EPRI-start Project Description

EPRI-start (STimulate the pARTicipation of SMEs of NMS in IST activities) is a project that aims to stimulate, increase, but at the same time qualify the participation of SMEs from New Member States of the European Union in the IST Programme. In particular, it aims to:

establish a Qualified Partner Pool of at least 300 IST-oriented SMEs from NMS, qualified by Letters of Intent and concrete project ideas,
develop a Certified Partner Pool of 150 qualified IST-oriented SME partners from NMS described by Company Fact Sheets developed by a Guide for NMS participants,
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. It involves political decision makers of the target countries and political decision makers on the level of European ICT policy in order to discuss socio-economic impacts of ICT and to prepare and support the discussion of Framework Programme 7.

EPRI-start aims at the broadest possible coverage by involving partners from all New Member States of the European Union. On the other hand, EPRI-start works with a clearly specified and realistic focus on the field of SME participation in the IST programme. It addresses three important target groups:

The group of highly innovative research oriented SMEs from the New Member States with no or low experiences in participating in the IST programme,
The IST community, which will benefit from new and innovative resources as an enhancement of existing or newly arising consortia,
The societal environment receiving impacts from participation of NMS SMEs in IST research projects which are being represented by political decision makers of the SMEs regional and national environments.

The consortium refers to comparable experiences in earlier programmes. Its coordinators have carried out a similar project during the accession process of the German New Laender.

EPRI-start addresses the strategic objectives research and innovation development policy, network, twinning Innovation support services.

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