News

Back

The two labs driven by the EKOCREA project will promote the social economy in Navarre and the Basque Country, generating inclusive employment.

Project

The two labs driven by the EKOCREA project will promote the social economy in Navarre and the Basque Country, generating inclusive employment.

EKOCREA is an innovative project that boosts the social economy in Navarre and the Basque Country by creating two innovation labs focused on the circular economy and creative industries, with the goal of generating inclusive employment for people at risk of exclusion.

2025·03·28

$titulo.getData()

EKOCREA is a project that seeks to promote the social economy through the creation of two innovation labs for the social economy in Navarre and the Basque Country, which will generate inclusive employment for people at risk of exclusion. The project is a collaboration between three expert organizations: Fundación Koine-Aequalitas, Sutargi, and Mondragon Team Academy (the entrepreneurship unit of the Faculty of Business at Mondragon Unibertsitatea).

These two centers will focus on fostering socio-labor inclusion for people with disabilities and/or at risk of social exclusion, particularly youth and women, by exploring new business opportunities in creative industries and the circular economy.

Through EKOCREA, the aim is to create jobs and opportunities for vulnerable groups while demonstrating that the social economy can be a driver of innovation and sustainable development.

EKOCREA is one of the Strategic Projects for Economic Recovery and Transformation (PERTE) funded by the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy through the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan. It has a total budget of €888,846.32, of which €444,423 comes from the ministerial grant.

Project Goals and Development

EKOCREA’s main objective is to strengthen the social economy through innovative, sustainable, and inclusive business models. Its specific goals include:

  • Enhancing job training and intrapreneurship in Special Employment Centers (CEE) and Socio-Labor Insertion Companies (EIS).
  • Raising awareness and promoting the effective inclusion of people at risk of exclusion in the labor market.
  • Facilitating knowledge transfer by creating a national network for social economy innovation.

To achieve these objectives, EKOCREA will be implemented in three phases:

  1. Research: Identifying business opportunities in the circular economy and creative industries.
  2. Implementation: Establishing innovation labs, training instructors, and launching educational programs and entrepreneurship pilots.
  3. Knowledge Transfer: Building a collaborative network, developing an implementation guide, and supporting the creation of new labs.

An Innovative and Collaborative Model

The EKOCREA consortium consists of organizations specialized in the circular economy (Sutargi), creative industries (Fundación Koine-Aequalitas), and social entrepreneurship (Mondragon Team Academy). This partnership enables the development of an innovative, agile, and replicable methodology for other regions.