AGRO-START - Transnational network for SME support in the animal breeding and horticulture sector Project presentation Transnational conference Sofia, Bulgaria, 14 November 2013

General information Project financed by European Union through South East Europe Transnational Cooperation Programme Priority Axis: Facilitation of innovation and entrepreneurship Area of Intervention: Develop the enabling environment for innovative entrepreneurship Period: 01 December 2012 to 30 November 2014 (24 moths) Total budget: 1,713, Euro Partners: 12 organizations from 7 countries Implementation areas: Animal breeding and horticulture sectors

Needs in the targeted sectors AGRO- START Lack of effective support services that offer practical help and expert knowledge to entrepreneurs and enterprises to foster innovative approaches; The advantages that new technologies offer are not well exploited; AGRO- START Marketing networks are poorly developed; AGRO- START Low level of internationalization Difficulties in entering on new markets

The main objective The main objective of the project is to increase the SMEs competitiveness and promote and facilitate an innovative entrepreneurship by giving answer to the need of a specific support Service for SMEs in the horticulture and animal breeding sector that adapts an integrated transnational approach.

Target Group Business support organizations and services that provide assistance to SMEs of the SEE economic area, active in the horticulture and animal breeding sector, including: business associations, Chambers of Commerce, Trade Promotion Organisations and other public and private agencies, consultancies, trade unions, NGOs, workers’ and employers’ federations and all other relevant stakeholders; final beneficiaries and stakeholders, such as SMEs and entrepreneurs of the SEE area that are active in the animal breeding and horticulture sectors.

Which are the main tools provided through AGRO-START project - SEE Support Service protocol (Agrostar) - Good practice guide (UNIMOL) - - Auto-diagnostic tool (Regional Development Agency of the South - East Development Region); - Transnational data base (BEF) - SEE Kit for entrepreneurs (Center for Business & Parliamentary Dialog“, Albania ) - E-learning courses (UNIMOL and Agrostar)

SEE Support Service Protocol The SEE Support Service Protocol is the main tool of the project that will guide business support entities on how to best provide support services to SMEs in order to: To facilitate an innovative environment for entrepreneurship To improve the competitiveness of SMEs

Workshops Effective approaches for diagnostic and assessment services on innovative and/or efficient production and operational processes for the target sectors (Romania) Effective approaches for promoting and facilitating entrepreneurship in the target sectors (Albania) Effective support approaches to assess on entering new markets, meeting European quality standard, promotion of products and facilitate the internationalisation of SMEs Bulgaria Effective approaches in financial support tools for SMEs and how to provide support for SMEs to inform about their availability and acces them (Italy) Effective approaches for technology and innovation transfer to SMEs (Greece)

The good practice guide  This guide will contain the good practice selected within the five thematic workshops that were organized in the period May – November  The good practice guide will be made available in hard copy version (6000 copies) and electronic version (on the AGRO-START website) in the firsts months of the next year.  The good practice guide will be elaborated by UNIMOL, in English, and translated by the partners in the language of the participating partners: Albanian, Bulgarian, Greek, Italian, Macedonian, Romanian, Slovenian.

Auto-diagnostic tool For increasing SMEs awareness of innovation and technology will be developed an Auto-diagnostic tool that is addressed to SMEs.  The Auto-diagnostic tool will be elaborated based on diagnostic methodology that is created by our partner Regional Development Agency of the South - East Development Region  The Auto-diagnostic tool will be an online questionnaire that will be available on the AGRO-START website;  After the filing the questionnaire, the representatives of SMEs will have receive an Auto-Diagnostic Reccomendations Guide for increasing SMEs awareness of innovation and technology.

SEE Kit for entrepreneurs For increasing the internationalization of SMEs and for facilitation of entrepreneurship through AGRO-START project will be create other support tools for entrepreneurs and SMEs, as follows: S The SEE Kit for entrepreneurs will be prepared by Center for Business & Parliamentary Dialog“, from Albania and it will contain information related to National legislation, national finacial supports for entrepreneurs initiatives, National contact points for entrepreneurship, National conditions to take into account for the elaboration of the business plan, national networks or Agricultural innovation clusters, and other relevant and helpful information. The SEE Kit will help SMEs to fully take into account the conditions and requirements of the AGRO-START partner countries for entrepreneurship in the targeted sectors SEE KIT for entrepreneurs Web constructor Virtual Fair

Web constructor & Virtual Fair Web constructor:  The Web constructor is a tool that will enable SMEs to create their own website easily and free of charge;  For using the Web constructor will be elaborated an user guide that will be available in the languages of the participating countries;  The Web constructor and the user guide will be elaborated by our partner Confragricoltura Puglia; SEE Virtual Fair:  Through the SEE Virtual Fair the SMEs of the participating SEE regions from the horticulture and animal breeding sector can promote their products in virtual stands. The web constructor and the virtual Fair will be available on the AGRO-START website.

Transfer the implementation of the SEE Support Service Protocol The transfer of the implementation of the SEE Support Service Protocol will be implemented through an e-learning course that will be addressed to the employees of business support organizations (BSOs).  The aim of e-learning course is to effectively capacitate employees of business support organizations for the implementation of the final version of the SEE protocol and introduce them to the SEE support tools developed by this project.  The e-learning course will be elaborated based on the training needs diagnostic that will be implemented by all partners in their countries.  The e-learning course is addressed to 360 representatives of BSOs and will be held in the languages of participating countries.

Main expected results The core result of the project will be an increased quality and effectiveness of business support services to SMEs; Increased knowledge of at least 1000 business support services; Increased internationalisation of SMEs in the targeted sectors; Increased know-how of at least 60 employees of business support services through the assistance in the transnational conference; Increased SME’s awareness of innovation and opportunity for the improvement of their competitiveness.

Partners National Federation of Labour Union for Agriculture, Food, Tobacco and Related Areas and Services AGROSTAR, Romania; Regional Development Agency of the South - East Development Region, Romania; Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH)/Institute for Research and Technology-Thessaly (IRETETH), Greece; Business Support Centre for Small and Medium Enterprises – Ruse, Bulgaria; Bulgarian Economic Forum, Bulgaria; Chamber of Agriculture and Forestry of Slovenia; Regional Federation of Farmers Puglia, Italy; European Regional Framework Co-operation, Greece; University of Molise, Italy; Molise Region - General Directorate, Italy; Center for Business & Parliamentary Dialog“, Albania Federation of the Farmers in the Republic of Macedonia;

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