Taking European SMEs forward in environmental technologies
The EU project Promotion, Demonstration and Development of Sustainable Environmental Technologies for SMEs PRODESTS kicked off on April 22 and 23 in Antwerp (Belgium). The project is run by 27 partners from different regions across Europe and is financially supported by the European Commission in the ETI scheme which is meant to step up Economic and Technological Intelligence. PRODESTS wants to provide new business opportunities to European SMEs in the area of environmental technologies by providing easier access to European funding in the area of technology development and demonstration. In practice this will be achieved by (1) the identification and elimination of barriers that limit the participation of SMEs within present EU research programmes, (2) the enhancement of SME connectivity on a European scale facilitated at a local level and (3) technology and market-driven road mapping. PRODESTS will create a network in Europe of local partners involved in environmental and clean process technology. These local partners, technology knowledge and R&D centres, will be the interface between the network and the local SMEs. The understanding of what are the new and emerging technologies and translating these into EU funded projects will lead to economic benefits for SMEs. PRODESTS wants to deliver solutions for environmental technology users and to link environmental technologies suppliers with new market opportunities. The outcome of the project will give concrete results about the benefits of integration of economic advantages into environmental issues considering the legal, administrative, financial and organisational aspects. The results of the study will direct SMEs to implement economically beneficial pollution prevention strategies in their company policies. For more information, we refer to the interactive website (http://www.prodests.org(se abrirá en una nueva ventana)) and to the announcements of local and European workshops.
Países
Belgium