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 will promote 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 will work together to improve funding schemes for supporting social entrepreneurship. The project will facilitate cooperation of quadruple helix actors and develop a toolbox for the promotion of social entrepreneurship in rural regions. This will also be tested in four pilot actions. In addition, eight capacity building seminars with a focus on municipalities and finance institutions will be organised to further spread the knowledge. Moreover, the participating regions will be equipped with actions plans to ensure sustainability and mainstreaming of project results.