- A European cartography of SMEs – Skills, business area and RTD experience of European SMEs in the MAPO network
The overall aim of the MAPO project is to foster the integration of SMEs into European
research projects that concentrate on the combat against marine pollution. The somewhat low participation rate of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the
previous 6th European Framework Programme (FP6) was generally due to several factors such as: lack of resources, complexity of the programme, duration of the selection procedure, only 50% funding rate, necessity to share results. Another important reason is the misperception that FP projects can not be tackled by an SME and are more or less ‘reserved’ to big companies and public laboratories. This perception can only be reversed if more information on successfully participating SMEs becomes available. This is one goal of this report.
The other goal is to present information on all SME-members of the MAPO network that have skills in the combat against marine pollution and that show an interest in the participation in FP projects. This will give an overview of the skills and experiences available. It will also provide a survey on relevant business data to detect key competencies or data that characterises SMEs successfully participating in European R&D projects.
This report of business intelligence can be completed by the MAPO booklet and the list of MAPO best practices. These two documents offer a methodology and a list of actions to take part in FP projects in the field of marine pollution.