UPDATE: The application period for the Business Development Services (BDS) pilot under the EaSI Guarantee Initiative has extended until 30 June 2021.

In the wake of their publication winning the EMN 2020 European Research Award, the team of researchers led by Ana Paula Matias Gama at the University of Beira Interior is publishing a call for chapters for their next book. The book, called "Microfinance: intervention in challenging contexts" will be published by Springer Nature Switzerland AG in 2022.

The Czepczyński Family Foundation (CFF) from Poland. CFF is operating in the area of education of children in the pre-school and early school grade. CFF's flagship projects include entrepreneurship and finance education as well as inclusive education. Both topics are important economically and socially and are recognised as crucial by the European Commission and many Member States

Social enterprise finance providers can now apply for technical assistance services under the Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI) programme

To build the emerging European social enterprise finance sector and to facilitate access to EaSI financial instruments, the European Commission is extending the scope for the provision of EaSI technical assistance - which previously focused only on microcredit providers - to cover also the needs of social enterprise finance providers.

The present call for applications lays down the detailed specifications to apply for Bilateral Cooperation Initiatives.

The EaSI Guarantee Instrument is funded from the EaSI Programme and is specifically dedicated to microfinance and social entrepreneurship. One of its key objectives is to increase the availability of and access to finance for vulnerable groups wishing to launch their own enterprises, micro-enterprises and social enterprises, both in their start-up and development phases.

The European Investment Fund (EIF) and the European Commission recently announced a new initiative to help micro-credit and social enterprise finance providers develop their businesses under the EU Programme for Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI).

The objective of this instrument is to build up the institutional capacity of selected financial intermediaries that have not yet reached sustainability or are in need of risk capital to sustain their growth and development.

As part of the policy response to address the economic disruption caused by COVID-19, certain measures are made available to Financial Intermediaries to provide dedicated support to micro-borrowers, microenterprises and social enterprises. These Support Measures enhance the availability of finance to EaSI target final recipients. The COVID-19 Support Measures shall consist, in principle, of an increase in the risk taking capacity of EaSI Guarantee through the amendment of certain terms of the instrument.