The European Social Enterprise Monitor (ESEM) is a project led by Euclid Network that raises the voice of social enterprises from across Europe to help guide the development of policy, funding and research. The ESEM involves more than 50 organisations over 31 countries in Europe. In the third edition of the ESEM in 2023-2024, 1807 social enterprises were included in the European data set which will inform the work of Euclid Network and partners across Europe in the coming years.
The ESEM is a huge project – as already mentioned spanning dozens of countries and organisations. Coordinating such a research effort is no small feat and the success of the project relies on the dedication of the consortium and partners such as the European Commission, SAP, Google.org, Bertelsmann Stiftung and the World Economic Forum’s Global Alliance for Social Entrepreneurship.
ESEM 2023-2024 was the largest iteration of the Monitor and accordingly it achieved the most high-profile launch at Catalyst Now’s Social Innovation House in Davos, Switzerland at the World Economic Forum’s 2025 Annual Meeting. Euclid Network’s President of the Board Neven Marinovic presented some key highlights from the report before engaging in a conversation with Professor Johanna Mair, a leading academic in the field of social entrepreneurship, and Murali Nair, a Senior Project Manager at Bertelsmann Stiftung who has been involved in supporting the ESEM since the beginning.
After two years of work and the culmination in a detailed European Report and prestigious launch event, it could be easy to think that the project has reached the end of this cycle. But the launch of the report is not the end, it is just the beginning. The most difficult part of the project is now to come: sharing the insights, speaking to policy makers and social finance providers to ensure the experiences of social enterprises from across Europe inform the development of policies and funding programmes that influence their ecosystems.
Simultaneously while sharing the outcomes of the ESEM 2023-2024 cycle, work on ESEM 2026 gets underway. Learning from the three previous cycles, ESEM 2026 has the potential to be bigger and more significant than ever. With a new approach that will focus on engaging local ecosystems, coordinating research with other international networks and institutions, there is an even greater potential to achieve impact.
Interested in finding out more about the ESEM project, the latest ESEM Reports or getting involved in ESEM 2026? Get in touch with toby@euclidnetwork.eu.
