European rural regions are facing several societal challenges, especially an ageing population, brain drain and unemployment. Social innovation becomes more important for developing solutions that are sustainable. There is a clear need to adapt business support infrastructures and measures offered by regional or local authorities to the special needs of social enterprises.

 The DelFin project is promoting social entrepreneurship in rural regions which face special transformation challenges related to advancing economic and social innovation.

The participating rural regions in Germany, Hungary, Croatia and Italy worked together to improve funding schemes for supporting social entrepreneurship. The project facilitated cooperation of quadruple helix actors and developed a toolbox for the promotion of social entrepreneurship in rural regions, as well as a transnational strategy for promotion of social entrepreneurship in rural regions. All was tested in four pilot actions in each partner country. In addition, eight capacity building seminars with a focus on municipalities and finance institutions were organised to further spread the knowledge. Moreover, the participating regions are now equipped with action plans to ensure sustainability and mainstreaming of project results. Please take a look at the project results and outputs below.