EUROPEAN CONFEDERATION OF YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS AISBL

Their core work

YES is a Brussels-based European confederation representing young entrepreneurs and startup founders as an organized constituency across Europe, operating as a non-profit association (AISBL). In their H2020 work, they contributed to building structured training programs — including lean methodology-based summer academies — for young ICT entrepreneurs and future business founders. They also worked on creating pan-European student entrepreneurship networks to strengthen the web entrepreneurship ecosystem for young people. Their primary value to EU projects is mobilizing their confederation network across member countries to reach real startup founders and student entrepreneurs, rather than delivering technical research.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Both H2020 projects ran concurrently in 2015–2016, so the keyword split between early and recent reflects parallel workstreams rather than a genuine temporal shift. STARTIFY7 emphasized structured training delivery — lean methodology and a summer academy format — while MY-WAY emphasized ecosystem infrastructure and student network building. Reading these as complementary dimensions, YES operated at the intersection of training design and network activation. There is no H2020 data from after 2016, making it impossible to determine whether their focus evolved further.

With only two concurrent 2015–2016 projects and no subsequent H2020 participation on record, no reliable trajectory can be established — future collaborators should verify whether YES remains active in EU-funded programs before pursuing consortium discussions.

How they like to work

YES participated exclusively as a consortium partner in both recorded projects, never as a coordinator. Despite having only two projects, they connected with 20 partners across 11 countries, indicating they were embedded in medium-sized cross-national consortia. Their role is almost certainly to provide access to the young entrepreneur community and represent the association/advocacy voice, rather than to deliver technical or research outputs.

With 20 unique consortium partners across 11 countries from just two projects, YES maintains a notably wide pan-European network relative to their project volume. Their Brussels headquarters and confederation structure naturally link them to national young entrepreneur associations across Europe, amplifying their dissemination and community-reach capacity.

What sets them apart

YES is one of the few EU-level confederations specifically representing young entrepreneurs as an organized constituency, giving projects access to a real network of startup founders and student entrepreneurs rather than an academic proxy. Their confederation model means they can mobilize national member organizations for co-design, outreach, or dissemination activities across multiple countries in a single contract. For projects that need to demonstrate genuine reach into the youth entrepreneurship community — not just an advisory role — they offer actual organizational infrastructure.

Highlights from their portfolio

• MY-WAY
  The larger of the two projects (EUR 66,125, CSA scheme) with the broadest mandate: building a pan-European student entrepreneurship network to reshape the web startup ecosystem for young people.
• STARTIFY7
  Distinguished by its explicit use of lean training methodology as the pedagogical backbone of a team-building ICT entrepreneurship summer academy, going beyond generic networking to a structured learning design.