Green Small Smart Cities
GSSC

Summary and objectives

Green & Small Smart Cities project (GSSC) aims to spread the use of sustainable technological solutions from Europe to less developed regions in the world by supporting the internationalization strategy among European SMEs with cutting edge solutions, complementary technologies and a shared vision on making a better world. 

The GSSC consortium combines five highly complementary value chains addressing a very specific market niche: Small Cities. The focus of GSSC project is to benchmark opportunities and needs on growing cities: energy infrastructure, renewable energy solutions, rational use of resources, lack of connectivity, water treatment, access to the internet, implementation of digital solutions, decrease of the carbon footprint among many other vital issues that are already covered in big cities but not in rural and developing areas. GSSC project will support the transfer of knowledge, solutions, products and services to help them meeting the global challenges they are facing worldwide.

GSSC project will address the following main project objectives:

Objective 1 (O1): To intensify cluster and business cooperation across borders by promoting cross sectoral cooperation and strengthening the value chain 

Objective 2 (O2): To merge different innovation players from water, ICT, energy and nanotechnology into GSSCs sector

Objective 3 (O3): To establish European Strategic Partnership in the GSSC sector

Objective 4 (O4): To promote competitiveness and internationalisation of GSSC project cluster members and especially SMEs in Europe and beyond

Objective 5 (O5): To improve the visibility of the consortium and affiliated entities SME on an international scale

To achieve the main objectives, a set of specific project objectives have been created, which are measurable by the performance indicators and deliverables of the WPs and achievable within the project period and after its completion.

Specific objective 1 (SO1) To identify SME needs to support cross-border collaboration and internationalisation processes. This objective aims to discover the services that SMEs expect to be supported with in the internationalisation process. In addition, SMEs will indicate their areas of interest (markets, countries) as well as previous international collaboration experience. This specific objective will support the main objective O1.

Specific objective 2 (SO2) To define the services and good practices to be provided by ESCP-4i.             This objective focuses on the definition of the services and good practices to be provided by the ESCP-4i for internationalisation and collaboration support in the relevant areas to their SME. The analysis of processes and services implemented by other European clusters or partnerships will help to build a good portfolio for the GSSC ESCP-4i. This specific objective will support the main objectives O1, O2 and O3.

Specific objective 3 (SO3) To define GSSC ESCP-4i legal structure and elaborate the ESCP-4i Partnership Agreement. The legal structure along with Partnership Agreement should define the management, administrative and fiscal processes, partners involved, statement of mission vision and common goals, description of the services to be implemented, protection of intellectual property etc. This specific objective will support the main objective O3.

Specific objective 4 (SO4) To define the target markets within Asia, Africa and LATAM, the definition should be supported by: 1) desk research on international market needs, areas and opportunities for internationalisation in order to identify a preliminary list of potential GSSC within Asia, Africa and LATAM and successful cases of this sector (in Europe and beyond); 2) information collected from SMEs of GSSC project partnership about their cooperation interests and experiences. 3) Market analysis and 4) Exploratory visits to the 3 pre-selected countries. This specific objective will support the main objectives O1, O2, O4 and O5.

Specific objective 5 (SO5) To identify two groups of strategic partners in Europe and target third countries. European partners should complement the key competences of the GSSC project partners and support the internationalisation of the project partners and its members (mainly SME). The strategic 

partners from third countries should also support the internationalisation actions of GSSC project partners and/or their SME, supply relevant information about the target markets and support the collaboration in the target countries. This specific objective will support the main objectives O1, O2, O3, O4 and O5.

Specific objective 6 (SO6) To develop the Joint Internationalisation Strategy. The Joint International Strategy will be composed of Partnership Agreement, described in the SO3, and Implementation Roadmap. It should include consolidated information obtained through the whole execution of this project together with the SWOT analysis that identifies the strengths, weaknesses of the GSSC project, opportunities and treads of the internationalisation and cross-border collaboration toward the specific targeted market and partners. Also, it should include definition of financial sustainability aspects. The implementation roadmap should provide a clear overview of the foreseen activities together with detailed agenda of cooperation action. This specific objective will support the main objectives O1, O2, O3, O4 and O5.

Specific objective 7 (SO7) To create the communication strategy for GSSC project and the ESCP-4i. The communication strategy should be created and should reach the defined target groups. Several tools should be incorporated, and various communication channels should be used such as newsletters, media releases etc. This specific objective will support the main objectives O3, O4 and O5.

Specific objective 8 (SO8) To successfully organize and execute the working missions. The consortium should organise at least three working missions that include actions for active promotion and dissemination of cross-border collaboration, trust building, matchmaking, networking, cluster visits, fairs participation, trainings, B2B, delegation trips, and final conference. This specific objective will support the main objective O1, O2, O3, O4 and O5.

Specific objective 9 (SO9) To actively disseminate the GSSC project and GSSC ESCP-4i. To inform the broad audience about the project and success stories in the area of international and cross-border collaboration, various tools should be used. For active dissemination and improvement of the visibility of the GSSC project partners and SMEs will participate in fairs, trade shows, conferences and workshops. This specific objective will support the main objectives O1, O2, O3, O4 and O5.