EXTRA-SMEs - Improving policies to boost SME competitiveness and extraversion in EU coastal and rural areas where aquaculture is a driver of the regional economy

Short description of the project: EXTRA-SMEs project was a five-year project financed by the European Regional Development Fund under the Operational Programme (OP) Peloponnesus 2014-2020, aimed at improving the implementation of regional development policies and programmes. In particular, the focus was on programmes for Investment for Growth and Jobs and, where relevant, ETC programmes, supporting SMEs in all stages of their life cycle to develop and achieve growth and engage in innovation.

Tangible results: the main outputs of this project were 8 action plans to improve the addressed policy instruments, benefiting managing authorities and beneficiaries; 4 interregional workshops; 2 site visits and 1 EU-wide policy learning symposium to promote capacity building among partners and stakeholders; 13 policy briefs to transfer lessons learnt to EU public authorities; 1 benchmarking online toolkit for the assessment of the extraversion performance of SMEs; and 4 joint thematic studies and analyses reports on territorial needs and pathways for the improvement of SMEs internationalisation.

Application/relevance: EXTRA-SMEs project was expected to increase capacity of 200 staff of public administrations to effectively support SME competitiveness; unlock 14 million euros to support projects on the modernisation of the wider network of aquaculture SMEs; and to increase awareness and consensus building among the wider aquaculture sector, the workforce, and citizens.