"The key topics within our project are design thinking and disruptive innovation processes to develop smart city solutions by SMEs. Another aspect is the user experience design. Design thinking is able to approach more closely the unmet needs of a community by observing its behaviour.The technology advancement is too fast for the managers and owners to respond and adjust to the market. Smart city solutions work in the quadruple helix: society(social innovation)-research- public authorities- business. A smart city is defined as “a community of average technology size, interconnected and sustainable, comfortable, attractive and secure”. The number of smart-city solutions is booming, and many new technologies are being utilized to improve the city of the future. However, governments are not seeing the results they aimed for and one of the main causes for this is the digital skill gap. The digital skill gap is a two-factor problem: from one side the need is unrealized by citizens as they don't know about the smart solutions; from another - there is a lack of skilled personnel to implement and maintain tech solutions of SMEs.The aim of the project is to develop the competences of the SME managers and owners to drive smart disruptive technology business. More specifically we combine management and digital skills and provide: a map of digital disruptive technologies; training program with modules and materials for smart innovation; toolkit with business models, tools for UX and DT process, social innovation aspects, platform for learning with materials and tools.The target groups of our project are:- SME managers and owners of smart city technology businesses are the primary - those who are and want to be ""smart innovators"";- VET trainers as secondary group.The main results of the project are the intellectual outputs with the respective interim products/deliverables:IO1 Map of digital and smart disruptionsO1/A1 Key areas of smart technology innovation - we will conduct a study to narrow the scope of technology areas of smart innovations and define key success factors and applications to prepare the map.O1/A2 Case studies collection and focus groups - each partner will select two SMEs in the field of smart technologies and have interviews with their managers/owners to create a state of the art case study. This will generate a case study collection and initial contacts of the target group to be further involved in the project.O1/A3 Development of the map the map itself will consist of: description of the technological areas, challenges and opportunities for designing, developing and managing smart city innovative solutionsO1/A4 Internal testing - this part of each output will be done either during project meeting and/or short-term staff training event in month 13. There will be short evaluation report after each internal testing before going to testing with the target group.O1/A5 Finalization and translation is also a common phase of each output and defines the final translated versions.IO2 Training program for smart disruptive innovation - we will develop a program covering analytical, interdisciplinary critical thinking, management and technological skills; we will define the key topics of interdisciplinary knowledge across technology, social sciences and management disciplines.O2/A1 Capabilities framework of smart innovation - common framework with key competences, skills and knowledge.O2/A2 Training modules for smart innovation - specific modules with learning elements and assessment criteria, including self-assessment tools, thesaurus, materials.IO3 Training toolkit for managers and owners of smart businessesO1/A1 Business model cards for smart solutions - we will create a set of explanatory cards with definitions, examples and frameworks for innovative business models.O1/A2 User experience design and design thinking process and tools - this will be a collection of tools, description and materials for UX design and design thinking process.O1/A3 Disruptive technologies for social innovation development - this part will focus on social innovations in the context of smart city solutions.IO4 Digital platform for smart innovationsO4/A1 Simulation process for rapid prototyping - detailed step-by-step process of how to do rapid prototyping and what tools to be used will be developed. O4/A2 UX design and design thinking games.The desired impact on the target groups is expected to be stronger and immediate at local and regional level where partners’ and their members’ apply the Smart City concept and thus our results and beneficial impact is expected to be more tangible. Additionally to the impact on the target groups, the project is expected to have a positive longer-term benefit for the local and regional economy as Smart city entails the creation of inter company and inter sectoral links, for an inter-connected city. It relates to the new phenomenon of city-as-a-platform creation."

InnoCap Transylvania - Services in support of innovation for Romanian SMEs The objectives of this proposal are the following: - increase the efficiency and efectiveness of innovation process of local beneficiaries of SME Instrument program and innovative SMEs with significant innovation activities and high potential for internationalization; - facilitate SMEs access to consultancy services for innovation management to address bottleneck to creating an economic impact; - support innovative SMEs to raise the company's profitability and competitiveness on international market.

"Project: Smart Skills for Smarter CitiesThe context of this project is that the new era smart cities need staff with new or upgraded competencies. The smart city competencies are specific, identifiable, definable, and measurable knowledge, skill, ability and/or another deployment-related characteristic, the professionals in the city government or related institutions need to possess in order to perform effectively the activities of governing the smart cities. Undoubtedly, taking into account the emerging technologies and digital transformation of cities the governance of cities requires new competencies that the education systems provide currently quite fragmented.The main objective of the project is to develop and test learning & validation tools for the training of experts, personnel and managers of the smart cities for their newly emerging roles/professions. These tools include a referent competence framework, new curricula and validation paths for these roles, based on common methodology and competencies map. The target group is those who can become agents of change in cities. They are experts or members of the urban and regional administration, representatives of the urban economic environment, architects, engineers, as well as technicians who work in the field of planning and implementation of smart IoT solutions, economists, geologists, cartographers, lawyers, among others. About 60 participants including experts from the project partners and associated organizations will be directly involved in the project and another 100 members of the target groups will participate in two dissemination events in Sofia and Cluj. The main project activities will be concerned mainly with studying, mapping, designing and verifying the two planned project outputs. Apart from the outputs several project management activities and resources will be performed in order to ensure the time management, workflow, quality, dissemination and suitability of the project results. The expected ultimate results of the project are: Intellectual Output 1 ""Toolkit for smart city competencies framework"" that integrates four user-end components (deliverables): 1) Smart city competencies map; 2) Reference competencies framework; 3) VET curricula; 4) User guide for implementation; Intellectual Output 2 ""Validation tools for smart city competencies"" that includes two user-end components (deliverables): 1) Guidelines for validating competencies for a smart city administration; 2) Rules for certification of smart city roles. Interim products: Project management plan; Dissemination strategy & plan; Project graphical and online identity - logo, website, and leaflet, posters, banners, etc.; Quality assurance plan and methodology for internal evaluation of the outputs; and Exploitation and sustainability strategy;Promotional & dissemination activities: 5 newsletters; 4 open transnational meetings; 4 focus groups organized; 2 national dissemination events in Sofia and Cluj; strong social media presence based on the common dissemination strategy.The methodology for carrying out the project will be as follows: all six partner organizations will work together but everyone will respond for the production of at least one output or deliverable, which are most relevant to its expertise. Every one output or component will be evaluated under common quality assurance rules and a set of indicators. All components will be tested and verified with the involvement of representatives of the associated partners, the stakeholders, and the target groups at specialized focus groups. The project impact envisages a rise of awareness on the new roles of the cities' staff regarding the smart city-related challenges and increasing the efficiency of the cities as a result of improved competencies of the HR of the cities. The last will be a result of a certified training based on the new competencies framework and the training curricula and materials, elaborated under the project. The potential longer-term benefits of the project will be described in the exploitation strategy. It is presumed that the reference competencies framework and the validation mechanism for recruitment, training or retraining personnel working on smart city projects will be linked to the national and European qualification systems and recognized on national and European levels."

Services to enhance the innovation management capacity of SMEs in the macro-region 1 in Romania The objectives of this proposal are the the following: - increase the efficiency and effectiveness of innovation processes of local beneficiaries of SME Instrument and innovative SMEs with significant innovation activities and high potential for internationalization; - facilitate SME's access to consultancy services for innovation management to address bottlenecks to creating an economic impact; - support innovative SME''s to raise the company's profitability and competitiveness on international markets.

Consultation of Enterprise Europe Network partners on the work programe for 2020-20 H2020 activities Services to enhance the innovation management capacity of SMEs in macro-region 1 in Romania The proposal objectives are the following: - increase the efficiency and effectiveness of innovation process by offering services for enhancing the innovation management capacity of SMEs the H2020 programmes for specific activities in the context of innovation support and the enhanced European Innovation Council (EIC) pilot; - facilitate SMEs access to consultancy services for innovation management to address bottlenecks in order to create an economic impact; - support innovative SMEs to raise the company's profitability and competitiveness on international markets.