Strengthening Financial Inclusion through Digitalisation

Principal investigator: Dr. M.L. Michel Ehrenhard, Associate Professor 
Project manager and researcher: Dr. Ir. Massimo Preziuso, Assistant Professor
PhD researcher: MSc. Franziska Koefer

The University of Twente (UT) believes technology and people have a leading role to play in providing solutions for today’s complex and often global societal challenges. Central to its vision is their High Tech Human Touch philosophy, in which it fuses natural sciences, data science, biology and engineering with social and behavioural sciences while maintaining a relentless focus on societal impact. Since the University of Twente's founding in 1961, it has been deeply connected with the rich industrial heritage of its region and the well-being of its population. The University of Twente is known as the most entrepreneurial university of the Netherlands. NIKOS is the university’s entrepreneurship and innovation research and teaching department – a key part of the High tech Business and Entrepreneurship cluster of the School of Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences.

Project manager: Vincent Stulen, Manager IT & Innovation

Launched in January 2009, Qredits is a social enterprise that supports entrepreneurs in the Netherlands to successfully start or invest in their business by offering loans up to €250,000. It also helps entrepreneurs to build their business skills through its mentoring, e-learning and Academy programmes. To date Qredits has disbursed over 15,000 loans totaling €326 million. Currently it employs 95 staff members and works with 600 volunteer business mentors.

Technical University of Berlin, Germany

Nord University, Norway

Triodos Bank, the Netherlands

Youth Business International, UK

The EIB Institute was set up within the EIB Group (European Investment Bank and European Investment Fund) to promote and support social, cultural, and academic initiatives with European stakeholders and the public at large. It is a key pillar of the EIB Group’s community and citizenship engagement.

The Institute aims at channelling support, mainly through grants or sponsorship, to higher education and research activities, particularly in the field of applied economics within Europe. The Institute committed to acting as a catalyst for economic and social development within the EU Member States.

The EIB Institute recognises the value of the arts and culture as an integral part of both effective community engagement and corporate social responsibility.
The Institute supports higher education and research activities, mainly through grants or sponsorships (EIBURS, STAREBEI). The Institute fosters higher education through cooperation agreements with universities and research centres across Europe.

The EIB University Research Sponsorship (EIBURS) programme provides grants to support EU universities and research centres to develop activities in selected research areas additional to those that would normally be carried out by the beneficiary and on topics of major interest to the EIB Group (EIB and EIF).

An EIBURS is a research grant of up to EUR 100 000 a year, for a period of three years, The number of EIBURS grants awarded each year depends on the available budget. Each grant focuses on a different topic defined by the EIB Group. Thirty-one EIBURS research projects led by 24 universities and research centres from 11 countries have been financed so far.

The MEMI project was awarded with an EIBUS grant in 2016 in "Impact of Microfinance on Financial and Social Inclusion in Europe"