SERN - Startup Europe Regions Network

One of the goals of the Startup Europe (SE) Initiative of the European Commission is to “reinforce the links between people, business and associations who build and scale up the startup ecosystem”. Under this objective and with a clear focus on aggregating and leveraging regional support for startups, a new network has been created, the “Startup Europe Regions Network (SERN)”. SERN has been set up as a non for-profit organisation (AISBL) in Brussels with a strong commitment to support startups and its activities, in particular by focussing on the mapping and promotion of support activities at regional level across Europe and by mobilizing regional resources to address relevant barriers to startups’ growth, such as harmonization of regulations, access to talent and to major research infrastructures. The goal of SERN is not that of replacing or duplicating other networks that may build on similar players or have (partially) overlapping objectives, but occupying an empty space and contributing to fill a gap clearly felt by EU startups in terms of startup gap funding, while also addressing gauging of the measures taken by the regions to foster startups’ growth, providing an annual overview and highlighting the best practices and cases studies. The Startup Europe Regions Network will gather EU regions, local authorities and relevant stakeholders committed to startup support to offer a first virtual interconnected space for EU startups to scale up, aiming to leverage private investments with European and regional ones so as to create critical mass.