BizMentors

Programme 2014 - 2020 INTERREG VB Northern Periphery and Arctic

Date of latest update: 2023-11-16

Description

Description (EN):

Poor access to business expertise and networks is a challenge for SMEs and entrepreneurs across the NPA. This is especially true for SMEs in low business density and population density areas and for under-represented groups including women, the disabled and ethnic minorities. While an established mentoring support system exists in all the partner regions, many fail to meet the criteria to qualify for mentoring support, the mentors lack a working knowledge of specific areas of expertise or the funding model is unsustainable. The BizMentors model, developed by SCCUL, has been proven to support individuals and businesses in a small dispersed community setting in Galway since 2012. It relies on the local support of established business people (mentors) to provide free guidance to those seeking it (mentees) in a structured and low cost way. In a quadruple helix partnership approach, this project aims to innovate the model using an online interactive platform and shared learning to scale and expand BizMentors in the NPA Region, making expertise accessible to all enterprises and entrepreneurs. To test the new model, the partnership will focus on the Agri-Food sector. Having identified 587 existing agri-food businesses in the partner regions during the preparatory phase, the project will support end users to take advantage of the unique natural capital, innovation capacity and markets that remains untapped in the region. The mentoring model developed will be piloted in each region participating in the project. The output from these pilots will inform future transferability to other business sectors and countries (not just in the NPA region). To support this, a transnational Best Practice Handbook (BPH) will be produced to inform decision makers seeking to implement effective, low cost and inclusive mentoring solutions in other regions.The online platform will be made freely available to other communities to enable the sharing of goodwill, knowledge, wisdom and experience.

Website: http://www.interreg-npa.eu/

Expected Results (EN): Conditions for start-ups in remote, sparsely populated areas

Expected Outputs (EN):

The BizMentor main project result includes outputs, outcomes and impact in the business ecosystem across the NPA partner regions. The ultimate output will be the establishment of a BizMentor online mentoring platform to support entrepreneurs and businesses in remote and sparsely populated areas. Underpinning this, will be the establishment and piloting of a best practice mentoring model transnationally. BizMentors provides mentoring free of charge to anyone seeking support. The original model was established in Galway in 2012 with just a handful of mentors servicing a small geographic area. The initial remit was to support businesses who didn’t get support from state agencies, i.e. if they commercially displaced another, could not employ at least 10 people or did not have export potential. In this way, the model complemented existing mentoring offerings. As BizMentors is an entirely inclusive offering, supporting all individuals and industries, it has the capacity to support a broad range of business sectors and communities, including those under-represented groups in business such as women, the disabled and ethnic minorities. Each mentee can apply as many times, in as many areas and as often as is needed. Since April 2012, BizMentors Galway has supported over 2100 one-to-one mentoring sessions and over 1900 clients attending group mentoring seminars in a range of mentoring topics at a cost of approximately €35,000 / annum. The outcome of the project proposed will build on this by expanding the network of mentors, mentees and connectivity throughout remote and diverse regions in the partner countries and reducing the cost using an online platform. This direct support has contributed to a post mentoring employment increase of 43% per client as highlighted in a randomised survey of 193 businesses conducted by BizMentors and verified by Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology in 2017. The program is structured to encourage networking between mentees and mentors. 3-4 large scale regional events are organized annually to focus on specific challenges, as identified by monitoring what supports mentees are seeking. In addition, guest speakers are invited based on feedback from the mentors. The impact of this continuous engagement is the development of a community of support. It helps mentees feel less isolated, more supported and part of something bigger while enabling increased knowledge sharing in an enterprise environment. Costs are associated with the matching process, calling mentors, emailing both to connect each match and conducting follow up interviews. The development of the online platform proposed in this application will eliminate much of this administrative work and reduce the costs of delivery. While our communities are becoming less physical and more online we must enable meaningful dialog and a sense of connectivity in order to tackle exclusion and isolation by creating a more supported environment. BizMentors will deliver this.

Thematic information

SME and entrepreneurship

Specific Objective: Improved support systems tailored for start-ups and existing SMEs in remote and sparsely populated areas

Thematic Objective: (03) enhancing the competitiveness of SMEs by:

Investment Priority: (03a) promoting entrepreneurship, in particular by facilitating the economic exploitation of new ideas and fostering the creation of new firms, including through business incubators

Partners (6)

Lead Partner: Western Development Commission

Address: Dillon House, Ballaghaderreen,, F45 WY26 Roscommon, Ireland

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.wdc.ie

Total budget: EUR 309 371.90

ERDF budget: EUR 201 091.74

Fermanagh and Omagh District Council

Name: Fermanagh and Omagh District Council

Department: Funding and Investment

Address: Townhall Street 2, BT74 4BG Enniskillen, United Kingdom

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.fermanaghomagh.com

Total budget: EUR 226 132.48

ERDF budget: EUR 146 986.11

Norðurslóðanet Íslands

Name: Norðurslóðanet Íslands

Address: Borgir, Nordurslod 4 7. floor, 600 Akureyri, Iceland

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.arcticiceland.is

Total budget: EUR 89 463.59

Atvinnuþróunarfélag Þingeyinga

Name: Atvinnuþróunarfélag Þingeyinga

Address: Garðarsbraut 5, 640 Húsavík, Iceland

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.atthing.is

Total budget: EUR 148 526.21

Savonia-ammattikorkeakoulu

Name: Savonia-ammattikorkeakoulu

Department: Faculty of Business, Tourism and Hospitality

Address: PO Box 6, 70210 Kuopio, Finland

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.savonia.fi

Total budget: EUR 250 000.00

ERDF budget: EUR 162 500.00

SCCUL Enterprises CLG

Name: SCCUL Enterprises CLG

Address: Walter Macken Road 1, H91 RH32 Galway, Ireland

Legal status: private

Website: http://scculenterprises.ie

Total budget: EUR 320 000.00

ERDF budget: EUR 160 000.00

Partners map

Partners and Projects info

Fermanagh and Omagh District Council

BizMentors

Partners and Projects info

Icelandic Arctic Cooperation Network

BizMentors

Partners and Projects info

Northeast Iceland Development Agency

BizMentors

Partners and Projects info

Savonia University of Applied Sciences

BizMentors

Partners and Projects info

SCCUL Enterprises CLG

BizMentors

Partners and Projects info

Western Development Commission

BizMentors

Lead partner

Project partner

Summary

Project name (EN): BizMentors

Project acronym: BizMentors

Project start date: 2018-10-01

Project end date: 2022-03-31

Project status: closed

Total budget/expenditure: EUR 1 343 494.18

Total EU funding (amount): EUR 670 577.85

Total EU funding (co-financing rate): 58.00%

Co-financing sources:

ERDF: Amount, EUR 670 577.85.

Third-country contribution: Iceland: EUR 142 793.88 (ERDF equivalent only)

Documents

Documents on this project are listed below, and organised by category. Please note field "Data source", attached to each document. Keep.eu users are free to use these documents as long as they mention the data source and keep.eu.

Websites / webtools / webforums / cooperative platforms

BizMentors International - Free Mentoring Without Barriers

Attachment type: link

Type of document: Website / webtool / webforum / cooperative platform

Data source: https://bizmentors.interreg-npa.eu/outputs-and-results/

Publication date: 2022-11-14

Document date: 2022-03-31

Languages: en, fi, is

Attachment link: https://bizmentors.eu

Brochures / magazines / manuals

Best Practice Handbook

Attachment type: file

Type of document: Brochure / magazine / manual

Data source: https://bizmentors.interreg-npa.eu/outputs-and-results/

Publication date: 2022-11-14

Document date: 2019-12-31

Languages: en

Attachment file: Download

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

Financing programme

2014 - 2020 INTERREG VB Northern Periphery and Arctic

Last month that data in keep.eu was retrieved from the Programme's website or received from the Programme

2023-11-02

No. of projects in keep.eu / Total no. of projects (% of projects in keep.eu)

152 / 152 (100%)

No. of project partnerships in keep.eu / Total no. of project partnerships (% of project partnerships in keep.eu)

779 / 779 (100%)

Notes on the data

Information provided by the Programme

Languages

Contact Form

BizMentors

Description

Thematic information

Partners (6)

Partners map

Summary

Documents

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

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