Final Report Summary - TECARE (Transregional Cooperative Platform for Competitiveness in Meat Research and SMEs) The 'Transregional cooperative platform for competitiveness in meat research and SMEs' (Tecare) project envisaged experimenting a novel methodology for fostering the SMEs participation in European research Framework Programmes through a bottom-up approach. It set up a European cooperative platform for enhancing trans-regional private-public cooperation in agro-food research. It was devoted to small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) involvement and extended to Eastern countries, as well. In practice the project has took shape through several objectives. At first the activities were planned to set-up a network of geographical working groups (GWG) of SMEs animated by local technology mediators in five European regions. These groups discussed about technical underlying problems related to the meat food chain and identified technical needs and expectations shared by the SMEs in the regions covered by Tecare project. At the same time a system of inter-relations among research stakeholders has been defined in order to exchange knowledge in the definition of research project topics and consortia and to give also a concrete support to the stabilisation of the working groups results. The consensus on research issues has been fundamental to set up research consortia aiming to implement research projects to be submitted under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). In this way a sustainable network of technology mediators has been also created. Also after the project, it will continue to act on European level, as interface between SMEs and public research players and between the public policies research strategies and the research needs of involved SMEs. Parallel to these objectives the institutional working group (IWG) deepen the analysis done in the previous period in order to define the next steps. The situation funded in the partners regions as well as the actual development of new policy schemes, suggested to the partnership to delay the final decision on the submission of an ERANET proposal focused on the agro-food sector. Another important project objective was to identify and standardise a common methodology of SME involvement and animation of research working groups, based on the experience acquired during the implementation of this project across different European regions. In the end, the project has succeeded to collect research and technical strategic requirements and expectations from SMEs food chain of different European regions and to forward these elements as recommendations to EU policy makers. Thanks to the participation in other European activities and projects, all the consortium members have developed an informal, widespread network of contacts and cooperation ventures (SMEs, experts, trade associations and research centres) in the European regions covered by the project. This network represents a precious tool reinforcing the European impact. In order to have an effective and immediate interest from the SMES and the potential stakeholders of Tecare project, the Tecare project partners started soon developing the communication plan and tools. In this way a logo and the headline' Supporting meat research: bring your voice to Europe!' were selected. Consequently, a total of 5,000 flyers were printed out in all partner languages. Also the project website, http://www.Tecare.net has been designed and developed in each partner language, as well as in English. With regard to dissemination activities, it was decided to anticipate some public events and to use them as launching meetings in order to inform the potentially interested SMEs about the aims of the project and its opportunities: - two launching meetings have been organised for stimulating the participation of Banat SMEs during the following two events: 1. Symposium New Trends in Food Safety and Food Technology, 25-26 May 2006; 2. TIMAGRALIM Exhibition, 15-18 June 2006. On June, 12th 2006 a regional launching meeting has been organised in Wroclaw with about 130 participants. The subject of the launching workshop was European funds for lower Silesia region - Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) preparations. In Veneto the launching meeting has been held on May, 12th 2006, during the international fair Eurocarne in Verona. This fair has been chosen as it is one of the main Italian exhibitions in the meat sector. These events and the communication activities allowed the technology mediators (TMs) to start with the organisation of the local geographical working groups (GWGs) and the respective meetings. These meetings had the intent of investigating the interests of each SME to be involved in such initiatives and particularly their technical needs and expectations. The methodology observer has participated all the GWG meetings and cooperated, with the local TMs to present the structure of forthcoming FP7 and the strategic advantages of being involved in a network of EU research projects to the SMEs representatives. Within the GWGs activities the regional TMs succeeded to identify the real technical needs and expectations of the SMEs in meat food sector. Together with the technical needs and expectations of SMEs, the TMs verified the presence of other important problems linked to the particular market and the economic situation in the covered countries which often worry the companies more than innovation and research. In order to better exploit and enhance the project results all partners continued to disseminate regionally the information on Tecare and two public events were organised: one in Poland and the final event in Brussels. The final event in Brussels was the right occasion to show the experiences carried out by the Tecare partners in working directly with the meat food sector SMEs and to explain their real research needs contextualised in the everyday sector problems. Thanks also to the speech of Mr Vassarotti (Scientific Officer of the DG Research - European Commission) about the possibilities offered with the FP7 it has been also possible to set the right future steps for supporting the development of SMEs in this particular sector. In parallel to this it has been also showed the importance of the developed methodology and the willing to further enhance the established network of TMs collaborating with similar projects. On the Tecare website is available the brochure which collects all the reports on technology needs and expectations of SMEs in meat food sector produced by the regional TMs and containing also much information about the market and the economic situation in the covered countries. This brochure was distributed during the final event in Brussels and represents a guideline and an agenda about the priority research themes but it could also be considered as a tool useful to understand the differences and also the common problems of SMEs in a extended area of the European Union and to draft new effective policies and measures for supporting the competitiveness thought research projects in this particular industrial sector. Related documents Final Report - TECARE (Transregional Cooperative Platform for Competitiveness in Meat Research and SMEs)
