The Supporting SMEs Online Tool is a new cross-governmental guide to help small businesses know which of the over 80 Government supports could possibly fit their business.

By answering the 8 questions in the Supporting SMEs Online Tool, a small business will, in one location:

• Find out which of the over 80 Government business supports from 27 different Government Departments, Agencies and Initiatives are available to them.
• Get information on the range of Government supports for accessing credit.
• Be told their nearest Local Enterprise Office to discuss the outcomes of the guide further.
• Be able to download all these filtered results into a document for their further use.

You can check out the Supporting SMEs Online Tool here: Supporting SMEs Online Tool

“I SEE YOU” (Initiative to foster Social Entrepreneurship Experience for Youth) is a great opportunity for young people from Europe interested in taking the entrepreneurship path in their professional life.

The overall objectives of the project are:

• To promote entrepreneurship education among unemployed youth, especially in countries with a high youth unemployment rate, which will lead to new business creation and employability and ultimately assist them in building a future for themselves
• To create a transnational European identity among participating young people to embrace active citizenship and provide a new perspective
• To facilitate innovative learning practices in entrepreneurship education by developing and implementing trainings, workshops and other approaches to increase the labour market relevance of young people

Launched in September 2013, the ACE project will develop a new, tailor-made acceleration programme – the ACE programme – to deliver targeted cross-border services to highly innovative ICT entrepreneurs, start-ups and SMEs with the potential to rapidly grow their businesses in international markets The ACE programme will provide innovative start ups and high growth ICT companies with direct assistance in finding partners, clients and financing to accelerate their move into cross border and international markets.Open calls for candidates will be launched throughout Europe in November 2013 through relevant European networks and associations.

Companies selected will be assigned a lead mentor from the partner organisation in their own country. This ‘local’ mentor will guide them through the overall ACE programme, develop an individual internationalisation action plan with them and put an internationalisation support team and package of support measures in place for them.

Unsuccessful applicants will be provided with customised feedback and encouraged to use the ACE online network to engage with other companies through the online stakeholder community and to use the online tools to prepare for internationalisation and subsequent cycles of the ACE programme.

The ACE consortium includes 15 leading incubators, clusters and living labs from across Europe (UK, Ireland, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Italy, Portugal, Finland, Sweden, Czech Republic) and is supported by EBN, the largest network of innovation based incubators in Europe and ENOLL, the European network of Living Labs.

In context of global crisis of the economy, the blue economy represents an essential stake for the future development of our maritime territories. Often considered as a resource, the ocean has also to be envisaged as a source of innovation, of growth and jobs. In this sense, marine bio-resources constitute a sector with high growth potential but still largely unexploited by businesses. These latter have to face many constraints and barriers (legal, environmental, economic and social).

The Atlantic Blue Tech project thus aims at promoting and developing at the Atlantic level and in a joint and concerted manner, the marine bio-resources’ sector. Gathering economic and innovation development agencies, local authorities and scientific organisations, the project aims at capitalizing projects and initiatives previously developed under this thematic. Project partners will identify the main obstacles to the development of the sector and will define corrective measures.

Finally, through the identification of transnational structuring projects, the project will represent an essential link to the future 2014-2020 programming period. It will also contribute to the operational implementation of the action plan recently adopted in the framework of the EU Maritime Strategy for the Atlantic region.

CINEW (Creative Industries Network European Window) aims to promote innovation in small and medium sized Enterprises in the Creative Industries. It is a networking and Innovation support service for the Creative and Cultural Industries. Working with partner regions in the United Kingdom, France, Spain and Portugal, the project will work to develop a “Creative City” as a sustainable model to support Creative Enterprises. The programme aims to achieve progress on transnational cooperation within the partner regions and promote transnational entrepreneurial Innovation Networks. The partners involved in the programme are Mayo County Council as Lead Partner, WESTBIC, CEEI Bahia de Cadiz in Spain, ADIST in Portugal, Technopole Quimper Cornouaille and Technopole Laval Mayenne both in France, and the University of Swansea in the UK.

Fiontarlann is a state-of-the-art Incubation & Enterprise Centre located in the rural Gaeltacht setting of Baile na Móna, Cill Chartha (Kilcar, Co. Donegal), 14 km from Killybegs and 39 Km from Donegal Town. Suitable for knowledge based and office businesses, this 6,100 sq ft Incubation and Enterprise Centre has a range of spaces available from shared desk spaces (The Cube) up to units of 1,000 sq ft.

Glórtha Aduaidh is a collaborative project between WestBIC and client company Ligid TV Productions Ltd funded by the PEACE III Programme. The Glórtha Aduaidh project will document, through the medium of TV and Radio, the issues faced by ordinary people on all sides of the sectarian divide during the Troubles in Northern Ireland and the Border Counties.

Funded by the European INTERREG IVB Programme, the GREAT Project aims to accelerate the deployment of Smart Grid in North West Europe. The project aims to encourage communities and SMEs develop and/or engage technological solutions for Smart Grid, Renewable Energy and Distributive Generation. It will also research and develop policy issues for regulatory authorities; and provide structured co-operation opportunities between the SME’s, research institutes and the technology developers.

Galway Technology Centre was established in 1994 to meet the needs of the emerging cluster of ICT companies in the Galway area at that time. Since then, it has housed many hundreds of innovative start-ups and developing companies and has acquired a reputation for the provision of flexible, high quality, serviced office space with a range of integrated technologies, facilities and services. The Centre provides a complete solution to entrepreneurs seeking a high quality environment in which to grow their enterprise from concept to commercialisation and beyond.

IN-EUR is a Regional Initiative Project of the INTERREG IVC Programme of 3 years duration (2012 – 2014), which addresses the need for local level strategies to foster innovation and knowledge growth all over the EU.

Transnational Network for Social Innovation Incubation – TRANSITION – is a 30-month project that supports the scaling-up of social innovations across Europe by developing a network of incubators which brings together established partners within the fields of social innovation (SI) and innovation-based incubation (IBI). TRANSITION will also provide learning output on which scaling methodologies are most effective in a given region and the level of impact of these methodologies when transferred between regions.

VETIP aims to enhance teaching and training practice through the transfer of innovative e-commerce resources and business methods, from the lead partner, Clevercherry, an ICT, digital and media SME, to the project’s partner institutions. As a result, this will enable Vocational Students, Entrepreneurs and Young People from local communities to improve their confidence in the use of digital e-commerce resources and not only aspire, but implement their own e- businesses start up.