About BalkanMed INNOVA
The project idea originated from the successful implementation of the INNOVA NET project financed by the ETCP Greece-Italy 2007-2013, whose main outputs and results the BalkanMed INNOVA project will capitalise.
On the basis of the official data referring to the BalkanMed area in general and to each involved territory in specific, despite the national disparities, the geographical location and the presence of a rich historical/cultural background give a great economic potential to the BalkanMed territories involved in the project (Greece, Bulgaria, FYROM, Albania, Cyprus). On the other hand, the competitiveness of these territories is undermined and hindered by the high unemployment rate and the brain drain, especially of skilled people, resulted from the economic crisis.
BalkanMed INNOVA will stimulate entrepreneurial mindsets, encourage innovative business start-ups, and foster a friendlier culture to entrepreneurship and to the growth of small and medium-sized businesses with special orientation to 4 economic areas of great strategic importance for the socio-economic development of the eligible countries i.e.
 Tourism & Cultural Heritage |
 Agribusiness |
 ICT for SMEs |
 Energy & Environment |
The overall objective of BalkanMed INNOVA is to support both any existing SMEs or any potential new start-ups, through training, exchange of knowledge and expertise, technology transfer; their key-persons and entrepreneurs to acquire new skills, get acquaintance with business environment at partners’ countries. To create new business opportunities, establish and consolidate transnational networks at their business sectors and to adopt innovative practices (through education, training and mentoring). These objectives are directly correlated with the program objectives which is to support entrepreneurial learning and to improve SMEs entrepreneurial skills and competitiveness.
The project outputs will serve as a tool for overcoming the current fragmentation of the entrepreneurship policies and measures at participating countries and will serve as a positive example and good practice to all participants to establish novel technology transfer approaches.
The challenges to be addressed are focused on weaknesses which affect the development of entrepreneurship, such as the gap between the education and the labour market; the lack of business ethics and entrepreneurial culture; the poor access to finance; the mistrust in governmental programmes; the difficulty of SMEs to invest in new innovative knowledge. Current economic crisis has caused increasing uncertainty for enterprises and individuals and has only made the need for entrepreneurial learning all the more urgent.
This project will create a linkage by providing:
- Entrepreneurial culture to educational-training actors (researchers, scientists, professors, training centres, etc.) in order to be able to communicate science/knowledge to business
- Entrepreneurial learning & skills and up-to-date knowledge (state of the art in the 4 specific sectors) to graduates, long-term unemployed individuals, would-be entrepreneurs
- Lifelong training to existing entrepreneurs, SMEs, practitioners.
