Press release - BRIDGESMEs project

BRIDGESMEs project – kick-off & press release

20. Februar 2024, Graz, Austria

The BRIDGESMEs project aims to assist European SMEs in five industrial ecosystems in re-thinking their business models and operations to become more resilient, sustainable, and human-centric.

The project will facilitate alliances between manufacturing SMEs and tech-savvy SMEs & start-ups, as well as accelerate the deployment of innovative solutions in the market and enhance clusters‘ cooperation to support SMEs across value chains.

The consortium will conduct an assessment of the current status of the Five Industrial Ecosystems, identify needs, disruptions, challenges, and opportunities related to technology adoption and transition towards Industry 5.0, and involve and select manufacturing SMEs, demanding advanced technologies in their production lines, and tech-savvy SMEs through open calls, hackathons, and matchmaking events.

The Kick-of-meeting of the BRIDGESMEs initiative was organized by the Coordinator Iniziativa Cube in Naples from the 5th to 7th of February with the participation of all consortium members.

The 9 project-partners come from 6 different countries (Austria, Czech Republic, France, Italy, Greece and Spain). At the kick-off, the partners discussed the initial project activities, the progress and achievements since the BRIDGESMEs‘ launch in December last year, as well as the coordination of the next steps in the coming months.

The BRIDGESMEs project, cofinanced under the Horizon Europe programme, aims to assist European SMEs in five industrial ecosystems – Mobility, Transport & Automotive; Aerospace & Defence; Electronics; Cultural & Creative Industries; and Tourism, with the aim to re-think business models and operations and help SMEs become more resilient, sustainable, and human-centric.

STAY TUNED – Find the FULL PRESS RELEASE HERE.