We are MERSE

MERSE is a project aimed at making it easier to start and develop social enterprises in rural areas.

The project is funded by the Northern Periphery and Arctic programme and carried out between 2023 – 2026 by partners from Sweden, Finland, Norway, Iceland and Ireland.

MERSE is a collaborative project where municipalities, social entrepreneurs, business and innovation support organisations together with academia collaborate to increase knowledge about, understanding of and development of business models for social entrepreneurship in rural areas.

Through collaborations, knowledge about the prerequisites for social enterprises has increased and the project participants have been able to jointly identify local best practices, analyze similarities and differences between the regions. In this way, the project has been able to generate cross-border transformative knowledge about social entrepreneurship with the aim of increasing the conditions for social enterprises to establish and develop in the rural areas of the Northern Periphery.

The website provides models, methods, resources and knowledge for social entrepreneurship. It will provide the opportunity and resources for: 1) social entrepreneur to receive support in the development of your business through the pages, 2) business supporter to increase their knowledge of guiding social enterprises, 3) for decision makers to develop policies and strategies on how to include social enterprises in the local entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Results