The entrepreneurship activity rate in Europe currently reaches the 8%, whilst in the USA that same rate overwhelms the 12%, according to Eurostat. Bearing those rates in mind, the European institutions took on the task of increasing the entrepreneurship activity in the EU trough the The Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan. This is the reply that the EC has given to the challenges resulting from the worst economic crisis within the last 50 years. Therefore, the Commission considers highly relevant to push the entrepreneur potential, overwhelming the current roadblocks as well as revolution the entrepreneurship culture in the EU. Likewise, it also has the aim of easing the creation of new businesses and create a more supportive business ecosystem to increase the current number of entrepreneurs.
Following that massive goal, StartUp Europe Awards has been promoted by the European Commission and it is implemented by Finnova in collaboration with StartUp Europe. The final goal is to recognise the work of the most innovative startups based in Europe, Latin America, USA, Israel and United Arab Emirates, Asia, in five levels (local, county, regional, national and European). Proposals from startups from the following areas will be welcome: Environment, Social, ICTs, Energy, Tourism, Cities, Creative industries, Water, Health and Fintech. It also aims at implementing the entrepreneurship innovation and recognising the work of the organizers of StartUp Awards in Europe, and it will build an Alliance of StartUp Europe Awards organizers in the EU. This action aims at recognising, on the one hand, their work for the implementation of the Entrepreneurship and, on the other hand, to increase the impact of all these contests providing them with an European scope.