Based on successful FP5&6 experiences of POLLOCO and CENTRAL LOCO projects, the revised and expanded concept of the B2B LOCO project is that enterprises collaborating with local market-oriented research units in an international network will enhance their performance and competitiveness through the participation in FP projects or exploitation of its most business practice-oriented results.

The project is represented by Old and New Member States as well as 2 Candidate Countries, covering most of the East of the continent and beyond, from Estonia to Israel.

B2B LOCO targets Regional Clusters gathering different types of SMEs: transport and logistics companies, manufacturing and retail companies, hi-tech and green technologies companies. Companies from these groups are often “FP-ready” yet they are not realising their potential because Framework Programmes are best communicated to the research community. Therefore B2B LOCO consortium groups research organisations with considerable experience in FPs and a track record in talking directly to SMEs, using their own language and knowing what drives them in everyday operations.

B2B LOCO will provide SME community with two international conferences, two practical workshops and three brokerage events, supplemented with permanent communication mechanisms (www, newsletters). It will also create an alumni network based on its wide university background of 9 partners as well as a brokerage platform enabling an exchange of demand and offer of expertise.

As a result of B2B LOCO activities, SMEs will benefit from advanced solutions developed by FP consortia, experiences of successful SME- RTD - Academia co-operation cases which are laudable and should be copied. In addition to this, project will support processes of forming partnerships for future Framework Programmes. Moreover, new information channels which will be created during the project, will support transfer of essential information on transport and logistics.

B2B LOCO is expected to:

- create a permanent network of research and educational institutions in transport and logistics capable of building and maintaining links with SMEs in their area

- identify innovative FP projects in the field of logistics and transport,

- present best practice solutions coming out of FP project in various fields of logistics and transport to SME’s,

- show clear benefits of FP participation to SME’s in the under-privileged EU-states and in candidate countries,

- support exploitation of successful RTD project results by helping companies implement solutions developed,

- provide new exploitation opportunities for the future FP projects in terms of SMEs’ involvement in demonstration and commercialisation efforts,

- provide research institutions with a forum of knowledge/experience exchange in dealing with SME’s,

- inform large numbers of companies about current work programmes and calls as well as offer advice on how to participate in Framework Programmes,

- provide access to FP-related materials and European Transport Strategies.

For more information please visit: www.b2bloco.eu

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The GPRIX project identifies and disseminates good practices in the innovation support of SMEs. The project aims to improve the future innovation support of the EU.

What will the project do?
The GPrix project aims to identify and disseminate good practices in innovation support measures directed towards SMEs in traditional industries in 7 European regions by developing a methodological framework for collecting data on existing Innovation and R&D support programmes in the public sector. These measures will be benchmarked with EU support programmes and a set of recommendations will be produced for improving the design and implementation of research and innovation programmes in the upcoming framework programme.

Why is this important?
A great number of measures currently exist to directly or indirectly support innovation in Europe. These measures play a key role to help organizations to innovate better and faster, by addressing specifi c market and system failures hindering European companies, and in particular SMEs, to fully exploit their innovation potential.

Which regions are included?
The study will cover 7 European regions all characterized by the relative weight of traditional sectors in their economies, including a large number of SMEs operating on those sectors, covering the following regions: North/Central of Portugal, Limousin in France, Emilia-Romagna in Italy, West Midlands in the UK, Comunidad Valenciana in Spain, North Brabant in the Netherlands and Saxony-Anhalt in Germany.

Which sectors are covered?
The study will cover the automotive, textiles, leather, food, ceramics and mechanical/metallurgy sectors, as long established industries, major source of wealth creation and employment in the region, and most important, still retaining the capacity for innovation.

For more information please visit: www.gprix.eu

The GPrix project cooperates with two other initiatives of the European Commission to study R+D+I supporting programmes for SMEs: The MaPEeR SME and RAPPORT Projects. Learn more about these initiatives in our common portal: www.research4smes.eu

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The MAPEER SME project is supporting activities to create the background conditions in which Research, Development and Innovation (R&D&I) is welcomed, supported and nourished in European SMEs.

The ultimate goal is to increase the participation of SMEs in the EU research programmes, by improving the conditions for participation and overcoming the barriers for innovation activities. Accordingly MAPEER SME has defined some crucial objectives:

• Boost SME’s research and innovation activities and performance by bringing down barriers for SMEs across the EU to get them into the “research and innovation loop”.
• Provide R&D&I funding plan of Europe by establishing a database of regional, national and EU level R&D&I programmes
• Assess the needs and expectations of SMEs and transform their views into recommendations for policy makers and programme managers
• Utilise and benefi t from synergies of EU initiatives in the R&D&I fi eld and initiate structured policy dialogue between the various players at EU and national, regional levels (DG RTD, REGIO, EAC and ENTR, along with national and regional level) through the European Experts’ Panel on SMEs.
• Set-up and establish sustainable mechanisms to provide advice to the EU, the national and regional policy makers and programme managers (from R&D&I related Ministries, research agencies and intermediaries) as well as SME Stakeholders.

Expected results:

• Comprehensive, in-depth and cross-sectoral analysis on programmes and initiatives that assist the collaboration between R&D&I and SMEs
• On-line inventory of SME research programmes and initiatives
• Compendium of R&D&I Programmes & Initiatives for SMEs (EU member states plus Bosnia and Herzegovina including EU-level)
• Survey & report on barriers to innovation study at national and European level
• Synergies between various players at EU and national, regional levels through a European Expert Panel on SMEs.

Database of European Programmes:

• MAPEER SME will analyse and develop a database of regional, national and European programmes that are either technology-orientated or cover joint R&D&I and also include thoseactivities that encompass further education for SME staff, training, application of industrial science results or human resource studies, etc. if a scientifi c partner is involved.
• The database will provide useful information to interested SMEs on the analysed programmes and will serve as a map of funding sources for R&D&I activities

For more information please visit: www.mapeer-sme.eu

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SMEs’ strengths lie in their agility, imagination and customer interaction. However capitalizing on these strengths requires focused policy action to overcome the significant barriers they face either from inside or from outside. To be effective, these policies should be able to reach a large proportion of  SMEs and tailor their actions to the various types of SMEs and their particular needs. The RAPPORT project aspires to advance this cause.

The project focuses on the following objectives:

• To develop a reference guide of good practices including benchmarks for strengthening the knowledge exchange and knowledge transfer between research organizations and various kinds of SMEs; under the term good practices, the reference guide will refer to the specific services offered and the deployed programmes as well as the relevant policies
• To develop a blueprint paper on new emerging forms of SMEs support for research backed by large corporations in a context where open innovation and public-private partnerships have increasingly gained importance; the paper will include benchmarks for private initiatives and public private partnerships of different kinds to support research activities within small businesses in different industries (e.g. consumer goods, IT, pharmaceuticals)
• To initiate the engagement of policy-makers and other relevant stakeholders (see Table 16) into a dialogue and ensure the ‘translation’ of the reference guide and the blueprint paper into a roadmap for embedding the more suitable practices and policies into the European Research Area and the policy making at both regional and national levels

RAPPORT takes the current thinking and practice in the area of research support for the benefit of SMEs to a more advanced level in three different ways:

1. Widen the horizon of existing studies and literature in the field by addressing knowledge and technology transfer practices that have proved very successful but have been largely neglected by the research and academic community
2. Enrich the analytical thinking by developing new methodological approaches that can produce a more ‘ real’ understanding of the running schemes as well as a more sophisticated measurement of their actual impact
3. Open up new perspectives for different groups of practitioners in the field of SMEs support (policy-makers, intermediaries’ managers etc.) which can give them the chance to improve the course of their actions and increase their impact

The project considers not only the engagement of SMEs into the research process but also enabling SMEs to access developed knowledge and competencies of the research community. In addition to the science-push programmes, it looks into the demand-pull initiatives where the focal SME drives the process. The work puts a strong emphasis on the SMEs of lower absorptive capacity and how to open up their horizons to external research capabilities. Our hypothesis is that if Europe manages to upgrade a significant part of those SMEs, the economic and social benefits will be enormous.

For further information please visit:  rapport-project.com

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The FP7 project SM-BIO-POWER empowers SMEs in biomedical engineering and medical technologies to participate in EU research.

The EU-funded consortium of ten partners helps SMEs get their voices heard at the European Commission and gain international visibility for their company. SM-BIO-POWER also provides information on the latest trends in EU support for biomedical engineering and medical technologies research together with best practice examples from other SMEs in EU projects. An online helpdesk is available for registered users as is personal assistance in identifying funding opportunities and project partners. Personalised updates include selected information such as call alerts, partner searches and consortia and project opportunities.

More information about this project you find on this website.

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Cereal foods are major dietary sources of energy, carbohydrate and fibre. Studies are increasingly showing that intake of both whole grain and cereal dietary fibre are able to protect against rapidly increasing chronic diseases related to a sedentary lifestyle, such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. However, whereas current cereal processing methods have been optimised to deliver products made of refined grain, dietary recommendations stress the need to eat more carbohydrates, dietary fibre and whole grain foods. There is also an increasing demand from consumers for healthy, tasty and convenient foods containing more of the protective components of the grain.

The project

The HEALTHGRAIN Integrated Project aims to improve well-being of consumers and to reduce the risk of metabolic diseases in Europe by increasing the intake of protective compounds in whole grains or their fractions. The aim is to produce health promoting and safe cereal foods and ingredients of high quality which are attractive to consumers. To achieve this, our integrated comprehensive research, training and communication program will deliver means and motivation for optimising levels of compounds in European grain foods that have a biological effect. These health-protective compounds in grains may in addition to dietary fibre include lignans, phenolic acids, alkylresorcinols, phytosterols, folates, tocopherols and tocotrienols, other vitamins, trace elements and minerals. All of these compounds are concentrated in the outer layers of the grain, and are thus removed in production of white wheat flour. HEALTHGRAIN is developing ways to producing cereal foods containing more of these protective compounds. The role of cereal food structure and other factors influencing postprandial glycemic and satiating properties are also being studied in order to develop foods which contribute to metabolic health and weight management.

Healthgrain - project overview

More information about this project you find on this website.

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The target group of the inherent activities carried out over the course of this project are small and medium sized enterprises and RTD performers who have participated in research and development projects in previous Framework Programmes, as well as those planning to participate in RTD actions in Framework Programme Seven (FP7), including such programmes such as “Research for the benefit of SMEs”. For the purposes of the research carried out during this project, USEandDIFFUSE will focus on the ICTand Health sectors however the results will without doubt be applicable to a whole host of industrial sectors.

Furthermore, in order to enrich the results of this project, effort will also be dedicated to looking at the various different schemes which are being carried out at national and regional level across Europe. Such schemes might include initiatives to foment the participation of SMEs in the RTD initiatives, both regional and transnational level RTD cooperation, as well as initiatives for fomenting the transfer of best practices in the area of the dissemination and exploitation of research results from these schemes to European level.

An in-depth review and analysis of past experiences and best practices at European level will enable this USEandDIFFUSE project to develop a best practice manual in the area of the exploitation and dissemination of research results involving SMEs, as well as implement strategies aimed at reinforced exploitation of RTD results and clustering of projects on common topics to improve interaction and joint dissemination and exploitation activities. It is expected that this project will add significant value to the European research effort and its results will serve to enrich RTD activities involving SMEs.

Please find more details here.

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Many consumers are familiar with the European Commission’s recommendations for vitamins and minerals because such labels are in use since 1992 to declare the amounts of micronutrients in a food (e.g. 30% of the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of Vitamin C in 100g food). Bute these nutrient recommendations also have wider food and nutrition policy impacts such as planning food supplies and assessing the nutritional adequacy of population groups. For these purposes most countries tend to use their own nationally derived values which can vary considerably.

In 2005 the European Commission asked the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to advise on values for micronutrient recommendations, after first advising on existing values for energy, macronutrients and dietary fibre. The work on micronutrients will be initiated in 2008.
In the light of this mandate, the EURRECA Network of Excellence, which started in 2007 and will continue until the end of 2011, has an excellent opportunity to develop tools which should help EFSA, and other panels, charged with developing values for micronutrient recommendations, to work on their task.

The EURRECA Roadmap (as depicted in Fig. 1 below) will allow EURRECA to achieve its overall goal of producing an evidence based toolkit to help others to develop quality assured and aligned nutrient recommendations across Europe. The fluid nature of the Roadmap means that the early EURRECA activities will identify barriers which were apparent when previous panels developed recommendations. This will help to prioritise the most useful components of the toolkit; later activities will then develop and refine them. The toolkit is expected to consist of a series of consensus criteria out of which ‘gold standard’ methods and, in some cases, decision trees will be developed.

Thus the EURRECA Network, with its unique input from scientists, consumer experts and industry, will contribute to the general framework of nutrition and food policy in its widest context.

More information about this project are provided on this website.

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The crucial changes in life during the adolescence strongly affect nutritional needs and habits. The HELENA project includes cross-sectional, crossover and pilot community intervention multi-centre studies as an integrated approach to approach connection between adolescence and causes of diseases.

The project-measures will first provide full information about the nutritional status of the European adolescents including
- Dietary intake, nutrition knowledge and eating attitudes
- Food choices and preferences
- Body composition
- Plasma lipids and metabolic profile
- Vitamin status
- Immune function related to nutritional status
- Physical activity and fitness
- Genotype (to analyse gene-nutrient and gene-environment interactions)

In the following steps HELENA will identify the requirements for the promotion of healthy foods and will develop three sensory acceptable products for adolescents.

Finally this project helps to understand why health-related messages have not been as effective as expected in the adolescent population. In addition HELENA will create a realistic intervention strategy to achieve the goals of understanding and effectively enhancing nutritional and lifestyle habits of adolescents in Europe.

More Details about this project you can find at HELENA-Study

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The PRESTO-project helps Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Associations (SMEsAs) to define their research priorities. Instruments for defining priorities are a series of analyses, activities and support measures, all in close contact and dialogue with European Technology Platforms.

PRESTO has a strong industry focus to the Construction Sector and within this sector the project devotes a specific focus on new technologies of three construction-ancillary domains:
- Energy,
- Information and Communication Technologies (ICT),
- New Materials,
These working areas of the project are all Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) intensive sectors.

More information about the project is provided on: PRESTO

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