EPRIstart & Digital Ecosystems 2nd concertation meeting of the Digital Ecosystems cluster 9./10. February, Brussels Dr. Anne Wawer

What is EPRIstart?  Specific Support Action  Main target group: ICT-oriented SME of NMS  Aim: to increase the participation of (SMEs) from all ten New Member States in the Information Society Technologies (IST) Programme of the European Union.  Output: partner pool of NMS SME (currently 204) providing company factsheets, including contact details, company profile, CVs, strategic objectives

NMS SME & Digital Ecoystem Cluster: SME attitude Challenge:  shy away from disclosing company related data or sharing ideas  request an immediate (tangible) benefit for their co-operation NMS SME:  to identify SMEs in the NMS with the capacity to act as drivers  to convince them of the DE concept as long as they are no tangible benefits for SME

ICT uptake in the new member states: leaders and laggards EU 25: 35 % Finland: 56 % Latvia: 16 %

NMS SME & DE Cluster: good practice example  Company name: Datorzinibu Centrs Ltd  City/Country: Riga, Latvia  Profile: provides IT training, IT consulting and publishes computer literature  Relevance for DE Cluster: having worked with Latvian state agencies, large companies and international enterprises the company provides important links between the local and global economy. Being the biggest computer literature publisher in Latvia the company has co- operated with global players such as HP, IBM, 3Com, Cisco, Microsoft and others.

NMS SME & DE Cluster: Malta Malta  Periphery of Europe  Insularity  Lack of natural resources  Limited internal market  High transportation costs  Economic & environmental fragility ICT is providing the tools to overcome these limitations DE cluster is a concrete example how to exploit opportunities arising from the Maltese entry into the EU

Cross-fertilization between DE cluster & EPRIstart  DE concept is SME-centered and hence relevant for EPRI-start  EPRIstart partner pool can help to identify ‘heavy-weight’ SMEs in the NMS  DE activities can benefit from EPRI-start awareness raising activities in NMS:  newsletter  information days  brokering workshops and  political awareness raising events