ELIEMENTAL is an innovative approach to the problem of developing enterprise skills and entrepreneurship in social groups that are under-represented in SME start-ups across the EU. These are the same social groups who are often also under-employed or unemployed. ELIEMENTAL will target young people not in education, training or employment (NEETS), older women who have been made redundant or who are workplace returners and minority ethnic groups underrepresented in SME start-ups; with ELIEMENTAL aiming to include Roma within our work with minority ethnic groups. The need for entrepreneurship and innovation within the EU has never been greater as we work for sustainable solutions to the economic crisis. However, while there are social groups who remain largely excluded from SME start-ups there is considerable human capital that is not being used in addressing the need for economic growth. ELIEMENTAL builds on the work of the ELIE project (Erasmus funded) which found evidence that social and cultural barriers to entrepreneurship could potentially be even more significant in preventing SME start-ups than structural barriers. Furthermore, it appeared that these factors might have a greater impact upon groups under-represented in SME start-ups. However, there is little work on social and cultural barriers to entrepreneurship, particularly amongst our target groups. Accordingly, ELEIMENTAL seeks to work with our target groups using participatory action research approaches to understand the nature of social and cultural barriers to entrepreneurship from the lived experience of participants, and then to develop both effective entrepreneurship mentoring and training that leads to an entry level qualification in Enterprise skills. We take an innovative approach here with our recognition that access to ELIEMENTAL needs to be within the communities we are targeting and will therefore also develop a model for the identification and utilisation of relevant community access points.