SMART - Services for SMEs in collAborative tRansporT research projects
Overview
Background & policy context:
The SMART project is a portal, offering organisations operating in the Surface-Transport sector to enhance their active participation in research programmes. It supports this participation through networking and partnering opportunities, as well as obtaining useful information and tools.
Objectives:
The objective of the project was to provide services to support SME's participation in RTD research projects under the Transport Work-Programme, mainly:
- connecting Clusters of Transport sector in different European countries to facilitate networking and partnership creation;
- training on EU funding mechanisms, awareness with respect to funding opportunities;
- facilitating networking opportunities and partnerships creation among all stakeholders of the transport sector (using the meta cluster approach);
- addressing SME's research capabilities/needs;
- facilitating the creation of consortium with large organisations in projects led by SME's;
- supporting SME's in submitting proposals for own project ideas;
- creating a nurturing environment for transnational research projects.
Methodology:
The SMART project realised services to support the participation of SME's in RTD research projects under the Transport Work-Programme. The work included:
- services to connect Regional Clusters from different countries, facilitating networking, partnerships creations among SMEs and other organisations;
- full-support for SMEs involvement in RTD own projects and participation in projects led by large organisations;
- awareness, and training actions on European funding opportunities and mechanisms;
- added value information including a database of qualified SMEs that created:
- the SMART Consortium comprising Regional SMEs Clusters, Public Innovation Agencies, Private Technology Transfer companies, and Large Enterprises linked to Regional Clusters;
- the SMART innovative approach based on the involvement of Large Organisations working with regional clusters, that will be engaged in supporting the SMEs innovation processes, starting from SMEs operating in their supply chain;
- the SMART approach will provide Large Organisations with: (a) the competitiveness improvement of their Ecosystem, (b) the capability of benefit from SME's innovations and (c) Corporate Social Responsibility objectives.
Several large organisations have shown formal interest in the SMART project to enable the optimisation of public-funded and private-funded initiatives in transport. SMART will exploit and create synergies with EC funded initiatives and private driven actions. Specific IT support tools and methodologies developed in precedent European-funded projects, such as a database on funding programs (with data in exportable XML format), and a tailor-made IT systems to manage projects, partners, and competences will become available.
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