Women entrepreneurs in Horizon 2020 and beyond

Invitation to exchange about women’s performance, engagement and opportunities in Horizon 2020 and beyond. Although women constitute 52% of the total EU population, they represent only one third of the self-employed workforce and 30% of its start-up population. And here they constitute the majority of one person enterprises (78%). The areas of business that women prefer are health and social work activities, services and education. Female creativity and entrepreneurial potential are an under-exploited source of economic growth. The main challenges faced by female entrepreneurs are related to access to finance, access to information, access to business partnering networks as well as reconciling business obligations and family life. EMPOWA will bring together: organisations supporting women entrepreneurship, stakeholders fostering women in technology and innovation oriented businesses, EU organisations and institutions encouraging women entrepreneurs, private organisations interested in women entrepreneurs, (political) influencers/representatives interested in boosting women entrepreneurship. The aim is to discuss measures, experiences and suggestions for supporting women entrepreneurs. Key questions are: How to ensure a higher participation of women (entrepreneurs) in EU funding instruments? How to shape European research and innovation funding instruments to better integrate female entrepreneurs? The agenda will soon be downloadable. The event is free of charge.