Small and Medium Enterprises To European Union

ended

The SME2EU Consortium, composed of 7 partners, covers a geographical area of three Central Italy Regions: Tuscany, Marche, Umbria. The Partners have worked together since 2008 in an EEN consortium, so they have developed common internal procedures and good practices over three work programmes. The SME2EU Coordinator has a long experience in managing European projects. The SME2EU Consortium partners are key players in their territories, as Chambers of Commerce, Representative Organisations of SMEs, Regional Agencies for Innovation. This enables them to provide EEN services with their internal expertise or through partnerships with qualified stakeholders, EU network and service providers at local, regional, national, international levels to meet the range of client requirements. The area covered by the Consortium is characterized by a huge number of micro and small enterprises, in many cases subcontractors of larger companies with a leadership role in the international market thanks to the Made In Italy brand and excellence in Aerospace, Automotive, Chemical, Food/beverage, ICT & robotics, Jewellery, leather/shoes/fashion, Life Sciences Mechanical, Nautical, Textile, Tourism, Wood & furniture, Paper. These kinds of small firms have two main types of needs: to maintain their excellence and invest in innovation and technology transfer, and also to compete in new markets through internationalisation. Most small companies do not have the capacity, skills or resources to be able to properly handle these issues without expert support. Hence the great need in this geographical area to offer highly specialized services, such as those offered by the SME2EU Partners. The SME2EU Consortium will offer added-value EEN support services in close synergy with the three Regional Authorities and their regional smart specialization strategies. The SME2EU Consortium will implement a communication strategy on the Network to reach all beneficiaries, following the EEN’s branding rules.