Placing the R&D and innovation values as a base of our knowledge, following are some of our most relevant projects, all of them focused on new concepts and ideas that will help organisations face the 4.0 industry challenge.
The ACTTiVAte Project has been favourably selected by the European Commission in the “CLUSTER FACILITATED PROJECTS FOR NEW VALUE CHAINS” – one of the specific calls for proposals of clusters of innovative businesses within the H2020; that develop new cross-sectoral industrial value chains in Europe, based upon the innovation potential of SMEs.
ACTTiVAte proposes four sector in which to develop the crossed-sectoral innovation potential: Aerospace, Health, ICT (information and communications technology), and agro-food.
With an approximate budget of 5 million euros, the project will stretch over 36 months. To develop new value chains, five activity geographic poles will be established in different regions of the participating countries: Spain, Portugal, Poland, The Netherlands, Belgium and Ireland. Including: innovation clusters, such as SME intermediaries that will be responsible for creating the proper conditions to generate innovative ecosystems and Research and Development Centres that will mentor and validate the new value chain proposals of the services and applications generated by the SMEs. In addition, a third participant, the innovation facilitator, will operate at an intersectoral level, organising investment rounds to complement the EU resources with private ones, and stablishing collaboration networks.
ACTTiVAte will set in motion two activities to optimise the SME benefits
a) Contribution of the funds granted by the UE. Competitive call for proposals will be launched in the proposed technological fields. Of the 1.500.000€ set forth for that purpose, each of the SME winners (30) will receive up to 50,000 euros. The selection criteria will take into account the viability, as well as the socioeconomic impact expected in each project. In addition, investment rounds will be organised to facilitate complimentary private resources to multiply the effects of the public funds.
b) Activities aimed at creating a favourable environment for SME innovations, such as brokerage events, mentoring, counselling, mobility and exchange programs, and other initiatives.
As to Q4I Consulting’s role within the ACTTiVAte project, the following activities are highlighted:
- Responsible for the project’s Quality Assurance, monitoring the task developments and stablishing the needed measures from a Quality standpoint, so that the project’s execution adapts to the Work Plan and the expected impacts are met. What’s more, Q4i Consulting will set the applicable process and procedure frames, monitoring them to detect possible deviations and establishing the necessary corrective and improvement actions.
- Responsible for the Project Data Management, establishing the criteria for the management of the generated data and making sure that it adapts to the established European Commission’s rules.
The Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME), acting under the powers delegated by the European Commission, has contracted a consortium led by Technopolis Group to execute the study “Social Business Initiative (SBI) Follow-Up: Co-operation between Social Economy Enterprises and Traditional Enterprises”.
Q4I Consulting is one of the consortium partners, in charge of performing a detailed study on the social economy ecosystem in Spain and its potential to encourage the involvement of traditional enterprises in social action activities.
The social economy is addressed in the European Commission’s Social Business Initiative. Cooperations between traditional and social economy enterprises are now clearly recognised as a means of scaling up social economy enterprises and the place of social innovation and entrepreneurship within the economy. The outcomes of this study will be used by the European Commission, member states and local authorities, in order to develop public policies for the development of social economy enterprises via their co-operation with traditional profit-making enterprises.
