Projects

The PPACT (Public Procurement and Cross-border Tendering) project aims to rapidly elevate SME public sector tendering skills and equip them to participate in cross-border bidding teams focused on tapping into the Smart City sector.
The European Partner on the EC Funded ‘Public Procurement and Cross Border Tendering ‘ (PPACT) will meet to further the PPACT Programme including the development of partner training courses and plan future B2B events for 125 companies to allow them partner up for and tender on future National and Regional Government opportunities, particularly in the ‘Smart Cities’ areas such as Waste, Water, Transport, Energy etc.

The general objective of EU4SportsClusters Alliance is to implement and test a Joint Internationalization Strategy for a European Strategic Sport Clusters Partnership (ESSCP), maximizing the potential of its cross-sectoral nature, developing new value chains and exploiting international opportunities for SMEs, specially those existing in third markets outside the EU.
The ESSCP is made of 4 Sport Clusters (INDESCAT, Sport and Technology, Flanders’ Bike Valley and Cluster Montagne) and EPSI, covering 4 countries (Belgium, France, Netherlands and Spain), and proposes an innovative approach to exploit the cross-sectoral nature of the sports industry and brings a new vision to the industry.
It defines one final consumer (the sports practitioner) and three main value chains that deliver products and services to these consumers:
i) sport events
ii) sport facilities &
iii) consumer goods and services.
Building from these value chains and its segmentation, the project will focus on its interaction with 6 traditional sectors:
i) tourism
ii) health
iii) food&nutrition
iv) IT
v) construction and vi) textile.
The Joint Internationalization Strategy will target three (3) third countries, carefully selected taking into account previous market research and consensus with sport clusters’ SMEs. These markets are the USA, Japan and China.
EU4SportsClusters Alliance will have a direct impact on 5 clusters and 823 clusters’ members (493 SMEs and 330 other institutions, such as big companies, technological and research centres, universities, etc.).

Hiking Europe’s main objective is to promote a transational network of rural touristic routes structured in several hiking itineraries across Europe.
The partnership gathers 8 members from 6 different EU countries: Spain (Catalonia), Italy (Emilia- Romagna), Croatia (Dubrovnik-Neretva), Ireland (Donegal), Austria and Germany.
In total, this represents 1.170 km of hiking routes in 4 different EU countries.
Participant regions gather with a common interest of developing an alternative approach to masstourism, based on either the “Sun and sand” model of large concentration of visitors in specific locations (Cities, etc.).
This differentiation will allow the development of tourism at a territorial level, spreading the benefits across the territory, promoting cohesion, sustainability and local community participation.
Therefore, HikingEurope addresses the issue of tourism diversification in European regions that have traditionally focused on mass tourism but are willing to commit with a more sustainable, responsible and high-quality alternative approach based in less explored areas, specifically in rural locations.
To conclude, this project also contributes to territorial balance and cohesion by fostering local economic development in areas traditionally less exposed to international tourism.

SHAAMS will facilitate the take up of solar technologies by raising public awareness on energy efficiency through the transferability and implementation of good practices in legal, regulatory, economic, organizational issues and new financing mechanisms. Therefore, SHAAMS will define and implement a series of actions, by identifying and highlighting the opportunities and potentialities of solar energy solutions for the social and economic development of the region covered by the ENPI CBC Mediterranean Sea Basin Programme. The project will rely on a collaborative approach between partners while facilitating the exchange of data (indicators) between public administration bodies, research centers, universities, firms and agents of the civil society and allowing the consortium to analyze the needs, expectations and requirements of all the actors and to provide solutions coherent with all the agents’ needs.
In order to achieve these objectives the SHAAMS project will be conceived as a threefold action project divided in terms of activity:

• SHAAMS Policy Accelerator: Policy support actions will be implemented in order to identify innovative solutions, solar energy strategies and to generate a unified approach towards a long term policy perspective for solar energy development.
• SHAAMS Enterprise and Research Accelerator: Fostering market support structures and new procedures for the development of a reliable market for solar energy
• SHAAMS Social Accelerator: The activities conceived in the section will address societal agents and intend to promote a cultural and behavioral change towards solar energy among society.