European Relevance

In March 2000, the EU Heads of States and Governments agreed in Lisbon to make the EU “the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-driven economy by 2010”. The Lisbon summit put RTD policy at the heart of the EU's development agenda because competitivness of companies and the employment they can provide depend to a great extent on RTD. As a matter of fact, a knowledge-based society does not only comprise technological and economical knowledge but also the collective interest to find solutions for common problems through systematic, comprehensible and standardised methods and practices. EUROPPER SME contributes to this utilisation in open, flexible and supportive networks and partnerships.

Ongoing efforts to strengthen the co-ordination of research policy and to improve the coherence and impact of national and regional policies are regarded highly necessary by all involved stakeholders. EUROPEER SME encourages research policies towards SMEs and adressess the danger of SMEs missing the connection to an innovative, future-oriented production and development.

EUROPEER SME helps to improve RTD policies directed to SMEs. By using the peer review method best practices are elaborated which, ultimately, lead to a redesign of existing RTD-promoting programmes. But improving the effectivness and impact of certain programmes is just one effect. Strengthening the scientific and technological bases of industry and encouraging its international competitivness is increasingly becoming a European challenge so that research policy has to be coordinated better.

Co-ordination can be fostered in two manners: top-down and bottom-up. The method of peer reviews implies that the partners present in the peer groups are equal. This is, on the one hand, crucial for mutual learning and, on the other hand, it complies with the principle of subsidiarity within the EU decision making and fits in the open method of co-ordination (OMC) which is applied in this call. Comprising 14 partners from different European and EU countries, EUOPEER SME has a great trans-national impact. The partners are not only travelling to other countries in regional peer review workshops (WP 3) but also getting to know RTD programmes which are located in other framework conditions.

The focus of our approach is making research policies at European, national and regional levels more coherent. With the help of elaborated best practices and systematically designed transfer schemes EUROPEER SME provides tools which are applicable beyond the consortium and therefore foster the co-ordination of research policies directed to SMEs in the entire EU.