CISE (Santander Internacional Entrepreneurship Centre)

Fundación UCEIF was created in 2006 with the goal of becoming a national and international reference in the generation and transmission of knowledge, high-level training and R&D in the finance sector and articulates its work in entrepreneurship and European projects through the Centro Internacional Santander Emprendimiento (CISE - Santander International Entrepreneurship Centre).

Started in 2012, within Cantabria International Campus as a result of the agreement between the University of Cantabria, the Government of Cantabria and Santander Bank, the aim of CISE (https://www.cise.es/en/) is to promote innovative programmes that include open methodologies and real-life experiences that stimulate the entrepreneur’s creativity. Our initiatives encourage this entrepreneurial culture and seek to support innovation in existing business models and the creation of start-ups, with the sole purpose of contributing to economic and social progress.

Initiatives like "e2 Programme: Student x Entrepreneur" (e2.cise.es) started in 2012 and that currently runs in 7 universities in Spain and 20 vocational training centres in Cantabria. It promotes and accelerates per year around 400 students ‘personal and professional skills development and fosters their entrepreneurial mindset.

Or like EXPLORER (explorerbyx.org), that aims at supporting each year more than 1,700 young entrepreneurs, aged between 18 and 31, in the development and establishment of their business projects through entrepreneurial training and support as well as expert advice. EXPLORER is a collaborative 7-month-program that runs simultaneously at currently 53 EXPLORER centres in Spain, Portugal and Argentina and is managed by CISE with the support of Santander Bank.

Since the beginning, CISE’s expertise has been developed through a variety of programs in collaboration with national and regional public institutions, private companies, relevant sector platforms and experts… And, since 2017, also with the support of the European Union, with two grants for entrepreneurship education projects directly designed and coordinated by CISE: ECOOPE (http://youth.ecoope.eu) and BLUES (http://eblues.eu).

At this level, we are now involved in several new consortia and initiatives within COSME, EuropeAid, H2020 or Erasmus+ programmes.