The VoWoCo – Volcanoes’ Women Co-creation project, launched in October 2025, supports women’s economic independence and entrepreneurial development. It is being implemented as part of the Erasmus+ program in cooperation with Hungarian, Portuguese, Italian, and Turkish partners.

The aim of the 28-month international program is to empower female entrepreneurs and women changing careers who are looking for a new direction in the world of work. VoWoCo supports women’s professional development and strengthens the network of European entrepreneurial communities through research, mentoring programs, and digital learning materials.

„Empowering women fuels thriving economies across the world. Through diversity, we can create a better understanding of the problems that we must solve and the solutions necessary to solve them.” says Cristina Aleixendri Muñoz, startup founder and winner of the EIT Woman Award. In line with this idea, VoWoCo aims to provide real knowledge, a supportive community, and inspiration to female entrepreneurs across Europe.

“We want VoWoCo to create real opportunities for women who are restarting or rebuilding their careers,” said Eszter Nagyné Czuri, project coordinator and president of the BENT Balaton Women’s Entrepreneurship Association.

In the first phase of the project, an international research and skills matrix is being developed to identify the competencies most needed by women entrepreneurs in today’s economic environment. These findings will form the basis for a multilingual online training course and mentoring program, which will be tested by a total of 80 female entrepreneurs from the countries involved. The mentoring program will focus on collaboration and co-creation, with participants testing what they have learned through their own business ideas. At the end of the project period, the completed teaching materials will be available to anyone on the official VoWoCo project website.

The VoWoCo project team believes that women’s businesses are not only economic drivers of development, but also social drivers, because where women are successful, communities are also strengthened.

Follow the progress of the VoWoCo project on the official website: www.vowoco.eu or join us on our social media pages:

The VoWoCo partnership:

Dokuz Eylül University, Turkey / www.global.deu.edu.tr
University of Macerata, Italy / www.unimc.it
University of the Azores, Portugal / www.international.uac.pt
Pannon University, Hungary – associated partner / www.uni-pannon.hu
BENT Association, Hungary – project coordinator / www.bentbalaton.hu

About the BENT Association: The BENT Balaton Women’s Entrepreneurship Association was founded in 2019 with the aim of bringing together, supporting, and raising the profi le of women’s businesses in the Balaton Uplands and the wider region. It has extensive experience in community building, mentoring, professional programs, and organizing women’s entrepreneurial networks. BENT also plays an active role in organizing regional and national events, conferences, training courses, and innovative initiatives (e.g., EmpowerHER Balaton Women’s Business Conference, SWITCH Business Club). Its main goal is to create professional networking and development opportunities, support knowledge sharing, and contribute to the strengthening of the female entrepreneurial sphere – thus, the Association has also become the coordinator of the international VoWoCo project.

Press contact: BENT Association – VoWoCo project coordinator, Email: info@vowoco.eu