The wild green coast of Cantabria, northern Spain
Applications open · Sarón, Cantabria · Spain · For young Europeans

Four months to build your company — with all of Europe as your network.

An intensive entrepreneurship residency for young Europeans. Build real tools with AI, write EU-funded projects and grow a genuine network — while living on the green coast of northern Spain.

Apply for a place How the funding works
Compatible with Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs: the EU grant can cover your whole stay — and still leave you pocket money for travel.
4Months
5 hPer day
€600/ month · room incl.
~€900EU grant / month
PrivateRoom, shared flat
LimitedPlaces · always open
The idea

You don't need another course. You need a place, a network, and four months to actually build.

The European Founders Lab is a four-month residency for young Europeans who want to start something real. You move to Cantabria, live with other founders, and spend your days doing the work that actually moves a business forward — reaching out across Europe, learning the tools, and shipping your own projects.

It's hands-on, not theoretical. By the end you leave with a portfolio of real work, a European network of your own, and the skills to keep building on your own.

The philosophy

This isn't a placement. It's a two-way deal — and we mean it.

We use the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs grant to fund your stay, but this is not the classic EYE placement — that's a different philosophy, and you can read it on their own website.

We're looking for young people who mainly want to build their own NGO or company back home — people with real drive who want to work and collaborate. In return, you help us grow our European network. Everyone wins.

Young founders working together
Not alone

Build alongside people who are building too.

The Networking Call: a real two-way engine.

The win-win
40′

interviews with organisations that manage European Erasmus programmes — to spark Strategic Partnerships.

Your main outreach mission is simple and real: run 40-minute interviews with entities across Europe. It's the fastest way to sharpen how you connect — and it opens doors on both sides.

Good for you

You leave with a network of European entities ready to work with — for when you go home and start your own venture.

Good for the network

We grow our network with the best founders — and it doesn't end when you leave. Afterwards we draft projects together, sign agreements and build lasting collaboration between our countries.

What you'll actually do.

Five tracks
01

European networking

Reach out to organisations across Europe and build real relationships. Start in your own language, go as wide as your English lets you.

02

Communication & outreach

You'll run real interviews with European entities. It's the fastest way to sharpen how you pitch, listen and connect — the core skill of any founder.

03

CRM & client management

Learn to run the systems your future company needs — managing contacts, pipelines and clients in a professional CRM (GoHighLevel).

04

Writing EU projects

Learn to write Erasmus+ proposals — KA1, KA2, Capacity Building and KA3 — so you can fund your own ideas and those of others.

05

Build with AI

Ship real software using Claude (Anthropic) and OpenAI — even if you've never written code. This is the big one, and it has its own track below.

The AI build track: 10 things you'll ship.

Hands on keyboard

No prior coding needed. You'll learn to turn ideas into working tools by building with AI — and you'll leave with all of it live, not in a slide deck.

01
Set up your own serverGet your own VPS and learn to deploy real things to the internet.
02
Build & publish your websiteFrom empty domain to a live site you control.
03
Vibecode with Claude & OpenAITurn plain-language ideas into working software with Anthropic and OpenAI.
04
Master Git & GitHubRepos, branches and versioning — how real software teams work.
05
Your personal portfolioYour shop window as a founder — build it and make it yours.
06
Your company or NGO websiteShip the real front door for your own venture.
07
Your own management toolsDashboards and internal apps that run your operation.
08
Scrape & structure dataTurn messy public data into a clean, usable asset.
09
Integrate data into a CRMPush what you gather straight into GoHighLevel — from raw data to leads.
10
Ship your own projectsLeave with a real portfolio of live work, not a stack of certificates.

How a week works.

Structured, but yours to run
Five hours a week of meetings and mentoring across three sessions, plus at least one two-hour online class. Everything else is your time — to make calls, learn the CRM, build with AI and study EU projects.
A founder on a video call
Weekly

Weekly organisation

One meeting a week to plan practical tasks, sort out living together, and resolve anything that came up.

×2

Two mentoring sessions

Around two hours each. You're set challenges, proposals and tasks for the week — and we follow up on the last ones.

Live

EU projects class

At least one two-hour online class a week — live Q&A with other European students. In peak periods, a class every afternoon.

Your time

Your own hours

The rest of your week: Networking Calls, the CRM (GoHighLevel), building with AI, and studying European projects.

Write a real EU project

One goal for your four months: write a real European project.

You get the courses on writing EU projects and pick one to actually write — KA1, KA2, KA3 or Capacity Building. And you'll use the same advanced tooling we use inside our own institutions: the E+ Writing Studio.

€4,000

tools package unlocked free for selected participants

Planning a European project
Real outputs

From an idea to a funded European project.

You leave having written a real KA1, KA2, KA3 or Capacity Building proposal — with the tools we use ourselves.

What you leave with.

In four months
A real portfolioLive projects you built yourself — a website, tools, and your own venture's foundations.
A European networkReal contacts across organisations and countries — people who can open doors later.
The ability to build with AIIdeas to working software, on your own, with the tools that matter now.
EU-funding know-howYou can write Erasmus+ proposals and fund what comes next.
The Picos de Europa mountains in Cantabria
Cantabria

And you get to do it here.

Mountains, coast and clean air — a place built for focus.

Where you'll live

Your own room. A house full of founders.

You'll have a private bedroom in a shared apartment with other entrepreneurs and volunteers — a comfortable base that turns cultural exchange and new connections into everyday life.

  • Private bedroom with a window, wardrobe and high-speed Wi-Fi
  • 5 bedrooms · fully-equipped kitchen · two bathrooms · living room
  • Terrace, garden and a vegetable patch to share and enjoy
  • Internet in the flat and the facilities · utilities included
  • Weekly cleaning, bed linen and towels included
  • You live alongside a group of volunteers, inside a network of associations

Depending on when you come, there may be extra courses, mobility opportunities and international activities running alongside the programme — you're part of a living community, not just a flatmate.

Bright shared living room
Private bedroom
Dining area by the window
The Cantabrian coast, northern Spain
The place · Sarón, Valle de Cayón

A quiet green valley, 20 minutes from the beach.

You'll live in Sarón, a village in the Valle de Cayón in inland Cantabria — natural, calm and safe, with a great bus connection to Santander whenever you want the city and its beaches.

On your doorstep

Padel courts, a football pitch, parks, vegetable gardens, pubs and laundry — everything for a good life, in a very quiet, very safe town with no crime.

A short bus away

Santander in about 20 minutes: a more urban buzz and some of the most beautiful beaches in the north — perfect for your days off.

Get outside

Surf, horse riding, hiking in the mountains — and we have mountain bikes so you can ride local routes with the rest of the group.

Green valley and village
Valle de Cayón
Cantabrian beaches
Santander beaches · 20 min
Surfing
Surf
Hiking in the mountains
Mountain hikes
Horse riding
Horse riding
Mountain biking
MTB routes
Padel
Padel & sport
Vegetable garden
Gardens & huerta
Santander coast
Santander coast
Green mountains
Green sierras
Cantabrian village in the hills
Mountain villages
Lighthouse on the wild coast
Wild coastline

A network of five entities behind you.

Who runs it

Three local Cantabria non-profits and two European partners, with years of work in Erasmus+, youth and international cooperation. You'll be hosted by one of the local ones — and each brings around three mentors who guide you from your first outreach email to your first shipped project. You're never doing this alone.

Local

Permacultura Cantabria

Sustainability, youth and community education.

Local

ONG Pasos

Youth, social inclusion and European cooperation.

Local

Erasmus Cantabria

Erasmus+ mobility and international projects.

Europe

EÚDICAS

Quality and management of European projects at international level.

Europe

EUMotion

Improving the European residency through emotional management, coordinating quality seals.

How the money works.

Two ways in
Recommended · with EU grant
You come out ahead
  • Programme + private room: €600 / month
  • Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs grant: typically €700–€900 / month
  • The grant covers your stay — and leaves you pocket money for travel and expenses

EYE is an EU exchange programme for new and aspiring entrepreneurs. We help you understand if you qualify and how to apply.

Direct entry
€600 / month
  • Can't access the EYE grant? You can still join
  • €600 / month includes your private room in the shared flat
  • Same programme, same mentors, same four months

Commitment either way: 5 hours a day working towards your goals, for four months.

The €600 isn't profit. It covers the upkeep of the house — internet, electricity, water and kitchen costs — plus your mentoring, weekly follow-up and the unexpected. We keep it as low as we can because we believe in your potential and want this within reach.

How to apply.

Rolling admissions
Step 01ApplyFill in the form below. It takes a few minutes and tells us who you are.
Step 02We study itWe review every application individually — this is a place for people who'll make the most of it.
Step 03A conversationA short video call to get to know you and your idea, and answer your questions.
Step 04Reserve your placeWe confirm your spot and your start — and help you with the EYE grant if you want it.
Places are limited · we select carefully

This is a serious place for people with drive.

We interview and choose the applicants with the most motivation and initiative. You'll need to organise your own time and steer your own goals.

If a participant consistently isn't meeting their weekly objectives, we may end the stay early and pass the place to someone with more drive. It's what keeps the group — and the results — strong.

Apply

Your four months start with one form.

Tell us about you and your idea. There are no deadlines — we review applications as they come.

Applications always open

By applying you agree we may contact you about the programme. We review every application personally and reply to all of them.

Application received.

Thank you — we'll read it personally and get back to you soon. Keep an eye on your inbox.

The Journal.

Voices from the Lab

Our founders write here — what they're building, who they're meeting, what they're learning. Honest field notes from four months of building in Europe.

From the team

Why we started the European Founders Lab

The idea behind four months, a network, and a house full of founders in Cantabria.
Coming soon

The first founder stories land here as our next cohort begins. Want to be one of them? Apply →

Read the journal
The full handbook

Want the whole thing in detail?

Everything in one place — philosophy, the week-by-week rhythm, funding, the tools, how we select, and what living here is really like.

Read the full guide

Questions.

Good ones
Do I need to be a coder?

No. The AI build track starts from zero — you'll learn to turn ideas into working software by building with Claude and OpenAI. Curiosity matters more than a computer-science degree.

What level of English do I need?

Enough to collaborate and run interviews. You can start your outreach in your own language and go wider in English as you get comfortable — improving your communication is part of the programme.

What if I can't get the EYE grant?

You can still join by paying directly: €600 per month, which includes your private room in the shared flat. Same programme, same mentors, same four months.

Is there a deadline?

No. Applications are always open and admissions are rolling — we review each one individually and start people on a flexible basis.

Where exactly is it?

In Cantabria, on the green coast of northern Spain. You'll be hosted by one of our partner associations, each with its own mentors.

What's the daily commitment?

Around five hours a day, focused on your goals — outreach, learning the tools and shipping your own projects — with mentors supporting you throughout.

Come and build. We'll bring Europe to the table.

Apply for a place See how the funding works