RATIO

In the current European context, SMEs located far from urban areas meet the challenge not only to grow but also to survive. The improvement of their innovation capacity is essential to promote the regional economical development and to fight against rural exodus. By helping rural SMEs to consolidate themselves to overcome of the barriers to their growth and competitiveness is a challenge for the regional innovation policies. The RATIO aims to identify the innovative potential of these companies and help them to grow and expand their activities through: a learning process to implement and manage innovation This must be done by creating effective exchange of experiences in supporting cluster cooperation and international alliances, netwotks and clusters. This exchange of experiences among regional actors will be followed by the transfer of the lesson learnt to the regional programmes. The project will contribute to reinforce the innovation culture in the region boosting innovative ecosystems where actors (regional and local authorities and innovation partners) and stakeholders (associations, academia, regional governments…) can work together in the Action plan to reach the needed policy change for the consolidation of innovative companies in non metropolitan areas.