User:AlexIafrate/European Crowdfunding Network

The European Crowdfunding Network AISBL (ECN), based in Brussels, is an international non-profit organisation aiming to support and promote crowdfunding as an alternative funding mechanism for small and medium sized enterprises and innovative projects. ECN aims to increase the use of crowdfunding to provide access to finance in order to support entrepreneurship and innovative products and services across the EU.

The ECN has a seat in the European Crowdfunding Stakeholders Forum of the European Commission, and has taken part in a number of EU-funded projects that aim at raising awareness and promoting the use of crowdfunding.

History

The European Crowdfunding Network was originally founded in 2011 as an interest group, later joining forces with the European Crowdfunding Association (ECA) a group with similar goals and aspirations at the end of 2012 . In 2013, the ECN then formally converted into a international not-for-profit organization, with their main headquarters based in Brussels, Belgium .

On the 9th of July 2014 the European Crowdfunding Network announced that they along with 39 other organizations had been elected into the European Crowdfunding Stakeholders Forum. This forum was constructed by the European Commission as a way to raise awareness, establish best practices and develop crowdfunding in Europe .

Projects

Citizenergy

Is a platform funded by Intelligent Energy Europe - European Commission that allows citizens to invest in renewable energy projects throughout the EU. The Lisbon based company was founded in 2014 and is operational across 8 different European counties (Belgium, Croatia, France, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom).

With the backing of many partners (Ateknea - Coordinator, Boa Energis, Lumo, Abundance, Green Crowding, Som Energia, De Windvogel, ECN, Cittadinanzattiva ONLUS, Eurada, Climate Alliance, UNDP, Eupportunity, Universidade de Santiago) the company's goal is to attract citizens to invest in citizen-owned renewable energy source projects in order to reduce emissions in the EU and contribute to the EU 20-20-20 goals .

The project is set to run until the end of 2017 with the hopes of contributing to the European objective of job creation in the green energy economy .

Cross-Border Development of Crowdfunding in the EU

Cross-Border Development of Crowdfunding in the EU was a 10 month project the launched in January of 2017, designed to monitor the development and the effectiveness of the cross-border crowdfunding sector in Europe. The goal of the project was to provide the European Commission with case studies on businesses that could potentially benefit through cross-border expansion, as well as aiding the Commission in identifying what can be done to remove specific cross-border barriers .

The project hopes that by identifying issues and barriers affecting cross-border crowdfunding will make it easier for businesses to utilize crowdfunding, whether it be investment-based, or lending-based, throughout Europe .

The project was funded by DG FISMA (Commission department responsible for EU policy on banking and finance), and was lead by Osborne Clarke, Dr. Nikolaos Daskalakis, and the European Crowdfunding Network .

The project was closed as intended in October 2017 .

CrowdFundRES

CrowdFundRES is a project funded by the H2020 - European Commission that is attempting to gain a broader understanding of the potential challenges of crowdfunding for renewable energy projects . The main goal of the project is to contribute to the growth of the renewable energy industry in Europe . The CrowdFundRES project attempts to do this by conducting surveys and compiling that information in order to develop guidelines for consumers and investors to learn from.

The project was initially launched on February 1st, 2015 and is expected to run until January 31st, 2018.The value of the project is estimated at around €1.9 million .

The CrowdFundRES project was not solely created by the European Crowdfunding Network, there were many partners involved in order to bring this project to life. These partners include: Wirtschaft und Infrastruktur GmbH & Co Planungs-KG – Coordinator, University of Dundee, Osborne Clarke, youris.com EEIG, GLOBAL 2000 - Friends of the Earth Austria, Abundance NRG Ltd, Green Crowding GmbH, Lumo, One Planet Crowd B.V., Renewable Energy Generation Ltd, BNRG Renewables Ltd, and VALOREM .

Crowdfunding for Cultural and Creative Sectors

Crowdfunding 4 Culture is a initiative funded by the European Commission that investigates the importance of crowdfunding on the cultural and creative sectors and offers greater awareness on crowdfunding practices for cultural organizations in Europe.

In 2015 a pilot project was proposed to the European Parliament called the 'Kick-starting the cultural economy (crowdfunding)' project . The goal of this project was to identify and analyze the best practices for crowdfunding in Europe, specifically for the cultural and creative industries. The project was later approved by the European Parliament in September of 2015 .

Led by the consulting group IDEA Consult and its partners European Crowdfunding Network (ECN), and Ecorys the initiative was officially launched on January 15 2016, but was publicly launched through its website Crowdfunding4Culture.eu in March of 2016 .

The project was initially created to promote crowdfunding for the cultural and creative sectors, which are essential drivers of the European economy, roughly accounting for 5.3% of the European Union's GDP and employs around 7.5% of the working population in the European economy. . The sector has seen its funding cut severely over the years making growth in these industries difficult without the help of crowdfunding .

The project closed on November 15th 2017.

Crowdfunding for Development

The Crowdfunding for Development project attempted to provide information on the potential benefits that crowdfunding can have on the developing world. With the focus being on Maghreb and Sub-Saharan Africa . The project focused on interviewing and surveying different platforms and investors in Africa in order to gage their understanding of the trends and business models in donation, reward-based, lending and equity crowdfunding in Africa .

The main objective of this project was to use the information gathered through interviews and surveys to create a tailor-made action-plan for the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) so that they could train investors in Africa.

The project was funded by the AFD and was carried out with the help of its partners, European Crowdfunding Network (lead partner), Lumo, and Auxilia. The project lasted from 1 July 2015 to 1 April 2016 .

Crowdfunding for Research and Innovation

The study "Assessing the potential for crowdfunding and other forms of alternative finance to support research and innovation", otherwise known as "Crowdfunding4Innovation", was designed to investigate how crowdfunding could support research and innovation throughout the EU .

The study had three main objectives, "(1) To quantify and qualify the potential of alternative finance in Europe with regard to research and innovation; (2) To identify the key bottlenecks to realize this potential; and (3) To recommend actions in overcome these challenges" . The hope is that this information will be useful in informing future policy actions.

The study was funded and initiated by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research & Innovation (DG RTD) with help from the European Crowdfunding Network, Open Evidence, Ernst & Young, and Politecnico di Milano . The study began in December 2015 and ended on the 31st of December 2016 .

ePlus Ecosystem

The goal of the ePlus Ecosystem project was to encourage and provide support for web entrepreneurship in Europe. The project aimed to ensure that at least 100 web companies are funded appropriately in order for each of them to reach a global scale . The project also attempted to interconnect existing local businesses and initiatives, to new European web-based businesses in an attempt to build a path for new web entrepreneurs in order to help grow their business within Europe as well as internationally.

The European Crowdfunding Network worked directly with web-entrepreneurs in order to teach them how to successfully conduct crowdfunding campaigns. Through coaching the ECN attempted to aid these companies in reaching a sufficient amount of funding in order to reach a global scale .

The project is a part of the Startup Europe initiative, funded by the H2020 - European Commission. Some of the project partners were: Inova+, S.A., Intrasoft International S.A., Europe Unlimited, Baden-Württemberg: connected e.V. (bwcon), City Council of Lisbon, Chamber of Commerce Nice Côte d’Azur, European Business Angels Network (EBAN), the European Crowdfunding Network, and Capgemini Consulting .

ePlus Ecosystem opened on the 1st of February 2015, and closed on 30th of June 2017 .

ESIL

The ESIL project, or the "Early Stage Investing Launchpad" project is an ongoing project attempting to establish an EU Framework that helps develop and strengthen the skills, and abilities for early-stage investors in Europe, giving them the ability to adapt and thrive in the fast-changing world of investing .

The European Crowdfunding Networks role in this project is to hold a number of events where business angel investors can network with crowdfunding platforms and policy makers in an attempt to promote new relationships and investment opportunities for mutual benefit. The goal is to increase the number of early-stage investments in Europe, especially cross-border .

The ESIL project was launched on the 1st of February 2017 with the help of META Group, Business Angels Europe, European Business and Innovation Centre Network, Go Beyond Limited, BPIFrance Financement SA, and LINC Scotland Ventures Limited. The Project is set to continue until the 1st of January 2020 .

FET2RIN

The "Future and Emerging Technologies projects to reach out investors" otherwise known as the FET2RIN project, is a consulting and mentorship project funded by the H2020 - European Commission, that aims to encourage collaboration that benefits the progress of future and emerging technologies (FET). Their belief is that by mentoring these FET projects they will be able to overcome issues related to market outreach, and business networking, such as connecting entrepreneurs with venture capitalist, and introducing them to crowdfunding platforms. The total cost of the project is expected to be €472 thousand .

The European Crowdfunding Network will work to organize workshops for awareness raising and capacity building, as well as aid in connecting these FET projects with a number of crowdfunding platforms across the EU . The European Crowdfunding Network will work alongside the META Group (Coordinator), as well as the European Business and Innovation Centre Network .

The FET2RIN project started back on the 1st of December 2015 and is expected to run until the 31st of December 2018 .

InvestHorizon

The InvestHorizon project launched on the 1st of December 2014. The project set out to increase the investment awareness and readiness among small and medium sized enterprises (SME) and attempted to bring together investors and small/medium sized businesses. The belief of the InvestHorizon project was that if they could improve the investment readiness of SME's they could make the businesses more enticing to specialized investors across Europe .

Overall, the goals of the project were to increase the amount of total investments, aid in improving the quality of the investments, help companies get funded and become successful, as well as aid the investors in increasing their understanding of the innovation sectors and investment models .

The European Crowdfunding Network was able to bring crowdfunding knowledge to the groups and organizations involved, and contributed by training SME employees and owners to improve investment readiness and to best understand investor matchmaking .

The H2020 - European Commission funded project ended on the 31st of May 2017 .

Other project partners included: Europe Unlimited S.A., European Business Angel Network (EBAN), Eurochambres, F6S Network Limited, European Business and Innovation Centre Network, Baden-Württemberg: connected e.V. (bwcon), Association of European Science and Technology Transfer Professionals – ASTP-Proton, Stichting Katholieke Universiteit Brabant Universiteit van Tilburg – UVT, European Crowdfunding Network, Université de Liège .

Landsense

Landsense is a project that aims to build an innovative citizen observatory in the field of land use and land cover (LULC), which collects data and applies it into an open platform that can provide quality-assured data for businesses, government agencies, NGOs and researchers .

The Landsense project encourages communities across Europe to monitor and report on their environment using mobile devices, data collections, and other innovatice EO technologies . The Landsense platform allows people to participate through a number of interactive tools to assist in information transfer .

The European Crowdfunding Network is in charge of the development of a crowdfunding program that will later be implemented into the Landsense platform. This program will allow citizens to unlock high resolution satellite images, which anyone can then use in order to verify changes in specific areas .

The overall goal of this project is to offer a two way flow of information between different communities and to give communities access to easily understandable information in order for community members to make informed decisions needed to properly care for their environment .

The Landsense project began on the 1st of September 2016 and is scheduled to end on the 31st of August 2020 .

There are a total of 17 partners that made this project possible, these partners include: Internationales Institut Fuer Angewandte Systemanalyse (IIASA) (Coordinator), Birdlife International, Sinergise, The University of Nottingham, InoSens, GeoVille, Umweltbundesamt, Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière, ECSA, Steinbeis Transfer, University of Heidelberg, Wageningen University, Stichting VU-VUmc Netherlands, JRC, Secure Dimensions, Global 2000, and Stadt Heidelberg .

PRODESA

PRODESA is focused on launching energy efficient projects across seven major municipalities in Athens' Metropolitan Area. The group plans to fund these renewable energy projects by utilizing innovative financial tools, such as crowdfunding as well as enticing private investors . The overall goals for PRODESA are to replace traditional infrastructure with new energy efficient projects for public buildings and street lighting across five municipalities in Athens. Eventually the project hopes to expand to a network of at least 30 municipalities willing to make similar energy efficient changes as well as provide training for the development of other energy efficient projects in the future .

The European Crowdfunding Network's role in this project will be to develop new crowdfunding methods for the energy efficient sector, as well as mentoring groups on the best practices of crowdfunding. The ENC will also continue to contribute by assisting in the creation of new policies in the alternative financing and crowdfunding sectors .

The project launched in May of 2017 will run until April of 2020 and was financed by the H2020 - European Commission. The total cost of the project is around €20.24 million .

Project partners include: Alimos Municipality, Agios Dimitrios Municipality, Glyfada Municipality, Vari Voula Vouliagmeni Municipality, Agii Anargiri Kamatero Municipality, Palaio Faliro Municipality, Amaroussion Municipality, Central Union of Municipalities in Greece, EUDITI Energy and Environmental Design LTD, Center for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving (CRES), European Crowdfunding Network, ENFINITY NV, and Kelemenis & Co .

SMARTUP

Project SMARTUP attempts to create new and innovative smart educational tools, this includes a programme and web portal to support students with entrepreneurial aspirations. The idea is to be able to give students the knowledge to go from business idea to the market . Some of the main goals of the project include: creating a new innovative way to learn, this new learning experience attempts to combine both traditional teaching practices and new content with new teaching tools, essentially stimulating the entrepreneurship potential of students across the EU . The hope is that the end result of this project will enhance universities ability to equip students with the knowledge and experience so they are capable of addressing real world challenges .

The European Crowdfunding Network will aid with the integration of crowdfunding platforms in order to accomplish some of the goals that the project is attempting to accomplish. As well as provide advice for setting up a crowdfunding tool and counseling groups on strategy for crowdfunding campaigns on social media. Essentially the ECN will be mentoring groups on the best practices of crowdfunding .

The SMARTUP project began in January of 2016 and will continue to operate until October of 2018. The project funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ — Knowledge Alliances. With much help from a number of partners: University of Milano Bicocca, University of Thessaly, Haaga-Helia University, FH Joanneum University, RBI RILA, Research Qualification, Totem Learning Ltd, Teracomm, IrRadiare – Science for Evolution, European Crowdfunding Network, and Stanford University .

SpeedUp! Europe

The SpeedUp! Europe project was a programme designed to support entrepreneurial education and innovation. The programme provided startups with the tools to build and form teams for specific tasks, early stage funding, coaching and mentoring, and most importantly access to finances through crowdfunding . The main goal of the project is to connect people (startups with investors etc.) and set up a support program to encourage entrepreneurial education and innovation, and to eventually connect businesses in order to help them thrive in their current or new market .

This was one of the European Crowdfunding Networks first projects alongside the European Commission. ECN mainly focused on assisting and teaching entrepreneurs about crowdfunding as well as connecting entrepreneurs with specific crowdfunding platforms and other investors .

The project was created in June of 2014 and ended around two years later in May of 2016. The project is in partnership with and funded by, FP7 – European Commission as well as a number of other partners: Glocal Consult EK, Accelerace Management, Webclusive BV, European Crowdfunding Network, Europe Unlimited S.A., Agro Business Park AS, Social Impact GGMBH, Universiteit van Amsterdam, and Stockholm Innovation & Growth AB .

STARS4ALL

STARS4ALL is a European based project that was constructed in an attempt to raise awareness of the potential negative effects that artificial light can have on the planet's biodiversity, potential safety issues and an increase of wasted energy . The project will focus directly on citizen outreach through social networks, and the creation of training activities that advocate for the importance of fighting against light pollution . The projects hopes to extend the legislation on sky protection that is currently applied to the Canary Islands .

The European Crowdfunding Network's role in this project will be to direct and provide guidance for the development of a new crowdfunding tool, which will be integrated to and accessible on the projects platform. The newly developed crowdfunding tool will provide the project and community with the funds for their setup Citizen Actions .

The H2020 - European Commission funded project began on the 1st of October 2015 and will continue to operate until the 31st of October 2018. There are a number of different partners that aided in the creation of this project: Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Coordinator), Cefriel – Società Consortile a Responsabilita Limitata, University of Southampton, Chambre de Commerce Et D’Industrie de Région Paris-ile-de-France, Instituto Astrofísico de Canarias, Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Universidad Complutense de Madrid and the European Crowdfunding Network .