The aim of SPAS project is to encourage SMEs working in the agro-food sector to participate in the FP6 and FP7 projects, especially in new instruments, IPs and NoEs. Participation will be focused on new and on-going projects, paying especial attention to call for proposals and call for tenders. SPAS starts with the homogenisation of activities and will develop a Best Practice Guide for trans-regional co-operation in order to encourage and guide SMEs towards the most appropriate instruments, in particular IPs and NoEs in the 6th Framework Programme (FP6) and further advances produced in the 7th Framework Programme (FP7).SMEs will receive personalized information about the opportunities that FP6 and FP7 bring them, and will receive assessment in the proposals preparation and submission, as well as information about their innovation statement and needs through the diagnosis and audits. Information will be delivered to SMEs using the website, a periodical newsletter, a personalized mailing service and regional workshops and conferences, together with the elaboration of a useful guide of participation in the Framework Programme or SMEs tools that can be used by SMEs for their innovation processes. Assessment on proposals preparation and submission will comprise the provision of guided information about the European Commission (EC) procedures, as well as the contact and negotiation with the projects coordinators in the FP6 and the EC officers for FP7.SMEs will be grouped in international clusters where enterprises with similar innovation needs will be able to share information and ideas in order to generate new projects and enhance the technology transfer. A working space tool will be implemented in order to ease cooperation among entities, and overcoming the language barriers, since the key information will be provided in all partners languages.