Although EU programmes and policy makers have been encouraging the potential for cooperation between different startup ecosystems - including within the Alpe Adria region-, still no strong coordination mechanisms yet exist that would ensure a streamlining between regional, national and EU initiatives in support of innovative businesses. The basic TransUP concept is to tackle the challenge of making the Alpe Adria region an attractive hub for innovative entrepreneurs and investors, where the ecosystem made of actors and services devoted to support the creation and development of new businesses is really collaborative and transnational. Technology startups in the peripheral European territories like the Alpine Adriatic usually look to Western Europe or to the USA rather than to neighboring countries for models of change and development. The overall objective of the TransUP project is thus to collaboratively address a common innovation support challenge and to peer-review transnational support services and co-design an innovative and systemic Crossregional Softlanding Programme for enhancing a multicultural and international driven attitude among startups in order to improve their survival chances on the global market. The Crossregional Softlanding Programme is aimed at offering to startups from neighboring regions Carinthia (Austria), Friuli Venezia Giulia (Italy), Slovenia and the newly entered EU member state Croatia, the possibility to develop their company within a multicultural environment. The expected result is the activation of a comprehensive international attitude in all aspects of startup business management with positive effects from market reach to competitive strength. Specific focus will be dedicated to startups with reference to the Alpe Adria region but the recommendations developed in the Design Option Paper will be valid for all sectors and EU geographical location.

This action will establish and provide the innovation support services addressing in general Croatian SMEs with significant innovation activities and in particular the beneficiaries of the SME instrument, of Fast Track to Innovation (FTI) and Future and Emerging Technologies Open (FET-Open). This action will provide continuation of the SSBI-CRO-KAM-3 proposal which is currently implemented under the remit of H2020 for the period of 2017-2018. Based on the findings from previous actions and on the analysis of the needs and of the potential of the region (carried out through 1on1 consultations with other relevant partners/stakeholders supporting innovation in Croatia) the consortium defined service packages that will be delivered to the SMEs: • 8 service packages for Key Account Management (KAM) of successful SME beneficiaries of the funding schemes SME Instrument, Fast Track to Innovation (FTI) and Future and Emerging Technologies Open (FET-Open), with the aim to identify bottlenecks to creation of economic impact in companies benefiting from Horizon 2020 grants, • 15 service packages for Enhancing Innovation Management Capacity (EIMC), with the goal to improve clients’ capacity to manage innovation processes, increasing their efficiency and effectiveness. Project partners HAMAG-BICRO, TPV, TERA and STEPRI will each individually provide number of service packages according to the analysis of regional needs (regional coverage, number and readiness of clients). Direct impact from the Action will be a more effective and efficient conduction of innovation processes, and an enhanced growth and profitability of SMEs receiving the services.

Blue-connect gathers partners from 5 main coastal cities of the Mediterranean part of Croatia, whose research is greatly characterized by natural, biomedical, environmental, social, and economic aspects of the sea. Mediterranean is severely affected by climate change and environmental degradation, and at the same time dependant on marine resources and tourism, and in need for enhancement of human relationships with the sea and science. Climate and environmental risks are recognized threats on EU level and globally, and as such are addressed through several initiatives, among which are Green Deal and SDGs. The main objective of Blue-connect is to reconnect science with society by bringing research and researchers closer to the public, boosting public recognition of science and research education, and building trust and understanding of science and its impact on the blue society in the region. Composed of 5 WPs that reflect the overall objectives, project will implement activities that promote research and science in an understandable and comprehensible way and encourage engagement of the general public and youth with science to jointly act on relevant problems facing the Mediterranean. Awareness campaign will increase comprehension and understanding of science, and attract youth and the general public to the main project events. Researchers at Schools will implement interactive experiments and workshops to boost pupil’s curiosity and interest in research and science careers. Activities during the NIGHT will allow the public and youth to participate in experiments that will help them understand research and science. To ensure the activities are achieving desired impact, methodology and tools for evaluating the impact of project activities and the perception of the general public and youth will be developed and implemented. Successful implementation of the project will ultimately increase trust in research and science by the general public and youth in Croatia.

This action will establish and provide the innovation support services addressing in general Croatian SMEs with significant innovation activities and in particular the beneficiaries of the SME instrument, of Fast Track to Innovation (FTI) and Future and Emerging Technologies Open (FET-Open). The action will provide continuation of the SSBI-CRO-KAM, SSBI-CRO-KAM-2, SSBI-CRO-KAM-3, and SSBI-CRO-KAM-4 proposal which is currently implemented under the remit of H2020 for the period of 2019. Based on the findings from previous actions and on the analysis of the needs and of the potential of the region (carried out through 1on1 consultations with other relevant partners/stakeholders supporting innovation in Croatia) the consortium defined service packages that will be delivered to the SMEs: • 12 service packages for Key Account Management (KAM) of successful SME beneficiaries of SME Instrument, FTI and FET-Open, with an aim of identifying bottlenecks to creating economic impact in companies • 35 service packages for Enhancing Innovation Management Capacity (EIMC), with the goal to improve clients’ capacity to manage innovation processes, increasing their efficiency and effectiveness. Project partners HAMAG-BICRO, UNIST, TPV, TERA and STEPRI will each individually provide number of service packages according to the analysis of regional needs (regional coverage, number and readiness of clients). Direct impact from the Action will be a more effective and efficient conduction of innovation processes, and an enhanced growth and profitability of SMEs receiving the services.

This action will establish and provide the innovation support services addressing in general Croatian SMEs with significant innovation activities and in particular the beneficiaries of the SME instrument. This action will provide continuation of the SSBI-CRO-KAM proposal which is currently implemented under the remit of H2020 for the period of 2014. In particular defining innovation support packages (84 of them and shared between partners based on the needs analysis) for: • Key Account Management (KAM) of successful SME Instrument applicants to identify bottlenecks to creation of economic impact in companies benefiting from grants by Horizon 2020, • Enhancing client SME’s capacity to manage innovation processes increasing their efficiency and effectiveness. Project partners UniSt, TPV, Tera and HAMAG-BICRO will each individually provide number of service packages according to the analysis of regional needs (regional coverage, number and readiness of clients). Envisaged outcome of this action is to provide services to about 84 SMEs in 2015-2016, including all beneficiaries of support under the Horizon 2020 SME instrument.