The main methodologies used to identify policy gaps and needs of social enterprises were desk research, expert interviews and a survey distributed amongst social enterprises.

The core element of the landscape screening was a guideline for the identification of good policy making practices, including issues as legal framework, finance and funding, services and support schemes or networks and cooperation. The result of the policy analyses were eight country reports, which built the basis for their benchmarking process. The benchmarking was carried out by a questionnaire, rating different dimensions identified in the country reports. Moreover, this method served as a tool to identify common goals for policy improvement.

Another part of the landscape screening was the skills gap analysis. It`s main goal was to identify needs of social enterprises and to grasp possible fields of skills improvement. Overall, the questionnaire was filled in by 349 social enterprises. The survey contained 22 questions, covering the following topics:

• General information
• Financial literacy
• Skills and competences available to run a social enterprise
• Support social enterprises would need from policy makers
• Information on follow up activities in the SENSES project
• Contact information

The focus was set on skills and competences necessary to run a social enterprise. The results of the questionnaire showed both similarities and country specific issues, from the perspective of social entrepreneurs.

The final part of the landscape screening was the selection and description of case studies and good practices to illustrate the diversity of the social enterprise landscape in the Danube region. They allow international knowledge exchange and should serve as inspiration for social enterprise businesses, setting an example on how to design sustainable business models. These examples will be used as basis for the development of trainings.