BACKGROUNDGlobal competition has generated a need among all the enterprises, and especially SMEs, to adjust their strategies for their survival. There is a general belief that the future accelerated growth and sustainability of SMEs will largely depend on the use of appropriate technology and the acquisition and absorption of knowledge. Technology and the transfer of discoveries and knowledge to SMEs is a recognized milestone in building and sustaining a robust and innovative European economy but the professional requirements and the skills needed to work across countries, institutions, regulations and sectors to facilitate this process are fragmented, not enough supported, limited by too complex processes & technical languages.OBJECTIVESThe general objective of T4 is to increase and upgrade skills and competences of European SMEs in the field of transnational technology transfer and accelerate public and private stakeholder organizations in increasing their responsiveness to SMEs skills needs.Specifically T4 aims at 1) minding the gap between SMEs and transnational technology innovation processes; 2) establish a permanent, transparent, recognition oriented, evolving & multi-actor training mechanism which will allow to respond to the needs of SME's 3) increase institutional capacity and awareness of responsible actors of industrial, technological and training policies about the role of transnational technology transfer for SMEs and extend cooperation between SMEs, Research, Service Providers and VET& Training System actors.TARGET GROUPSThe target groups of the project include: SMEs: Managers, Technical and administrative staff, consultants; Cluster Organizations: technical staff, consultants; R&D Centres / Universities (including their Technology Transfer Offices): researchers, technical staff; Technology Parks and Business Development Centres: technical staff, consultants; Economic Development Bodies (Regional Development Agencies, Governance levels designing policies): policy officers, management, technical staff; VET and Higher Education: trainers, researchers, technical staff, administrative staff, learners. The estimated value of directly involved target groups members is 800 units.ACTIVITIESIn order to achieve the planned objectives, the project has been structured around 8 Work-packages and 4 Intellectual Outputs which will be implemented by 7 complementary partners combining training, technology, outreach to SMEs and policy anchoring capacities: WP1 - Project Management; WP2 - Quality Management; WP3 - Evaluation and Risk Management; WP4 - Dissemination and Exploitation; WP5 - Minding the GAP: SMEs & Transnational Technology Transfer, (M2-M7) aimed at creating a knowledge base about current successful practices which combine technology transfer & training methods to support these processes and further strengthen them; WP6 - Mapping skills needs & Develop Competence Profile (M6-M13) which focuses on mapping the competences of the Technology Transfer Manager; WP7 (M13-M28) focused on producing the curriculum and in the development and testing of the TTTEA Training Program; WP8 (M26-M32) will deliver 2 sets of final guidelines, one for policy levels and the second one for VET system & Innovation system actors and to set up of a Transnational Technology Transfer Training Cooperation Network". RESULTSMain project results can be summarized as follows: In a long terms perspective the project aims at creating a winning coperation mechanism between training & educational system and European SMEs which will contribute to adopt transnational technology transfer as a means to accelerate growth and development. Specifically the project results will be: 1) SMEs increased awareness level about technology transfer processes at transnational level; 2) Training & Service Providers increased knowledge about how to simplify technology transfer processes; 3) available training (including competence profile, training course structure and content); 4) increased capacity of the educational / training / service side to respond to educational / training needs with a more close to market and understandable language; 5) effective participation of the governance level & VET System actors to the information and awareness raising initiatives; 6) increased knowledge about how developed training can be transformed & readapted according to technological trends and SMEs needs (and how formal VET training course can be anchored to more situational learning settings based on SMEs daily operations).
BACKGROUND.Global competition has generated the need among all the enterprises, especially SMEs, to adjust their strategies for survival.As a result of T4 actions, the interviewed stakeholders complained of lack of skills and knowledge to allow companies have a dedicated person to facilitate the transfer of modern technologies, products and services so as to accelerate the development for survival on the market in the fight with big companies.It has so emerged that the proposed occupation, the Transnational Technology Transfer Manager, is mandatory for the development strategy. TTTM must possess, apart form the professional technical abilities, competences which should enable European harmonization (leadership, economic and legislative knowledge, ability to mediate between social groups with different cultures etc). OBJECTIVES.The general objective of T4 was to increase and upgrade skills and competences of European SMEs in the field of transnational technology transfer and accelerate public and private stakeholder organizations in increasing their responsiveness to SMEs skills needs. T4 aimed at 1)minding the gap between SMEs and transnational technology innovation processes;2)establishing a permanent, transparent, recognition oriented, evolving&multi-actor training mechanism which will allow to respond to the needs of SME's;3)increasing institutional capacity and awareness of responsible actors of industrial, technological and training policies about the role of transnational technology transfer for SMEs and extend cooperation between SMEs, Research, Service Providers and VET&Training System actors.TARGET GROUPS included:SMEs:managers,technical and administrative staff,consultants;Cluster Organizations:technical staff,consultants;R&D Centre / Universities:researchers,technical staff;Technology Parks and Business Development Centres: technical staff,consultants;Economic Development Bodies:policy officers,management,technical staff;VET and Higher Education:trainers, researchers, technical staff, administrative staff, learners.The directly involved target groups members was 650 units, but due to multiple information in various media channels, we consider that the number can be 1000.ACTIVITIES.In order to achieve the planned objectives, T4 has been structured so as to obtain the four IOs which were implemented by 7 complementary partners combining training, technology, outreach to SMEs and policy anchoring capacities.The 8 Work-packages were:WP1-Project Management;WP2-Quality Management;WP3-Evaluation and Risk Management;WP4-Dissemination and Exploitation;WP5-inding the GAP: SMEs& TTT (M2-M6) created a knowledge base about current successful practices which combined technology transfer&training methods to support these processes and further strengthen them; WP6-Mapping skills needs&Develop Competence Profile(M6-M11) which focused on mapping the competences of the TTTM; WP7(M11-M24) focused on producing the curriculum and in the development and testing of the TTTM Training Program;WP8(M20-M26) delivered 2 sets of final guidelines, one for policy levels and the second one for VET system & Innovation system actors and a template of Memorandum of Understanding in order to set up of a TTT Training Cooperation Network.RESULTS. Main project results can be summarized as follows:1)SMEs increased awareness level about technology transfer processes at transnational level;2)Training&Service Providers increased knowledge about how to simplify technology transfer processes;3)available training (including competence profile, training course structure, content and self-enrollment E-learning platform);4)increased capacity of the educational/training/service side to respond to educational/training needs with a more close to market and understandable language;5)participation of the governance level&VET System actors to the information and awareness raising initiatives;6)increased knowledge about how developed training can be transformed & readapted according to technological trends and SMEs needs(and how formal VET training course can be anchored to more situational learning settings based on SMEs daily operations);7)achieving of a good collaboration between partners;8)harmonization of know-how transfer between them and familiarity with cultural specifics of involved countries.The impact of our short-term activities was to raise awareness of the need to develop such a business within companies, creating a win-win collaboration. In a long terms perspective the project aims at creating a winning cooperation mechanism between training&educational system and European SMEs which will contribute to adopt transnational technology transfer as a means to accelerate growth and development.A major benefit consisted in observing the enthusiasm and satisfaction of the contacted stakeholders in finding the solution to solve the problem they had been struggling with for a long time, namely surviving on a market dominated by the big companies.