Lina Klemkaite

CRUCIAL is an ERASMUS+ supported project, designed to better inform all the different stakeholders who can potentially benefit from crowdfunding as innovative means of funding business ventures. The project will gather information on the current market conditions regarding the almost exponential growth of CrowdFunding in certain countries and amalgamate this into a pan-European vision of CrowdFunding. This will include all the key areas on both the demand and supply side of this funding mechanism.

The key groups are those seeking financial support, primarily SME's, but including start-ups and social enterprises and on the supply side entrepreneurs looking to support business investment. In addition those support agencies such as Innovation Centres, Cluster managers, and organizations, both public and private that look to support business and economic development, locally, Regionally and Nationally will be able learn more about how to use and promote CrowdFunding.

The project is aimed to define an European pathway on rural women entrepreneurs that improves entrepreneurial skills and competences empowering women of rural areas.

Europe has achieved gender parity in education attainment, but women still remain under-represented in key, growth-enhancing fields of education such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Labour markets also exhibit many “gender gaps”. Women are less likely to work for pay, and are more likely to have lower hourly earnings, do more unpaid housework than men. The proportion of female entrepreneurs, at 33% (Labour Survey 2013) (30% in start-ups), is some way short of optimum and most women still do not consider entrepreneurship as a relevant career option. The implementation of European directive on self-employed women should remove a major barrier to female entrepreneurship. But the difference still.