GEN launches new policy portal at Startup Nations Summit

The Global Entrepreneurship Network launched its latest platform initiative, the Startup Nations Atlas of Policies (SNAP), an easy to navigate database of policies and programs the public sector is testing around the world.

SNAP provides policymakers and advisers a tool to tap on the collective knowledge of the GEN network to shape their efforts to help entrepreneurs start and scale.

“SNAP documents policies and programs via a globally-shared portal to accelerate the growth of any entrepreneurship ecosystem,” said Jonathan Ortmans, president of the Global Entrepreneurship Network. “At the same time, SNAP channels the voice of the entrepreneur, the investor, and other startup champions who wish to propose new policy approaches to policymakers via SNAP. In this way, GEN advances its mission to build one global ecosystem. ”

The SNAP online platform allows anyone to easily search and filter policies via a variety of criteria, such as the target firms (e.g startups, scale-ups, SMEs, large companies) or policy areas (e.g. access to capital, fiscal policy, education).

SNAP was formally launched at the fifth edition of the Startup Nations Summit in Cork, Ireland, as part of the official closing of Global Entrepreneurship Week. The policy portal is an initiative of GEN’s Startup Nations network of startup-savvy policymakers representing more than 60 countries, who want to help communities, cities and countries around the world capitalize on existing knowledge and current policy experimentation. SNAP was also presented at a conference in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Currently, there are more than 30 SNAP submissions – ranging from startup visa programs that encourage foreign-founded startups to start or scale their business in-country, to creating policy that provides and clarity and incentives to launch a startup. GEN will continue to crowdsource SNAP entries.

They value of the SNAP platform lays in its four key features: It’s wide geographic coverage; it collects evidence on the impact of each policy tool presented in the compendium; SNAP contributors can and are encouraged to continuously log back in to update their policy instrument entries and the ability to contact the contributors and policy authors via the GEN Connect messaging system.

GEN hopes that through this compendium, nations can more easily and more effectively design and implemented public sector policy that encourages new firm formation and economic growth. Learn more about SNAP and how to submit a policy entry.

This post originally appeared on gen.co