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European Business and Innovation Centre Network

EBN

EBN (European Business and Innovation Centre Network) is the non-profit that facilitates this pan-European, global community of people using innovative business as a driver for regional (economic, sustainable, and social) development.

Lobbying Activity

Meeting with Ann-Sofie Ronnlund (Cabinet of Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva)

19 Nov 2025 · Exchange of views on collaboration opportunities and support mechanisms within the European innovation ecosystem.

Response to European Innovation Act

29 Sept 2025

The European Business and Innovation Centre Network (EBN) welcomes the European Innovation Act (EIA) as a cornerstone initiative to address persistent challenges in Europes competitiveness and innovation gap. Anchored in the evidence from our annual quality assessments and feedback from our EU|BIC community members, EBNs approach builds on nearly three decades of supporting sustainable entrepreneurship, place-based economic development, and inclusive prosperity. The EIA, alongside complementary initiatives like the European Research Area Act and, crucially, the 28th Regime for companies, must deliver radical simplification and foster an environment where innovative companies choose to scale up within the Single Market rather than relocating abroad.
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Response to 28th regime – a single harmonized set of rules for innovative companies throughout the EU

29 Sept 2025

EBN, facilitating a pan-European network of over 175 quality-certified European Business and Innovation Centres (EU|BICs) and associate Entrepreneurship Support Organisation (ESO) members who support over 30,000 startups and SMEs annually, welcomes the Commission's commitment to the 28th Regime, a proposal driven by the January 2025 Competitiveness Compass and the March 2025 European Council conclusions. This initiative is a core component of a comprehensive set of actions designed to enhance the competitiveness of the European economy, particularly for innovative companies, startups, and scale-ups. The "28th Regime" is not merely about harmonisation; it is about enacting the systemic change required to unlock Europe's competitive potential on the global stage. For our detailed recommendations, see the attached PDF file.
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Response to Mid-Term Review: Social Economy Action Plan

14 Jul 2025

Since its foundation, EBN and its pan-European/global member community of 175+ EU|BICs (European Business and Innovation Centres) have combined economic dynamism with social impact, supporting thousands of entrepreneurs across Europe and beyond. We welcome the Commissions mid-term review of the Social Economy Action Plan (SEAP) and the opportunity to share insights from our members experiences. As the Action Plan moves beyond its first phase (202125) towards 202630, EBN stands ready to deepen its collaboration with DG EMPL and other partners to scale social-impact innovation. Our response is structured around four strategic pillarsrooted in the Better Incubation (LIAISE) pilot and our EU|BIC communitys expertiseand addresses the five consultation questions through concrete member feedback. We refer to the uploaded position paper for our complete feedback on the call for evidence.
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Response to European strategy on research and technology infrastructures

21 May 2025

Recommendations on the European Strategy on Research and Technology Infrastructures Brussels, 18 May 2025 General remarks EBN welcomes the European Commission's initiative to develop a comprehensive European Strategy on Research and Technology Infrastructures. We recognise that research and technology infrastructures are major strategic assets underpinning scientific and technological excellence and industrial competitiveness in Europe. Their significance has been repeatedly highlighted in key reports like the Draghi and Letta reports. EBN facilitates a pan-European community of over 175 quality-certified European Business and Innovation Centres (EU|BICs) and Associate Members, deeply committed to fostering innovation, entrepreneurship, and sustainable industrial growth across Europe. Our network operates embedded within regional innovation ecosystems, connecting research, industry, and government. EU|BICs serve as crucial orchestrators within these regional innovation ecosystems. We concur with the Call for Evidence regarding the identified challenges facing these infrastructures. These include sustainability issues, limited collaboration both within and between Member States and between infrastructures and industry, and significant disparities in the availability and quality of technology infrastructures across different regions. EU|BICs, as orchestrators of regional innovation ecosystems, experience these hurdles firsthand. A European approach is essential to address the transnational challenges and ensure effective coordination, pooling of resources, and the establishment of common standards. This strategy should also align with and strengthen the links with the European Innovation Act, European Research Area Act, and the upcoming EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy. Drawing upon our network's expertise and role in the ecosystem, EBN proposes several recommendations for the European Strategy on Research and Technology Infrastructures: Leverage the existing pan-European network of quality-certified EU|BICs as regional nodes and orchestrators to address regional disparities, facilitate access to TIs for SMEs/startups, and strengthen links between R&TIs and industry. Promote quality standards in business support, championing the EU|BIC Certification framework, to ensure effective support for companies accessing and utilising R&TIs. This certification contributes to regional ecosystem building and quality business support. Improve accessibility and awareness of R&TIs, particularly for SMEs and startups. This includes exploring simplified access schemes and potentially simplified state aid rules for R&TI access for research-SME collaboration, as suggested by our network members. Streamlining funding applications and reducing bureaucracy are also crucial. Empower ESOs/ISOs by giving them a more prominent role in policy development and implementation concerning R&TIs, especially in bridging the gap between research/technology and market application. They are crucial for managing regional innovation ecosystems that host and utilise R&TIs. Foster cross-border and cross-ecosystem collaboration related to R&TIs, utilising the pan-European nature of the EU|BIC network to connect TIs, users, and innovation ecosystems across borders. Thematic platforms, as suggested by META Group, could connect TIs and users in strategic sectors. Support the digitalisation of infrastructures and the integration of AI, ensuring that ESOs and the companies they support are equipped to leverage these advancements. This aligns with the need for digital reporting formats and potentially a European business wallet to reduce administrative burdens. Address regulatory and administrative burdens by simplifying procedures, cutting reporting obligations (potentially by 50% for SMEs), ensuring proportionality, and streamlining processes like cross-border services. Digitalisation is key to improving administrative services.
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Meeting with Daphne Von Buxhoeveden (Cabinet of Commissioner Stella Kyriakides), Panayiotis Pourgourides (Cabinet of Commissioner Stella Kyriakides)

26 Apr 2022 · VTC Meeting with focus on their ‘ CHERRIES’ project

Response to Social Economy Action Plan

26 Apr 2021

EBN and its community of certified EU|BICs and Associate Members welcome the ongoing commitment in the European Social Economy Action Plan to enhance support for the social economy as a part of national and European economies to address the most urgent socio-economic and ecological challenges facing the Union. EBN and its members play a key role in the regional ecosystems they are embedded in by enabling connections and establishing partnerships with a variety of different economic, academic, civil and policy actors. The proposed Roadmap is well aligned with the territorial mission of EU|BICs and the growing role incubators and accelerators can /want to play in offering business support services to social and inclusive entrepreneurship. EBN supports the Roadmap’s commitment to empowering social economy organisations, their networks and support organisations. To maximise impact, EBN urges the EC to build on, use and enhance the wider access of existing business innovation ecosystems. Especially when it comes to enhancing capacity to access different kinds of financial and non-financial resources and their proven ability to scale up social innovation and entrepreneurs. EBN supports the Roadmap’s objective to support the exchange and dissemination of experience and good practices with impact to better facilitate the creation, scaling-up and replication of social innovation and impact-driven entrepreneurship. To ensure more rapid implementation of key activities, the EC could adopt a more startup-driven approach supporting the creation and scaling of social economy actors, e.g. through social economy adapted acceleration programmes, hackathons and soft-landing initiatives supporting internationalisation. EBN encourages a more prominent role for BSOs in preparing social entrepreneurs to access available public/private funding instruments, better access to public procurement, and enhanced cooperation with the public sector, therefore, establishing feasible, viable and scalable business models. The role of local communities is essential in a functional social economy. It is essential for the European Social Economy’s actions to effectively support and leverage the ability of regional business support networks to act as territorial enablers in finding local solutions to social problems. To foster social entrepreneurship, in particular young entrepreneurs, start-ups, EBN welcomes the promotion of an entrepreneurial culture and attitude. Demonstrators are vital in inspiring and sensitising the broader public. Local and regional entrepreneurship support ecosystems can play a driving role, by reaching out to social and vulnerable entrepreneurs/would-be entrepreneurs and adapting the existing methods and tools to their specific needs. EBN welcomes the EC’s support in digitising and greening the social economy and promoting its experience in fostering an inclusive digital and green transition. Social enterprises and social economy organisations in general still lag when it comes to digitalisation and technology. EBN recommends for social entrepreneurship support not to be provided in silos, but in cross-fertilisation with innovation and tech-driven initiatives. IoT, space technologies and data-driven solutions, as such, could be promoted to social innovators and entrepreneurs as enablers of greater impact. EBN suggests establishing a European Social Impact Centres alliance in which incubators can be at the forefront of supporting the testing of social innovations together for example with living labs. Until the European social economy grows to its full potential, EBN recommends that the Action Plan actions require the participation of brokers such as EU|BICs as partners from the outset in their capacity to act as territorial enablers in finding new solutions to social problems, to ensure that barriers to successful deployment and regional embeddedness of actions are addressed early on.
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Meeting with Marlene Rosemarie Madsen (Cabinet of Commissioner Elisa Ferreira)

28 Sept 2020 · Innovation and regional initiatives