European Business and Innovation Centres (commonly known as EU, BICs or simply BICs), formerly known as EC-BIC (European Community Business and Innovation Centres), are quality-certified innovation-based

business incubators A business incubator is an organization that helps startup companies and individual entrepreneurs to develop their businesses by providing a fullscale range of services, starting with management training and office space, and ending with ventu ...

according to standards set by the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

. The accreditation is awarded to organizations for the quality and impact of their practices in the selection, training, and support given to potential entrepreneurs and SMEs to innovate and prosper. The label is managed by th
European Business and Innovation Centre Network (EBN)
an international not for profit association in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

set by the commission to provide networking, training, promotion and information to EU, BICs.

History

Set up in 1984, EU, BICs were a project initiated by the European Commission, DG Regional and Urban Policy. As an instrument for

regional policy Regional policy is the sum of a series of policies formulated according to regional differences to coordinate regional relations and regional macro operation mechanism, which affects regional development at the macro level. It includes regional eco ...

and cohesion, BICs had the mission of diversifying the output and strengthening the latent economic potential of regions going through

deindustrialisation Deindustrialization is a process of social and economic change caused by the removal or reduction of industrial capacity or activity in a country or region, especially of heavy industry or manufacturing industry. There are different interpr ...

. The European Commission co-financed the creation of BICs in industrial regions together with various local bodies (often with

regional government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...

and development agencies, sometimes in association with universities, research centres, financial institutions and private sector organizations), to provide support services to potential entrepreneurs wanting to innovate in the region. EU, BICs needed to be locally based, publicly privately owned, and become self-financing organizations. In 2004, EU, BICs became a quality-based certification scheme to be granted to existing organisations who applied and qualified, replacing the former system of co-financing the foundation of organisations. In 2014, EBN became the sole owner and manager of the EU, BIC label.

References

{{reflist

External links

EBN the EU, BIC Network
Entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship organizations Business incubators Politics of the European Union Regional policies of the European Union Economy of the European Union

History

See also

References

External links