Project EPRI-START
STimulate the pARTicipation of SMEs of NMS in IST activities

FP6

References

• Project Coordinator: Dr. Anne Wawer - TSA - Teleport Sachsen-Anhalt GmbH - e-mail anne.wawertsa.de
• Project Presentation - Project Website

Abstract

SMEs are the backbone of the European economy representing 99 % of all enterprises. Their support is vital in achieving the goals of the Lisbon agenda. However, SMEs, in particular those from the new member states, often experience problems in securing EU funding.

The EPRI-START project aims to increase the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises from the new member states in EU-funded projects of the IST programme. EPRI-start identifies and approaches appropriate research-oriented SMEs in the NMS, informs them about the opportunities of EU-project funding and offers active support aiming at an increased participation of SMEs in IST projects.

To this end, a certified SME partner pool and a participation brokering platform have been set up, which is accessible at http://www.epristart.org/. By the end of the project this partner pool will comprise contact details and relevant data of 300 IST oriented SMEs from NMS qualified by Lols and participation profiles for future projects. 150 of these SMEs will be described in detail by company fact sheets giving account of their scientific skills and areas of expertise. As an additional advantage, these documents will become very useful to the SMEs, should they advance in the EU project selection process: the databank comprises all formal documentation which is necessary on behalf of a company to join a EU project consortium.i.e. company profile, CVs, A2 form etc.

While the partner pool gives NMS SMEs the opportunity to present themselves, it is also a valuable tool for project consortia looking for potential SME partners. The databank provides consortia with structured access to such SMEs which have all the documents relevant for proposal writing already available.  
The ultimate aim of the EPRI-start brokering activities is to bring together SMEs and interested consortia and to ensure an overall number of 50 project participations from IST oriented SMEs from NMS in the different IST calls during the lifetime of the project.

The process of stimulating and developing SME participation will feed a second, parallel process which involves political decision makers of the target countries and political decision makers on the level of European ICT policy. Project activities include political awareness-raising for SME support and the discussion of socio-economic impacts of ICT funding. Thus, the EPRI-start activities aim also at actively contributing to the discussion on the 7th Framework Programme.

EPRI-start ensures the broadest possible coverage by involving consortium partners from all ten new member states of the European Union. Furthermore, EPRI-start works with a clearly specified and realistic focus on the field of SME participation in the IST Programme.

In conclusion, ERPI-start activities address three target groups:

• the group of highly innovative research oriented SMEs from the NMS with no or little experiences in participating in the IST Programme;
• the IST community which will benefit from new and innovative resources from the NMS
• political decision makers from NMS on regional and national level who are involved in an awareness-raising and discussion process on active SME support in the NMS.