The call for projects
Do you have a project for supporting, coaching or mentoring women entrepreneurs in Brussels? The Women in Business call for projects can provide financial support for your project!
Applications for the next edition are open!
Supporting female entrepreneurship
The Women in Business call for projects aims to strengthen women’s entrepreneurship by supporting projects that help Brussels’ female entrepreneurs.
This initiative by the Brussels-Capital Region promotes support programmes, from the ideation phase through to accelerated growth, as well as mentoring, self-help, coaching activities and events, led primarily by networks of female entrepreneurs.
Projects must fall into one of the following two categories:
- support programs for potential and existing women entrepreneurs, especially from the ideation phase to the growth phase
- mentoring, mutual aid and coaching programs, activities and events, particularly those run by networks of women entrepreneurs
2024 edition
The call for projects is back for a third edition! Apply now and until June 30 to receive financial support for your project to support female entrepreneurship!
2023 winners
The 2023 call for projects selected seven projects to receive financial support, as well as coaching from Women in Business in 2024.
Discover the winning projects in detail:
Womanity Accelerator
Led by Serendipities & Heo
Womanity Accelerator is for all women who want to create or boost their meaningful entrepreneurial project, in order to create a positive impact on their lives, society and the environment. Womanity Accelerator offers one year’s free support, including workshops and coaching to move from desire to action, and a dynamic community of women entrepreneurs who are agents of change to collaborate and share experiences.
In addition to creating a women-centred deployment framework, Womanity Accelerator is based on feminine values of creation and success, such as alignment, cooperation, inclusion and benevolence.
Funds for Her
Led by Crédal & FFG Impact
Funds For Good and Crédal offer “Funds for Her”, a support programme that removes the obstacles to women’s entrepreneurship and facilitates access to financing. We focus in particular on women who have limited access to banking services and face multiple forms of discrimination.
Firstly, the programme offers financing support to help women demystify and prepare to apply for financing, while boosting their self-confidence at this crucial stage. Secondly, women entrepreneurs have easier access to credit thanks to the honour loan, which lowers the cost of financing. The women also have access to a community of over a hundred coaches and experts who can support them on their journey. Lastly, we offer workshops and training courses to create a space for sharing and learning.
Led by FACE B asbl
Technicienne is a project designed to raise the profile of women in technical jobs in the arts and culture sector. To achieve this, it aims to create a solid network of women technicians. This network will be made up of mentors (experienced technicians) who will monitor and talk to mentees (new or student technicians). Discussions with mentors will create access to best-practice tools to reinforce their self-employed status. These tools will enable them to develop their careers in a largely male-dominated environment.
To complement this mentoring, the second hub aims to create concrete opportunities for accessing employment by organising job days for female technicians and potential customers in the sector. Lastly, the third hub aims to make young people more aware of technical professions in the cultural sector by raising their profile, thus enabling them to consider these professions in the future.
Led by Job’in Design|CAWA asbl & Cocorico and Co asbl
Empower Women in Art & Culture supports women entrepreneurs in the cultural and creative industries, from the idea to the creation of their company. The aim is to equip women with specific project launch knowledge and entrepreneurial skills to achieve autonomy and work-life balance.
We encourage women to make an impact in this industry through group training, project creation coaching, inspirational events and mentoring. The cornerstones of the programme are inclusivity, women’s safety and activism for a more inclusive culture.
Entreprenoires Boost’Class
Led by Belgian Entreprenoires & Inspire asbl
The “Entreprenoires Boost’Class” programme is a “VSE management” training programme aimed at women entrepreneurs who suffer both sexism and negrophobia and whose business is no longer a start-up but a scale-up.
This programme is based on an intersectional analysis and is designed to support women who face two-fold discrimination: in terms of gender (sexism) and ethnic origin (negrophobia). Other discrimination criteria, such as disability, will also be taken into account.
The aim is to support women facing twofold discrimination with structuring their professional offer by taking into account their specific issues (problems of self-confidence, mental burden, racist micro-aggressions in the workplace, digitalisation) while strengthening their managerial skills (marketing, management, sustainability).
WEFund
Led by Womenpreneur & BECI
Financial education is still rarely taught within traditional education and is sorely lacking in many entrepreneurial players to ensure a solid ecosystem. This is particularly true in the case of female entrepreneurship, due to gender stereotypes, self-censorship and lack of resources. Womenpreneur and BECI have therefore decided to act accordingly and offer Brussels-based women entrepreneurs a programme dedicated exclusively to financial education.
Convinced that knowledge is a weapon, in entrepreneurship as elsewhere, we want to provide women entrepreneurs with the essential notions of financial management, and also build their self-confidence and offer opportunities to demystify the sometimes intimidating and obscure world of finance and investment.
Selfmade
Led by Hors Norme SRL
Hors Norme’s ambition is to offer support for women entrepreneurs to match the maturity of their project and their personal ambitions. Women entrepreneurs often feel alone in the face of their challenges and need to be able to talk about their own reality in confidence. To this end, in addition to raising awareness and inspiring women entrepreneurs in Brussels with targeted communication, we will be developing a two-pathway support offer, which will be implemented in partnership with Réseau Entreprendre Bruxelles:
- one pathway for advanced female entrepreneurs, who have already defined the aim of their project and want to share their challenges, successes and difficulties, so that they can develop their skills in a climate of trust and mutual support. This programme is based on two pillars: Peer 2 Peer support for women who share the same ambition and maturity, and access to REB’s collective support and its 250 entrepreneur members.
- the second pathway is aimed at women who have ambitions for their project, but do not know how to structure it to make it economically viable and in line with their financial and time constraints. This programme is based on three pillars: challenging and benevolent individual follow-up of your project to define its ambition, empowerment moments to gain autonomy and confidence in yourself and your project, and access to a kindly community of entrepreneurs. To act on these three pillars, a range of individual and group workshops are organised to meet the specific needs of each individual.
These two pathways will also enable entrepreneurs to enjoy the collective support provided by our two structures (over 100 activities/year) to become part of this rich and benevolent entrepreneurial ecosystem.
2022 winners
The 2022 edition of the call for projects selected eight projects to be supported in 2023.
We rise
Led by Womade
WE RISE offers female entrepreneurs a strong community and a mentoring and support system that offers training and coaching.
Shifting Standards
Led by Femmes Fières et Power Club (Beabee)
Shifting Standards is a nine-month programme that boosts the development of women entrepreneurs and accelerates their business growth.
Assowomen
Led by Ideji
Assowomen aims to accompany and support women wanting to develop a project in the associative sector, through training and coaching.
Women in textile
Led by Green Fabric
Women in Textile offers one year of support to textile designers to help them create solid and sustainable projects.es.
She Means Business
Led by (S)he did it
SheMeansBusiness Brussels is a one-on-one business coaching programme for immigrant women entrepreneurs, regardless of how long they have been in the country.
Women in Food
Led by Bons Plaisirs
Women in Food offers support to 25 migrant women who want to launch an entrepreneurial activity in the food and agri-food sector.
Inform'Elles
Led by Growfunding et Credal
Inform’Elles is a journey of inspiration and support in entrepreneurship for vulnerable women who do not necessarily have the codes, knowledge, or network necessary for integration into this specific world of work.
