One-liner: the Generalitat Valenciana's Dirección General de Economía Social — the regional authority for the cooperative/sociedad laboral track, sitting inside the Vicepresidencia Primera y Conselleria de Vivienda, Empleo, Juventud e Igualdad. It runs the ESCREA constitution grant and sets the policy frame that FEVECTA operationalises on the ground.
What a founder gets
- ESCREA (Program) — a constitution/start-up-cost grant for founders incorporating as a cooperative or sociedad laboral: subsidises 100% of the taxable base of justified constitution/launch expenses, awarded once per entity, under competitive-concurrence scoring (not first-come-first-served).
- Access to the wider social-economy aid line-up the DG administers beyond ESCREA (integration aids, investment aids for cooperatives) — a parallel, well-funded system most generalist advisors never mention (per
raw/research/2026-07-01-gap-fill-additional-support.md). - A free advisory bridge via FEVECTA, the Valencian worker-cooperative federation, which helps founders navigate both the legal-form incorporation and the grant application in all three provinces.
- A legal/status track, not just cash — the underlying value is unlocking the cooperative/sociedad-laboral legal form itself (governance, tax treatment, worker-ownership structure), with the grant defraying the cost of doing so.
Who it's for
- Founders (2+ people) setting up a new cooperative of associated work or sociedad laboral in the Comunitat Valenciana, or existing ones undergoing merger/absorption or forming a cooperative group.
- Applicant entity must have at least 2 worker-members (socios trabajadores/de trabajo) actually incorporated at the time of application, be legally constituted and registered in the competent registry, and be up to date on tax/Social Security obligations.
- Niche:
social-economy— sector-agnostic within that legal-form constraint (any industry can incorporate as a coop/SL).
How to engage
- Apply telematically via GVA Sede Electrónica → procedure G18081, submitting to the dirección territorial (Alicante, Castellón, or Valencia) of the province where the entity's registered office/workplace sits.
- Submission is competitive concurrence — a collegiate body scores every application against Annex II criteria; award amounts are fixed in the resolution, not guaranteed by eligibility alone.
- Get free hands-on help from FEVECTA — both for the legal-form incorporation itself and for navigating the ESCREA paperwork; FEVECTA also tracks the current social-economy aid calendar.
- Justification documentation is submitted at the same time as the application (not after) — plan constitution costs and paperwork together, not sequentially.
- 2026 window: opened 04-05-2026, originally advertised to close 29-05-2026 but corrected via DOGV núm. 10366 (20-05-2026) to run through 30-06-2026 — now closed.
#status/verifynext call timing (annual line; expect ~spring 2027).
Key facts
- Parent department: Vicepresidencia Primera y Conselleria de Vivienda, Empleo, Juventud e Igualdad (per the 2026 ESCREA procedure page); resolving authority delegated to the Dirección General competente en materia de fomento de la Economía Social by a Resolución del Conseller de Educación, Cultura, Universidades y Empleo of 30-01-2025 (DOGV 10037).
- Legal basis: Orden 11/2019 (Bases Reguladoras) — Base Quinta (eligibility/subvencionable concepts) and Base Decimoprimera (scoring committee); grants published in the DOGV per Ley 38/2003 (Ley General de Subvenciones) transparency rules.
- Award mechanics: single award per entity, 100% of taxable base of justified expenses; competitive-concurrence scoring by a collegiate body (not automatic); resolution deadline 3 months from convocatoria publication, with administrative silence = rejection (
silencio desestimatorio) if unresolved. - Territorial service offices: Servicio Territorial de Trabajo — Alicante (C/ Pintor Lorenzo Casanova, 6), Castellón (Avda. del Mar, 42), and Valencia (Avda. del Oeste, 36).
- Sits alongside Inspiracoop (young rural cooperative entrepreneurship) and other DG lines mentioned in the 2026-07-01 gap-fill research as part of a broader, under-advertised social-economy support stack.
- No confirmed named director/DG appointee found in raw/ —
#status/verifybefore citing a specific official to a founder.
Relations
- Runs: ESCREA (Program)
- Runs: GVA Economia Social Sociolaboral e Inversio (Program)
- Partners with: FEVECTA
- See also: Social Economy (niche)