On June 16 and 17, Euricse organized the 13th International Workshop on Cooperative and Responsible Finance for Development in Trento, in collaboration with Federcasse, the University of Trento (Department of Economics and Management) and with the support of the European Association of Cooperative Banks (EACB).
During the workshop, scholars and young researchers from universities and research centers around the world contributed to enriching the debate on the role of cooperative finance in addressing today’s challenges, highlighting the ability of cooperative banks to support and revitalize local economies. Several new research papers are presented during the six scheduled sessions.

Highlights include discussions on such important topics as the balance between values and business, the role of cooperative banks, ethical finance, corporate governance of cooperative banks, sustainable development, and green finance.

To open the Conference were together Sergio Gatti, Director General of Federcasse, Silvio Goglio from Euricse and Flavio Bazzana from Università di Trento also Nina Schindler, CEO of the EACB.

SEED EU Project Partners met in Ljubljana on May 19-20 for the 3rd transnational partner meeting. The event provided an interesting opportunity to work together, present intermediate results of the project, and outline future actions. 
The SEED learning repository will soon be available online, was one of the results of WP2 presented on this occasion. The repository is a collection of tips and tools that guides social entrepreneurs throughout all stages of a social innovation project, from conception to implementation and monitoring.
Subsequently, participants were involved in an interactive exercise in which they shared their views and feedback on National workshops organised in each partner country in the weeks before this meeting to
design national competence centres. On this occasion, national pilot projects were presented.
The Slovenian partners organised a study visit for all participants to the Business incubator Katapult Trbovlje. Among many interesting cases, it was presented a social innovation project to improve children’s maths skills through an innovative hands-on learning approach. Children are guided through the several practical applications of mathematics and are encouraged to think that most of the technology they like, including robots and virtual reality, would not be possible without maths.

On May 10th, an international webinar online on the resilience of cooperatives during the COVID-10 crisis will be organized by the Ashkelon Academic College from Israel, in cooperation with Legacoop, Euricse and many other israeliane partners.

The senior researcher Chiara Carini has been invited to present the analyses of the new published Euricse’ Report “Cooperatives in Trentino: size, role and challenges during the pandemic”. 

Participation form

There are still a couple of week to participate in the JEOD call for papers for the special issue is open: Cooperative firms, participatory culture, and contemporary challenges. Essays in honour of Johnston Birchall. We invite submissions of articles that revive Prof. Birchall’s work by considering his legacy as a scholar of cooperative enterprises and their relevance to the economic and social challenges of our time. The deadline for submissions is April 15, 2022.

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In the coming months, Euricse will launch several new training projects on cooperative entrepreneurship. The first one is Feel Coop, a new high level training course dedicated to young people under the age of 35, in order to create job opportunities by developing innovative strengthening and efficiency projects in cooperative enterprises, especially enterprises in the Trentino region.
The second, starting in June, is The Foundations of Responsible Enterprise, a course organized together with Luiss Business School, Dynamo Academy and Adriano Olivetti Foundation.
It is aimed at managers who want to combine business performance with social, environmental and economic responsibilities, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Amif Momentum Project co-funded by the European Union’s Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund, is underway. Euricse, as leader of WP2, presented the research methodology designed primarily to map the structural and cultural barriers that young refugee women face in accessing vocational training and employment opportunities, with a particular focus on the social economy. The project is implemented under the coordination of ActionAid Hellas in cooperation with 10 partners in 6 countries: Spain, Italy, Portugal, Hungary, Austria and Greece. Stay tuned to Euricse’s channels to learn more about the project and its actions.

Last month the kick-off meeting of the Momentum Project, co-funded by the European Union’s Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund, was held. This is a project led by ActionAid Hellas, focused on reducing the structural and cultural barriers that young refugee women face in accessing vocational training and employment opportunities, with a particular focus on the social economy.
Euricse is the leader of WP2, and we are already active in designing a research methodology that will be implemented in Italy, Spain, Hungary, Portugal and Greece to understand the obstacles that these young women face

Euricse and the Italian Council for Economy and Labour have signed a collaboration agreement to foster the growth of the social economy in Italy and measure its social and productive impact. Among various fronts of collaboration, the agreement includes the development of the “satellite account for the social economy”, as a key data source to monitor how the social economy impacts the Italian economy overall. The agreement has a three-year duration and consolidates the already existing collaboration between the two institutions. The protocol also provides for in-depth study activities on issues relating to the social economy, the implementation of the Social Economy Action Plan, the organization of initiatives of common interest and the possibility of launching working groups with the participation of highly qualified experts in the social economy field. 

Here is the news on the Italian Council for Economy and Labour website

At the basis of the collaboration agreement is the need to study in depth the issues related to the social economy in Italy, with particular reference to the reform of the Third Sector Code, the regulation of organizations and enterprises operating in the field of the social economy; the study of financial instruments suited to the specific needs of social economy organizations; the highlighting and measurement of the economic impact of social activities, and related actions in the community and international spheres.

Euricse and the National Council for Economy and Labour have therefore agreed to delve into the content of the plan, approved by the European Commission, which sets the guidelines for a course for the next ten years, and is aimed at promoting the social economy, creating jobs and concretely encouraging a fair and inclusive recovery and green and digital transitions.

In view of Euricse’s expertise in deepening the role of cooperative and social enterprises and other nonprofit organizations and their impact on economic and social development, the convention also places emphasis on measurement and impact assessment, with reference to the “satellite account” for the social economy, as provided for in the last Budget Law. This tool, which ISTAT – the Italian national statistical institute – will have the task of implementing within the next five years, will be able to offer a joint representation of the sector from both the supply and demand sides, so as to highlight a phenomenon of great importance in terms of GDP and employment effects, such as the social economy, which is destined to constitute a further pillar of the country’s economic development.

Still according to the contents of the agreement, the parties also commit themselves to organizing technical meetings, seminars and other initiatives of common interest, and to launching in-depth study groups involving the participation of highly qualified subjects in the field of social economy, given that the Action plan for social economy has placed at the center of economic growth all forms of organization that have not only a profit-making purpose but also a social purpose.

The signing of this agreement represents an added value for EURICSE’s expertise in social economy, both in terms of research and analysis of public policies at European and national level.

Not only that, but this memorandum of understanding consolidates a collaboration that the two institutions have already been working on for some time, and which on 21st January 2022 saw the participation of Gianluca Salvatori, Secretary General of EURICSE (and also a member of GECES, the European Commission’s group of experts on the social economy), in the first webinar for the presentation in Italy of the action plan for the social economy, organized by CNEL in collaboration with the MEF – The Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance.

Euricse is a partner in the EU Project that focuses on “supporting the European Commission’s services to prepare a Transition Pathway for the Proximity and Social Economy Industrial ecosystem, together with other partners including Diesis Network (project leader), Social Economy Europe and Euclid Network. Euricse, as leader of WP1, will analyse the responses to the open consultation launched by the EC, so as to shed light on the main scenarios foreseen by stakeholders with respect to the twin transition (ecological transition + digital transition) pathway for the Social and Proximity Economy.
The European Commission has launched asurveyto collect feedback on this topic and respondents have the opportunity to join in a series of workshops organized by the Commission to further define the role and needs of social economy organizations in the green and digital transition. Today is the last day to take part in the survey!

Link to the EU Survey
More about the Project 

JEOD launched a call for papers for a special issue on Cooperative firms, participatory culture, and contemporary challenges. Essays in honour of Johnston Birchall.

It calls for papers that bring the work of Johnston Birchall to life by addressing current issues in social and economic recovery, and discuss his scholarly legacy and its relevance for contemporary economic and societal challenges across world regions, as well as from all sectors of activities – those where cooperatives traditionally operate – but also those addressing the production of meritorious goods, such as culture and education, social services and healthcare.

Authors may submit abstracts to [email protected] by 15 April 2022.

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The research activities carried out as part of the Erasmus+ project B-WISE, led by EASPD and ENSIE envisaged a phase of data collection through face-to-face interviews. Under the coordination of Euricse, the project partners carried out interviews with more than 400 workers in the Work Integration Social Enterprises sector. The information collected will allow us to learn about the characteristics of these enterprises in 13 European countries, the professional profiles of their workers as well as their skills needs. A big thank you to the partners and the WISEs who contributed to the research!

For more info

On January 12th, Euricse presented the new report on “Cooperation in Trentino”, sponsored by the Autonomous Province of Trento. While focused on the Trentino region, this research report offers interesting insights into the ways in which a model of economic development based on cooperation can meet the principles of environmental and social sustainability, in line with the Action Plan for the Social Economy launched by the European Commission.

Read the report (in Italian)