Strategies Management Club (KISMC) – Bulgaria
  An NGO focusing on developing competences for adults in innovation management, creativity and entrepreneurship
• CEED – Bulgaria
  An experienced business support organisation in the entrepreneurship development in Bulgaria
• IDEC – Greece
  A consultancy with an accredited lifelong learning centre in Greece and organizing in-service training courses for teachers and trainers, informal learning and vocational training
• Caban Capital – UK
  A fund manager providing opportunities for investors to invest in entrepreneurs through services each business requires to be successful
• Creative District – Belgium
  ​A Brussels-based organisation supporting initiatives in the creative and cultural industries for societal impact through providing innovation spaces for guidance and support to entrepreneurs

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