Centro Internacional Santander Emprendimiento (CISE)

The Centro Internacional Santander Emprendimiento (CISE), part of the University of Cantabria's non-profit "Fundacion UCEIF", was created in 2012 with the mission to create a better society by encouraging its members’ creative, entrepreneurial and innovative skills through a comprehensive approach that ultimately leads to the generation of entrepreneurial ventures and employment opportunities. CISE has a long expertise in European Union projects, both as project coordinator and beneficiaries, and organizes its activities in the fields of competencies, upskilling and reskilling, entrepreneurship, innovation, sustainability, social development, SDG alignment and youth awareness, SMEs, generation of Startups, and rural development, among others.

CISE also has a network of 75 international partners in 20 EU countries, being part of Youth@Work (the strategic alliance for youth entrepreneurship and employability of the Erasmus+ NAs, SALTO centres and European Solidarity Corps) from the EU Pact for Skills and the Proximity and Social Economy Large-scale Partnership (LSP).

CISE has wide experience regarding entrepreneurship in general, with a workforce that currently comprises a multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural team of 25 persons (paid staff). Its community comprises so far more than 15.000 students and practitioners from HE, VET and secondary education trained, more than 7.000 entrepreneurial projects and 5.000 CEOs and SME managers supported, and a network of more than 150 mentors trained and certified by CISE, as well as a wide range of local, regional, national, and international partners from the public sector and private sector. 

Overall, CISE's team has experience managing consortia, projects, and learning processes... As well as designing state-of-the-art teaching and learning methodologies. Also, a very important part of CISE's staff is focused on the digitisation and green sustainability of those methodologies, adapting them to a digital learning environment, and managing not only the technical aspects but all the processes, from the design table to the video production. Finally, the communication and dissemination of its projects are key aspects of CISE's environment.