KISS ME

Europe's contribution must be a big step for an ever closer, ever stronger Union of stability and growth Improving the innovation capacity in SMEs is one of the most important - and thus most common - objectives across Europe to reach the EU2020-goal of Smart Growth. A lot of policy instruments have been established to contribute to this objective. But it seems not easy to reach the SMEs with structural funds, especially in cross-border regions. In this context it is remarkable that different border regions with the same objectives and comparable policy instruments (e.g. INTERREG-Programmes) still use different strategies and projects to realise SME involvement. The KISS ME project partners will use these differences to improve their policy instruments addressing SMEs to develop, grow and engage in innovation processes. 

Exchanging tools to reach SMEs and improving the policy instruments, the KISS ME-project objective is to strengthen the innovation capacity of SMEs by comparing the approaches of four different border regions. The partners involved in the project comprise the border regions of Germany and the Netherlands (Euregio Rhine-Waal), France and Spain (EGTC Pyrenees-Mediterranean), Hungary and Croatia (HAMAG BICRO), and Sweden and Norway (Värmland County Administrative Board; Hedmark County Council). Based on the findings, action plans will be developed which will then be implemented in a second phase. The project results will be disseminated at European level and will be valuable for all regions trying to support SME competitiveness jointly across borders.