Research And Development – Investing On SMEs
For each country involved, the project RADIO SMEs, will support regional territories and local SMEs in defining and implementing research and innovation policies, whose final aim is the growth of SME competitiveness in terms of process innovation, development and adjustment of technologies, product innovation and in terms of human resource capacity improvement. The areas involved, in danger of economic marginalisation have common characteristics: the competitive gap can be found in the sectors that concern company productivity, corporate governance, and research expenditure. In particular Italy invests half of the EU-15 average in R&D, while the countries that are part of the EU-25 (amongst which Greece, Cyprus and Malta) add no more than 1.65% of the entire expenditure assumed by the Enlarged Union. The design logic is therefore based on the capacity to give support to regional territories in the definition and implementation of the R&D policies, through actions aimed at favouring the growth and quality of human resources, boost scientific and technological contents of the production, strengthen the local competence networks and the connections with the entrepreneurial system. The main objective of the project is to promote potential competitiveness by using of methodologies that are diversified according to the various bodies involved: SMEs, Continuing Education Organizations that apply new technologies, Universities, and sector Networks and Consortia. The activity will concern Italy in the provinces of Caserta (Campania), Matera and Potenza (Basilicata), Foggia (Puglia), Crotone and Catanzaro (Calabria), Siracusa (Sicily), while in Greece it will concern the area of Central Greece and the Evia Region. All actions and activities that will be developed can be to a large extent attributed to two macro objectives that make up its logical structure: 1) Innovation support through: • The mapping of the main public and private research centres and of the SME consultancy needs about Research and Development. • Collective and cooperative research (nationally and internationally) by specific sectors or by clusters and production chains, whose final aim is to increase the SME capacity to network; • Company Audits, whose aim is territorial development. 2) Development of an “Innovation Culture” through: • Dissemination and communication: seminars/workshops on technological innovation with leading companies; newsletter creation and diffusion; web site. • Actions that strengthen the competence system: benchmarking activities.