Helping SMEs in aeronautics
The European Commission has joined forces with the aerospace industry in Europe to encourage the participation of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in European research programmes through the establishment of three projects, AeroSME, Scratch and FISSA. In the past very few SMEs gained access to European technology funding, often due to complex regulations and procedures as well as communication difficulties. The aim of these projects is to help companies form proposals for research activities and establish partnerships, with a view to participating in the Fifth Framework Programme. The AreoSME project is open to all organisations which conform to the EU definition of an SME (employing less than 250 people) in the 19 participating countries. Companies can register free of charge, and after filling in a questionnaire they will be included in a European database and receive help in finding potential partners for building research consortia. The SCRATCH and FISSA projects also aim to help smaller companies put bids together for European funding, but their methods are quite different. Whereas AeroSME is a large, all-encompassing project providing a wealth of information, the SCRATCH and FISSA initiatives provide a more detailed and personal service to individual SMEs and are not strictly limited to the EU definition. SCRATCH, the organisation which supports smaller companies in Aerospace research, promotes the Fifth Framework and CRAFT co-operative research projects in France, Greece, the UK, Italy and Germany. The CRAFT funding scheme encourages companies with little or no in-house RTD capability to sub-contract the research they need to a specialist. The European Commission may fund up to half the costs. The FISSA project is a multinational stimulation action, aiming to create co-operative actions between SMEs from France, Sweden and Israel. The main objectives are to submit four CRAFT full proposals for co-operative phase 2, and four CRAFT exploratory awards phase 1. This will be carried out in three stages. Firstly, the technological needs of SMEs in the aeronautics sector are identified, and so far more than 350 SMEs have been approached. The second phase aims at analysing SME RTD needs in order to form CRAFT proposals. The final stage is to convert these proposals into projects. Doris Schroecker from the SME unit of DG XII said: 'The overall objectives of the three projects are the same. Each one tries to do something to persuade SMEs to participate in Framework Five. They work in co-operation with each other, directing SMEs to the organisation which best fits their needs.'