A four-month residency to build your own venture.
The European Founders Lab is an intensive four-month residency for young Europeans who want to start something real — their own company or NGO back home. You move to Cantabria (northern Spain), live with other founders and volunteers, and spend your days doing the work that actually moves a venture forward.
It's hands-on, not a course you sit through. You'll grow a real European network, learn to build software with AI, learn to write EU-funded projects, and leave with a portfolio of live work.
A two-way deal, not a placement.
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, which you can read on their own website.
We're looking for young people who mainly want to build their own NGO or company in their country, and who have real drive to work and collaborate. In exchange, you help us grow our European network. It's a genuine win-win — and the collaboration doesn't end when you fly home. That's when the best of it begins: we start drafting projects together, signing agreements and building lasting international cooperation between our two countries.
Our goal is simple: expand our network — and do it with young people who have the enthusiasm and the will to work.
40-minute interviews that open real doors.
The engine of your outreach is the Networking Call. Your goal: run 40-minute interviews with organisations that manage European Erasmus programmes, to spark Strategic Partnerships.
- Good for you: you build a network of European entities ready to work with — for when you return home and launch your own venture.
- Good for the network: we grow ours with the best founders, and turn those conversations into real international collaboration that outlasts your stay.
Along the way it's the fastest possible training in communication and negotiation — the core skill of any founder.
Five tracks, one of them huge.
- European networking — real outreach and interviews across Europe.
- Communication & outreach — sharpen how you pitch, listen and connect.
- CRM & client management — run your future company's systems in GoHighLevel.
- Writing EU projects — KA1, KA2, KA3 and Capacity Building.
- Building with AI — the big one, below.
The AI build track — 10 things you'll ship
No prior coding needed. You'll turn ideas into working tools by building with Claude (Anthropic) and OpenAI — and leave with all of it live:
- Set up your own server (VPS) and deploy to it
- Build and publish your own website
- Vibecode with Claude & OpenAI — plain language to working software
- Master Git & GitHub — repos, branches, versioning
- Build your personal portfolio
- Build your company or NGO website
- Build your own management tools
- Scrape and structure data
- Integrate that data into a CRM (GoHighLevel)
- Ship your own personal projects
Write one real project during your four months.
Participants get access to the courses on how to write European projects, with one clear goal: write a real project you choose — KA1, KA2, KA3 or Capacity Building — during your stay.
You'll have online training and whatever courses run in your period — normally at least one afternoon a week, but there are peak formation moments where there may be a class every afternoon. Those classes are live Q&A sessions with other European students online.
You'll also use the same advanced tooling we use inside our own institutions — the E+ Writing Studio:
€4,000
tools package unlocked free for selected participants, so you can write and draft real EU proposals.
Structured, but yours to run.
Each week you have around five hours of meetings and mentoring, split into three sessions, plus at least one two-hour online class. Everything else is your own time.
- One weekly organisation meeting — practical tasks, living together, and resolving anything that came up.
- Two mentoring sessions (~2h each) — we set you challenges, proposals and work for the week, and follow up on the last ones.
- At least one 2-hour online class — live Q&A on EU projects with other European students (a class every afternoon in peak periods).
- Your own hours — Networking Calls, learning the CRM, building with AI, and studying European projects.
We look for people who can organise their own time and steer their own goals — that's what makes the four months pay off.
Your own room in a house full of founders.
You'll have a private bedroom in a shared house, living alongside other entrepreneurs and volunteers. The house has:
- 5 bedrooms · fully-equipped kitchen · two bathrooms · living room
- Terrace, garden and a vegetable patch
- Internet in the house and the facilities · electricity, water and kitchen costs included
- Weekly cleaning, bed linen and towels
You're part of a living community, not just a flatmate. Depending on when you come, there may be extra courses, mobility opportunities and international activities running alongside the programme.
Sarón, in the Valle de Cayón.
You'll live in Sarón, a village in the Valle de Cayón in inland Cantabria — a natural, calm and very safe area, with no crime and a good bus connection to Santander, about 20 minutes away.
- On your doorstep: padel courts, a football pitch, parks, vegetable gardens, pubs and laundry — everything for a high quality of life.
- A short bus away: Santander's urban buzz and some of the most beautiful beaches in the north.
- Get outside: surf, horse riding and mountain hiking. We have mountain bikes so you can ride local routes with the group.
€600 a month — and where it goes.
The programme, including your private room, is €600 a month. It's compatible with the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs grant (typically €700–€900/month), which can cover your stay and leave you pocket money for travel and expenses. If you can't access the grant, you can join by paying directly.
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.
Motivated people who finish what they start.
We interview and select the applicants with the most motivation and initiative — people able to organise their time and drive their own objectives. Places are limited, so we choose carefully.
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.
Five entities behind the programme.
The residency is run by a network of five organisations — three local Cantabria non-profits and two European partners. You'll be hosted by one of the local ones, each bringing around three mentors.
- Permacultura Cantabria (local) — sustainability, youth and community education.
- ONG Pasos (local) — youth, social inclusion and European cooperation.
- Erasmus Cantabria (local) — Erasmus+ mobility and international projects.
- EÚDICAS (European) — quality and management of European projects at international level.
- EUMotion (European) — improving the European residency through emotional management, coordinating quality seals.
Applications are always open.
Admissions are rolling — there are no deadlines. You apply, we study your application individually, we have a short video call, and if it's a fit we confirm your place and help you with the EYE grant if you want it.