“EU4Business: Connecting Companies” mobility scheme

The Mobility Scheme is an exchange programme which aims at providing Business Support Organisations (BSOs) and Small and Medium Enterprise (SMEs) owners and managers from the EaP with an enriching mobility exchange in the European Union. The initiative will sponsor the business exchange between 50 BSOs (staff) and 35 SMEs (entrepreneurs, business owners or managers) from the EaP and the EU between February and May 2023. The exchange between SMEs is expected to last for 1 month while the exchange between BSOs can last 1 or 2 months.

Given the current invasion of Russia in Ukraine and the impact that this situation is having on the Ukrainian business community, applications from Ukrainian SMEs and BSOs will be prioritised. Ukrainian applicants don’t need to be based in Ukraine at the moment of the application neither they need to travel from Ukraine once the exchange is granted.

BENEFITS FOR THE PARTICIPANTS

For BSOs:

• As an outgoing staff of an EaP BSO, participants will benefit from the exchange of procedures, tools and ways of working, as well as from the exchange of good practices concerning the services to be provided to SMEs.
• As a receiving staff of an EU BSO, participants will get to know more the EaP, will better understand the context, and will be able to give accurate information and promote more the business exchanges with the region.
• Both sides will benefit from experiencing and sharing different approaches and ways of working, will enrich own experience and will look into new services to offer to the SMEs interested  in the EaP or the EU region.

For SMEs:

• As an outgoing entrepreneur, SMEs owners/managers will benefit from « on-the-job training » and exchange of experience in a SME in another participating country. This will ease the successful start of business cooperation and/or strengthen the capacity of the EaP business. Participants on both sides (EaP and EU) can also benefit from access to new markets, international cooperation and potential further collaboration with business partners abroad.
• Receiving entrepreneur, SMEs owners/managers can benefit from fresh ideas from a motivated EaP counterpart. The EaP participants may have new visions, specialised skills or knowledge in an area the host does not master, which could also complement the competences of the receiving business.
• It is a win-win collaboration whereby both sides can also discover new markets or business partners, as well as different ways of doing business.
• In the longer-term, participants benefit from wide networking opportunities, and, possibly, decide to continue their collaboration as long-term business partners (e.g., joint ventures, sub-contracting activities, contractor-supplier relationships, etc).