Since the outbreak of the global economic crisis in 2008, unemployment rates have significantly risen and still remain very high in several European countries. Aiming at contributing to the reduction of the number of unemployed young adults throughout Europe, a wide range of policies and initiatives are highlighting the urging need to promote self-employment, entrepreneurship and the creation of highly innovative start-up companies in order to ensure sustainable economic growth of the EU while creating new jobs.

The project “StartUp-Academy: Developing International Innovation Acceleration and Supporting Environment for potential young Startuppers” is aimed to develop, test and implement a supporting environment for unemployed young persons with entrepreneurial ideas with special focus on those living in remote regions with limited access to education and training and resources.

During the 1st transnational meeting that took place in Nagykanizsa Hungary, 14 December 2016, project’s partners from Hungary, Greece, Croatia, Romania and Spain discussed and agreed on the most important procedures to set up ensuring that implementation of the two-year project will be successful. The next step of the project is a large-scale surveying in the five participating countries in order to have a clear and complete vision on the extent of innovation potential young adults residing in rural areas may have.