FAST FORWARD EUROPE
Strengthening the European economic fabric requires that their SMEs are competitive. On the path to their sustainable growth, EU SMEs still meet too many obstacles to get full access to venture capital and business opportunities. Some of FFWD EUROPE project partners have their own business acceleration scheme that proves efficient locally, although most of the partners perceive a lack of support from their regional authorities on the design and funding of measures related to facilitate the access to capital for SMEs.

The common challenge of FFWD EUROPE is to improve partners' policy instruments, and to enable SMEs to participate in public-supported accelerator models in order to significantly enhance their competitiveness through access to private funding and equity; international markets opportunities and new business contacts all over Europe.  
Therefore, FFWD EUROPE will contribute to improve  the national and regional Programmes for Investing for Growth and Jobs, through a better use of ERDF for the development and/or improvement of regional policies dedicated to SME competitiveness  in the EU countries and regions of the partners and their stakeholders. This goal will be accomplished through various exchanges of good practices that will contribute to impact with strength all  policy instruments and make them enhance new elements for business accelerators. 

The main outputs will be the elaboration of one Action Plan per region, based on the interregional exchanges, that will ensure the appropriate implementation during the phase 2 of the project. Partners will get knowledge and experience to design, create and consolidate the settlement of their Accelerator Programs, supported by their regional policies as a result of the implementation. Communication and stakeholders engagement will also be crucial points. In fine, all European partners with their stakeholders, as well as the SMEs they support, will benefit from the support of the Interreg Europe Programme.