EURACTE II

ended

The current proposal establishes the EURACTE II consortium in the Nord-Pas de Calais region (NUTS 1) hosted by the Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry Nord de France and Nord France Innovation Development, the regional innovation agency. The local economy is facing structural challenges in terms of GDP per capita, entrepreneurship rate as well as in reaching the Europe 2020 targets. It is urgent to shift cultures, boost innovation, and help SMEs access new markets and diversify their managerial practices. These trends reflect the necessity to help local stakeholders catch up, and to broaden our scope of action to all types of businesses as well as to laboratories and technology centers specialised in the commercialisation of research findings. The client segmentation we have established will enable us to optimise our services. Our priorities and actions: Reinforce the innovation capacity of local stakeholders and help them access EU funding (H2020) Help SMEs take on a European dimension in their development and enable them to participate in the EU decision making process by decoding and improving the legibility of the information provided by the EU institutions. The SME feedback action will make it possible to collect opinions and identify specific obstacles encountered on the ground Provide SMEs with regular legal, regulatory or technological watch, or business monitoring and help them integrate those elements in their strategy Accompany SMEs in their internationalisation through the identification of business or technological partners and the organisation of events (B2B) Accompany clusters, as well as their SME members, in gaining competence by capacity building and growing their network Enhance the development of ICT and the digital economy by identifying new opportunities Position regional SMEs as frontrunners in the energy transition, an objective shared by all local partners within the framework of the Third Industrial Revolution action plan