1. Rural Renaissance – Dundalk Stephen Rice – Director & Co-founder
20 October 2016
Stephen Rice – Director & Co-founder

2. Overview
How to build innovative practical solutions to advance industries and businesses needs?
Specialising in new ways to use skills and competencies to inspire innovation within H2020 and beyond

3. About Us
A SME specialising in skills and competencies to get the best out of your staff, to inspire innovation and manage talent
Background in security, justice and public services moving into critical infrastructure, civil protection, renewable technologies through EU partnerships: sharing best practice
Key partner in successful H2020 consortium teaching ‘soft’ or transversal skills to peacekeepers
Partner in 4 bidding consortia in H2020 focusing on the role of skills and competences, linked to training, to manage risk and avoid brain drain

4. How it all began …but where do you begin?
As a result of a changing world, people/employers recognise the importance of skills and competence for:
Empowerment
Mobility
Productivity
Integration of ‘things’
Integration of people
Quality assurance
Competitiveness
Risk mitigation
Workforce planning
Hiring the right people
Influencing policy
…but where do you begin?

5. How it all began What we were seeing…
Difficult to Navigate
Training for the sake of training
Underutilisation of people & skills
Massive economic wastage

6. How it all began
Gap in the market…

7. Innovating through skills
We build innovative practical solutions to advance industries, businesses and their workforces
With international experience across many sectors, we specialise in new ways to use skills and competencies to get the best out of staff, to inspire innovation and manage talent. In H2020 this helps ensure that outputs are not ‘left on the shelf’ but incorporated into daily practice
We co-create with employers to build tailored, benchmarked skills systems that will work for their strategic aims and also protect them from risk whilst integrating into national and international policies

8. Journey to H2020
2011
Led a bid…failed!

9. Journey to H2020
Developed and sustained important and strategic networks
Engaged with National Contact Points (important!)
Lobbied text into a call
Met with MEPs
Met with EU officials
Travelled to Brussels
Understood policy drivers
Made the right impression
Didn’t let defeat get us down, learned never to lead first time!
Maintained relationships home and abroad
Joined a consortium

10. Journey to H2020 H2020 a core business aim
Developed and sustained important and strategic networks
Engaged with National Contact Points (important!)
Travelled to Brussels (supported by Intertrade)
Understood policy drivers/topic
Made the right impression
Didn’t let being a ‘newbie’ or micro-business scare us off
Developed our unique offer for consortia
2015-Present
Got invited to a consortium
Won!

11. Our success… Led by Trinity College Dublin
Immersive serious game for teaching soft skills to peace keepers
Innovations around linking skills/competence with gamification
Global best practice in peace keeping
Development of a ‘Skills Passport’

12. Our unique offer
“What's the point in buying a phone if you don’t know how to answer it?”

13. What we bring
There are several skills based EU Initiatives which we incorporate into our services and processes, according to the need of the client/project. This includes:

14. Linking innovation to policy

15. Importance of Networks

16. Added value of H2020 Invited onto 5 H2020 consortiums since Aug 2015
Have won contracts through the networks we have made
Have attended meetings/conferences/presented:
Lisbon
Brussels
Rome
Amsterdam
Budapest
Copenhagen
London
Dublin

17. Added value of H2020 Helping people see skills in a different way
(nice to have vs commercial benefits)
Brings us into new areas:
Gamification
Civil protection
Virtual reality
Aviation risk management
Religious integration
Significantly adds to our commercial offer being at the forefront of policy and initiatives
Vital cross-border links

18. Thank you for listening