The European Commission has launched a project on the Business Case for Diversity, which is implemented by Focus Consultancy in partnership with the Conference Board Europe. The project will profile a number of exemplary employers and companies from the EU as part of a Compendium of good practice in the management of diversity to be published and disseminated widely across Europe. Selected companies and stakeholders will also have an opportunity to present and share their experience and good practice initiatives at a major European Conference on Workplace Diversity at the end of 2005, when the Compendium will be launched.

On behalf of the European Commission, small, medium and large companies across the EU are invited to submit their successful initiative(s) and good practice(s) in promoting diversity (in respect of racial or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, religion or belief, age or disability) for consideration and potential inclusion as an exemplary employer in the EC compendium of good practice.

The current phase is an initial step to the identification of good pratices (via a short form). All submitted forms/questionnaires will be reviewed and selected companies operating in the European Union will be invited to complete a more detailed questionnaire with further information on their diversity practice for potential inclusion as an exemplar of good practice in the European Workplace Diversity Compendium.

The Good Practice Submission form is now available online (please complete and return before 8 April 2005) on the project website: http://www.conference-board.org/diversitygoodpractice.htm

For general information or to register your interest in receiving information updates, also visit the project website above.

EABIS announces the launch of the first round of corporate sponsored projects - part of more than 1m EUR of internal activities over the next 3yrs. This has been made possible by the generous contributions of EABIS’ founding partners, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Shell and Unilever, not to mention the time and effort of representatives, which continues to be outstanding. This is the first time that a partnership approach of this kind has been attempted in Europe

Seven projects have been selected, following the initial call for proposals, review process and negotiation phase. All projects start on 1 March 2005 (Cranfield's project on 1 April).

The final project selection represents cutting-edge thought leadership on corporate responsibility from across Europe, including:

• A broad range of topics such as stakeholder management, social entrepreneurship, the bottom of the pyramid, measuring the business case, the role of government, mainstream curriculum development, managerial skills, exec. development, etc.
• More than 300k EUR awarded so far to 10 leading business schools across 7 countries
• Equal support for research and education/training projects and both 1yr and 3yr projects
• A balance between business priorities and academic rigour through collaborative review process

Full details of projects and executive summaries are available on the newly created Member Intranet Project Community, under Internal Activity Funding. Please find a direct link to the details here (you need to be a member of the Project Community to be able to view the details - click here to manage your community membership).

Next Steps and Member Opportunities:

• Member Engagement in Projects – free member places at 1 workshop for each project in 2005 (7 in total), first access to all deliverables / outputs, 6 / 12 month progress reports, ongoing access to individual project “spaces” on the Intranet Project Community
• Further Funding Opportunities in First Round - 'Category C' projects for network support (July) and a competitive call inviting members to apply for mainstream case writing grants (total of 63k EUR in August)
• Second Round - to be defined (probably as follow-up of 1-year review).

Previous developments:
A call for funding proposals (Categories A and B) was launched in 2004 with a deadline of 15/10/2004, a review process took place including academic, business and Management Committee phases. They all looked carefully at the 14 projects proposals submitted by 15 members across 7 countries, for a balance of academic rigour, business relevance and support for EABIS’ founding principles. Each proposal was reviewed by 3 independent academics, 5 sponsoring companies (IBM, J&J, Microsoft, Shell and Unilever) and those members of the EABIS’ Management Committee that had not submitted a proposal.

As a result, seven projects have been invited to negotiate based on the outcomes of the review process in December. These projects were considered to represent a strong base of research, education and training projects and include 10 members from 7 countries. 5 of the 7 have been asked to make a budget cut to fit with funding availability and to take account of feedback on quality, deliverables etc. Final negotiations and arrangements have taken place with all seven projects and were concluded in February 2005. All projects have a starting date of 1 March 2005.

EABIS announces the launch of the first round of corporate sponsored projects - part of more than 1m EUR of internal activities over the next 3yrs.

This has been made possible by the generous contributions of EABIS’ founding partners, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Shell and Unilever, not to mention the time and effort of representatives, which continues to be outstanding. This is the first time that a partnership approach of this kind has been attempted in Europe

Seven projects have been selected, following the initial call for proposals, review process and negotiation phase. All projects start on 1 March 2005.

The final project selection represents cutting-edge thought leadership on corporate responsibility from across Europe, including:

• A broad range of topics such as stakeholder management, social entrepreneurship, the bottom of the pyramid, measuring the business case, the role of government, mainstream curriculum development, managerial skills, exec. development, etc.
• More than 300k EUR awarded so far to 10 leading business schools across 7 countries
• Equal support for research and education/training projects and both 1yr and 3yr projects
• A balance between business priorities and academic rigour through collaborative review process

Full details of projects and executive summaries are available on the newly created Member Intranet Project Community, under Internal Activity Funding. Please find a direct link to the details here (you need to be a member of the Project Community to be able to view the details - click here to manage your community membership).

Next Steps and Member Opportunities:

• Member Engagement in Projects – free member places at 1 workshop for each project in 2005 (7 in total), first access to all deliverables / outputs, 6 / 12 month progress reports, ongoing access to individual project “spaces” on the Intranet Project Community
• Further Funding Opportunities in First Round - a small amount for 'Category C' projects for network support (total of around 10k EUR in September) and a competitive call inviting members to apply for mainstream case writing grants (total of 63k EUR in June)
• Second Round - planned for the Spring 2006
  

Previous developments:

A call for funding proposals (Categories A and B) was launched in 2004 with a deadline of 15/10/2004, a review process took place including academic, business and Management Committee phases. They all looked carefully at the 14 projects proposals submitted by 15 members across 7 countries, for a balance of academic rigour, business relevance and support for EABIS’ founding principles. Each proposal was reviewed by 3 independent academics, 5 sponsoring companies (IBM, J&J, Microsoft, Shell and Unilever) and those members of the EABIS’ Management Committee that had not submitted a proposal.

As a result, seven projects have been invited to negotiate based on the outcomes of the review process in December. These projects were considered to represent a strong base of research, education and training projects and include 10 members from 7 countries. 5 of the 7 have been asked to make a budget cut to fit with funding availability and to take account of feedback on quality, deliverables etc. Final negotiations and arrangements have taken place with all seven projects and were concluded in February 2005. All projects have a starting date of 1 March 2005.

Dear EABIS Members,

Papers from the EABIS Colloquium 2003 have been migrated to the Intranet and now available in EABIS Member Library. Direct link to the folder with papers - click here.

With best wishes,
Volodja

During the CSR MarketPlace conference on March 4, the "European Roadmap for Businesses. Towards a Sustainable and Competitive Enterprise" was officially launched. Over 400 European business leaders attended the event. The Roadmap was the result of many months of discussions and preparation by CSR Europe member companies. Companies are invited to react to the Roadmap at roadmap@csreurope.org

You can download the Roadmap from EABIS Members Library or directly here.