The kick-off meeting aimed at bringing together all partners from EU (FH JOANNEUM University of Applied Sciences/Austria, Breda University of Applied Sciences/The Netherlands and Cracow University of Economics/Poland) and the higher education institutions and social entrepreneurs from Thailand (Burapha University, Mahasarakham University, Payap University and Price of Songkla University as well as Chiang Mai Social Enterprise Co., Ltd. and Agarwood Farmer Group as social entrepreneurship partner) and Myanmar (Mandalay University and National Management Degree College) to create a common understanding of the project from the beginning on.

The main aim of the kick-off meeting was getting to know the project in detail, its work packages, the main tasks and deliverables as well as to get to know financial and administrative rules of Erasmus+. During this kick-off meeting it was also of utmost importance for the consortium to create a common definition and understanding of social entrepreneurship. During the 2-days study visit, relevant stakeholders of the Styrian social entrepreneurship eco-system were invited and visited to show good practice examples and to give detailed input on these topics from a European perspective. The second day of the study visit was also used to get to know good practice examples in the region of Styria/Austria.

All in all, the kick-off meeting and the study visit were a huge success and through the personal meeting a great network was established for the implementation of the STEPup project in the next three years. This strong network will also ensure that the objectives and outcomes identified among which also the Social Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub can be found, will be implemented