Women Entrepreneurs in Regional Inclusive Entrepreneurial Ecosystems (WeRin) is an Erasmus+ Knowledge Alliance project (2021-2023). This forward-thinking initiative is passionate about increasing the share of female graduate entrepreneurs with an ambition to make entrepreneurship education and support programmes more inclusive for women.
Women represent about 60% of higher education graduates, their under-representation amongst start-ups is a clear challenge. Despite a rise in participation of female students in entrepreneurship education at Higher Education Institutes (HEI’s), they are behind compared to their male counterparts. Even when they have participated in entrepreneurship education, they are less likely to move towards entrepreneurial careers after graduation. If they do, these graduate female entrepreneurs are less embedded in the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem: fewer of them participate in local incubation and acceleration programmes, seek and receive funding and are active in regional enterprise networks. This is where WeRin comes in.
Over three years, WeRin plans to:
- Increase the share of female participation in entrepreneurship education by 15% and in entrepreneurship support programmes by 20% to ensure they are firmly integrated in regional entrepreneurial ecosystems across Europe.
- Inclusion of entrepreneurship education and support programmes from a gender and structural perspective.
- Make women feel invited to the entrepreneurship scene, while going beyond the boundaries of Higher Education into their regional entrepreneurial ecosystem, and to ensure that female entrepreneurs can become a key part of these.
You can find out more about these resources and the work of the WeRin project here:
Website: werinproject.eu
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/we-r-in
Twitter: twitter.com/WeRinproject