The action grants will contribute to building up the institutional capacity of stakeholders delivering support to social economy entities (i.e. cooperatives, social enterprises, mutual benefit societies, associations and foundations), as well as those supporting the development of social finance (i.e. microfinance, social enterprise finance and social impact investing). in Europe. The beneficiaries under this call are expected to:

• support the Commission in its outreach activities at EU, national and local levels, with the aim of ensuring awareness, contributing to and helping with the implementation of EU level policies and initiatives in the areas of the call,
• increase the beneficiaries’ and their members’ capacity to contribute to policy design at EU, national and local levels,
• provide analytical expertise and data as regards the potential, needs, barriers and opportunities faced by organisations active in the areas of the call.

The call will support the Commission in 2 main areas:

1. Implementation of the Social Economy Action Plan.
2. actions aimed at enabling access to finance for social enterprises, microenterprises and enterprises driven by social impact (hereafter “impactdriven enterprises”).

The call encourages synergies and joint work between EU-level networks active in the areas of the call. It also encourages the involvement of research entities in order to improve the availability and policy relevance of research and data. Social economy entities, impact-driven enterprises and microenterprises are instrumental in the implementation of many of the European Pillar of Social Rights principles.

The activities of the applicant in this action grant should contribute to at least 7 out of the following 9 main objectives, at EU, national and/or local levels (unless specified otherwise):

• Support the Commission in its outreach activities and policy goals in order to increase awareness among relevant stakeholders about EU policies and funding in the areas covered by the call.
• Advocate for social economy and/or social finance. (e.g. improving understanding of these business models and their needs among private and public finance providers, improving the policy environment, supporting the development of social economy representative networks in Member States, education and skills for social economy and social finance) and other topics with close links to social finance (e.g. improving research on social impact measurement and management).
• Provide input for policy design and implementation in the areas covered by the call, by voicing the concerns and expectations of social economy entities as well as of entities benefiting from or seeking support from social finance in Europe, as well as social finance providers.
• Work to directly contribute to the implementation of EU policies and funding in the areas covered by the call and act as multipliers.
• Contribute to the implementation of the Council recommendation on developing social economy framework conditions, notably to the development and implementation of national and regional strategies for the social economy.
• Further develop social economy representative networks, in particular in EU Member States where social enterprises and social economy ecosystems are not developed to their full potential.
• Provide data/research on developments in the field of development of social finance and social economy, which can serve as input for evidence-based policy making.
• Reinforce the capacity of networks operating in the areas covered by the call and their members in the eligible countries, offering a platform for mutual learning, the exchange and replication of good practices, raising their awareness about relevant EU policies and supporting them to actively engage in promoting the social economy and developing national and local social economy and social finance markets.
• Strengthen cooperation with other EU-level networks, with and between national stakeholders, and with authorities at all levels (EU, national, regional, local).

The actions announced in the SEAP are currently being implemented. In the area of access to finance, the InvestEU programme and the European Social Fund Plus are providing financial and non-financial support to social enterprises, microenterprises and impact driven enterprises – Other actions stemming from the SEAP will be implemented in 2026-2028 and can be relevant for the work of applicants.

The applicants’ proposals should directly and concretely support the implementation and awareness-raising of the European social economy action plan, initiatives to enable access to social finance and of other EU policy initiatives that are relevant to the core mission of the applicants.

The types of activities which may be funded under this call for proposals include:

• Analytical activities.
• Activities aiming at the strengthening of EU-level networks active in the areas covered by the call and at promoting cooperation between networks.
• Activities aiming at the creation or strengthening of social economy representative networks and/or social finance networks in EU Member States where social enterprises and social economy and social finance ecosystems are not developed to their full potential, esp. where currently no relevant networks at national level exist.
• Activities to foster mutual learning, cooperation, and capacity building.
• Activities to foster awareness-raising, outreach, communication and dissemination of information about social economy and/or social finance.
• Activities aiming at bringing together researchers in the field of social economy and/or social finance with social economy practitioners and/or policymakers at various levels of governance to foster the understanding of the potential of the social economy and help devising adequate policy frameworks.
• Optional activity: Small scale grants (FSTP6 grants) to third party recipients to support organisational development (incl. setting up impact measurement and management), capacity building (incl. study visits) and/or awareness raising for and communication about the social economy and/or for/about social finance.