MATEO - Matching Technologies and Opportunities
MATEO deals on an inter-regional level with the problems involved in encouraging technological innovation, this being a key element for the sustainable economic development of regions and one of the main objectives of the Lisbon strategy. The infrastructure and approaches that exist on a pan-European level are often considered by local industry to be too distant. This means that organisations at the first level of innovation, such as SMEs and research centres, do not benefit fully from opportunities that arise from alliances across frontiers, and this reduces the potential for stimulating the regional economy through innovation. Such limits to the scope for taking up opportunities beyond regions create a need for the activities of MATEO, namely, the stimulation of innovation through opportunities from inter-regional cooperation. Overall objective / Objectif général The objective of MATEO is to carry out activities to encourage regional innovation through close collaboration among the partner regions. The project aims to pass on the impact in these regions to enhance European competitiveness, employment, wealth and well-being in line with the EU strategy laid down in Lisbon in 2000. MATEO will focus on two main areas: the creation of intensive knowledge on new industrial activities, and increased knowledge on existing activities. Expected results / Résultats attendus All of the activities of MATEO play a role in the project’s overall objective: the creation and implementation of sub-projects to exploit opportunities for applying the growth of knowledge in research and technological development to the creation of new industrial activities. The actions will include: 8-16 regional studies on the potential of technology in different sectors; studies to evaluate performance and look for opportunities for innovation; an individual diagnosis, listing at least 60 bodies in each region (a total of 240); the creation of a database describing the profiles of participants, to be available on the Internet; five sessions for sharing technology to achieve inter-regional harmony for participants in the sub-project with at least 80 new interregional contacts between incubators and innovative enterprises; 8-16 sub-projects to promote knowledge of industrial activities by means of technology transfers to SMEs; dissemination of the project and its results via the media. The international scope of MATEO should help to enhance its impact and the efficiency of current and future regional strategies for innovation, guaranteeing a significant long-term impact on sustainable economic development in the regions involved in the project.