SME Internationalisation Exchange
Internationalisation is a key way for SMEs to innovate & grow and is an essential part of ensuring that Europe continues to compete in the global market. Although SMEs want to find new markets for their products & services, internationalisation can be complex and companies face a number of barriers when doing business in other countries both within & outside the EU. Many SMEs are unaware that with the right support, internationalisation is not only possible but can help their business to grow & become more innovative. The 7 partner regions are keen to respond to the challenge of increasing SME internationalisation capacity. They each have SME internationalisation policies to share and improve and they wish to learn from a variety of different approaches about the best ways that policies can be designed to encourage & support SMEs into international markets. The partners will showcase successful elements from the implementation of each policy in order to be able to make improvements in their own region by making use of policy design processes, implementation methods & improvement ideas from other regions. This will result in improved SME internationalisation support policies across Europe which will, in turn, boost internationalisation among SMEs leading to more competitive local economies with new high value employment opportunities and sustainable international business growth.

Project outputs will include study visits, the formation of local stakeholder groups, joint research into barriers faced by SMEs, regional action plans to improve policy design and implementation and SME support improvement workshops. The partners will consider how policies take into account a range of support mechanisms (e.g. workshops for start-ups, trade missions/fairs, investment funds, B2B matchmaking and online tools) and topics (digital vs physical exports, international vs European trade etc.) and see how these can be adapted and implemented in the partner regions and beyond.