In organization of the Regional Agency for Entrepreneurship and Innovations – Varna, RAPIV; Lead Partner of the Interreg DRP project “Boosting digital and industrial capacity for sustainable circular transition of women entrepreneurs in the Danube Region“ (WE.Circular), a Kick-off Meeting was held on March 19^th and 20^th, 2024 in Varna, Bulgaria.

 

WE.Circular project consortium of 15 partners from DE, AT, CZ, SK, HU, RS, BiH, RO, HR, SI and MD and 11 ASP-a from 12 Danube countries brings together national & regional, public and private organizations and universities, whose specific thematic background guarantees a solid knowledge and necessary expertise by coming forward with appropriate innovative solutions.

 

Besides skills for business development and circular transition, women entrepreneurs from the Danube region need to improve their digital skills in order to become more competitive. This project comes as a response of these specific needs of women entrepreneurs in the Danube region through different transnational activities focused on: identification of needs and challenges women entrepreneurs face in their digital and circular economy transition; exchange of knowledge; circular economy policy measures in the Danube region, policy improvement and S3s harmonization to be aligned to their needs through developed Transnational Strategy for women entrepreneurs in Circular Transition; innovative training programme for development and improvement of digital and circular economy culture and skills delivered by Learning Network; innovative circular business models for recycling, reuse, and reduce developed and tested by WE.Circular Labs which will also facilitate increase of skills of stakeholders to harmonize S3s; capacity building of the public authorities regarding assessment of innovative circular business model and design of a supportive women entrepreneurs policy framework via Transnational Policy Learning Centre.

 

The scope and activities of the project contribute to enhancing female entrepreneurship in the Danube region and are closely aligned with the following action of the EUSDR Action Plan for Priority Area 8:

 

• Action 4 : To improve business support to strengthen the innovative and digital capacities of female-led-SMEs

 

At the event, the project partners presented their roles and project contributions in work packages. Priority Area 8 Coordinators od the Danube Strategy, Carmen Hawkins and Nirvana Kapitan Butković, presented the governance structure of the EUDSR, Priority Area 8 with the focus of strengthening the competitiveness of enterprises, the activities of Steering Groups and Working Groups, out of which the WE.Circular is directly aligned with the aims and targets of the WG Female Entrepreneurship.

 

Other presentation included the information Women entrepreneurship Centre – Varna, support for skills improvement under Danube Region Programme, Interreg Danube Region Project TEX-DAN, Business Program Smart Lady, Project RE-FEM Upskilling pathways for REsiliency in the post-Covid era for FEMale Entrepreneurs under Erasmus, EEN-SG Female Entrepreneurship and other funding possibilities for women entrepreneurs.

Afterwards, Transnational learning event was organized where examples of Bulgarian and Romanian best practices were presented.