The Break is an entrepreneurship Fellowship Programme in Spain for EU resident women worth +7,000 €. The Fellowship is funded by the European Union designed by Escuela de Organización Industrial EOI School and powered by The Break Alliance.

1,000 female entrepreneurs and freelancers will embark on a transformational journey: a 12-week entrepreneurship programme, including a 27-day work retreat in Spain.

The Break 2023 fellows will work towards 3 common goals: 

• Goal 1: You and Your Business. A tailored training journey for more innovative and sustainable businesses through workshops, mentoring sessions and peer validation.   
• Goal 2: A life-long international community. Expand your network and benefit from diversity. A community of 1,000 women where we expect more than 50 nationalities across the European Union.
• Goal 3: Local Development. While in Spain, you and your colleagues will engage in open innovation activities to solve local challenges.

Expenses covered by The Break are estimated in +7,000 eur and include:

• Transportation costs from the European airport of origin to Spain and vice versa.
• Accommodation in Spain during the whole experience.
• The entire training itinerary: webinars, individual and group mentoring, workshops, programme business trips and events.
• Travel and medical and insurance.

Expenses not covered by The Break:

• Food while in Spain (except during Madrid events, where it will be fully covered)
• Expenses related to trips out of the programmed group visits.
• Medical tests related to covid-19 (antigen tests, PCRs…)
• Your personal expenses could vary depending on your location and eagerness to go out and participate in leisure activities. Your personal expenses could vary from 500-900 € approx.

The Break is part of the EU Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan and is aligned with the Spanish National Entrepreneurship Strategy (España Nación Emprendedora), the long-term governmental vision to make Spain a reference country in innovative entrepreneurship before 2030. For the implementation of the first edition of the program, EOI has launched a public tender in December 2021 which has been awarded to Impact Hub.

All actions within the Spanish National Plan for Recovery, Transformation and Resilience (PRTR) and therefore the Break Programme must comply with the principle of Do Not Significant Harm (DNSH). This applies both to the projects of the participating women entrepreneurs and to the sectoral challenges proposed by the Spanish communities. The DNSH principle implies that no action may go against the six environmental objectives for which the absence of significant harm has been assured: climate change mitigation, adaptation to climate change, sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources, circular economy, pollution prevention and control, protection and recovery of biodiversity and ecosystems.

Note that the following requirements are mandatory:

• Women* candidates must be at least 18 years old. We encourage women of all ages to apply! 
• We are looking for open-spirited women determined to learn, question, boost their business and create an international community to transform our planet.  
• Have a fluent level of conversational and written English.
• EU residents (except residents in Spain) regardless of their country of origin.
• Be in charge or hold responsibility in an entrepreneurial project:

1. 1. Early stage: in case the business is not yet established, the candidate should have at least an MVP proposal or market validation proposal. 
   2. Have an operating entrepreneurial project with no more than 5 years since constitution. This may include start-ups, scale-ups or high growth businesses. 
   3. Be a Spanish national residing in the EU except in Spain, with an entrepreneurial project  and wanting to expand into Spain. 
   
   
   Please note that only one person per project will be allowed to join the Programme.
   
   
   

• It is recommended that your entrepreneurial/ freelance project is part of the following sectors (please consider them as opened and inclusive, we want to attract very diverse projects and skills): 

1. Industry: with sustainability and digitization as the main challenges for the improvement of production processes and competitiveness, and favoring a new industrial model based on collaborative innovation, productive means connected and flexible, transparent and integrated supply chains, and more technological distribution channels and customer service.
2. Tourism and Culture: sustainable and inclusive tourism, tourism technologies or travel tech, creative industries, generation and dissemination of culture, management of cultural and historical heritage, crafts and traditional trades, digital creation…
3. Mobility: both in urban and rural areas and that has an impact in individual and collective transport, freight transport, logistics, infrastructures and citizen awareness for a change of model towards sustainability and circularity.
4. Health: e-health or electronic health, m-health (access via mobile), innovation in the processes of health services, use of RRSS to interact with the population, development of new drugs and therapies, etc.
5. Construction and Materials: new buildings, more sustainable reforms and rehabilitations, new materials, intelligent automation and home automation, new models of property and/or coexistence (coliving, cohousing…)
6. Energy and Ecological Transition: energy efficiency in buildings and industry, renewable energies for a «decarbonized» economy, new technologies for energy storage, waste management, environmental restoration, circular economy, water efficiency…
7. Banking and Finance: innovation for a change of model both at the technological and interaction with its stakeholders, omnichannel, office of the future, etc.
8. Digital and Telecommunications: AI, supercomputing, cybersecurity, and all initiatives that help reduce the digital divide between populations in order to achieve real equality of opportunity.
9. Agro-food and livestock sector: especially aimed towards an ecological and sustainable agriculture and livestock.
10. Biotechnology: with specific applications in medicine, industry, agriculture or environment. 
11. Social Entrepreneurship: business initiatives clearly driven to solve social and environmental challenges specially focusing on vulnerable groups. . 
12. Rural development: attraction of professionals, support services for rural populations so they don’t have to emigrate, talent return initiatives, technological solutions, etc.

*Please note that this is a women-only event that intends an inclusive definition of women. We are welcoming and respectful of women, including trans women and any others who identify as a woman in a way that is significant to them.