Promoting STARTups and SMEs as the BEST place to work through workplace innovation

The Start-at-best proposal will be focused in making STARTups and SMEs (small businesses) the BEST place to work, by promoting and fundings small-scale / big-outreach worlplace innovation projects. The proposal is coordinated by the Startup Europe Regions Network, a Brussels based associated born under the auspices of the European Startup Europe Initiative and the Committee of Regions, and that groups several national and regional innovation agencies across Europe, and is directly supported by 3 of these agencies. The project will devote more than 78% of its resources to fund startups, through calls for proposals that will allocate grants of 7,5K€ to a minimum of 30 small businesses in Europe. Our proposal will contribute to making Workplace Innovation easy for SMEs and especially for startups and micro-firms across Europe, by providing financial means to small firms to allow them to experiment new solutions and by developing a strong content basis provided through an easy accessible and clear web site based on an repository of real life, startup-inspired cases that are described in terms of a set of key features and which help to provide answers to companies that are in need for a workplace change. The need and desire to change will be brought to the surface through ways such as workshops, awareness sessions, consulting, etc. Workplace innovation represents a rising tide, but the boats that reach the swell first will be first to succeed. The partners in this proposal are ideally placed to achieve these goals as they include: a leading European association of regional agencies devotes to startup and SME innovation created under the auspices of the Startup Europe EC initiative, the Startup Europe Regions Network (SERN); and 3 regional/national agencies (ASTER, IT, Cork Innovates, IE and ANI, PT) responsible for the management of SME support funds in their regions, and that will enlarge their support to cover workplace innovation projects through this proposal.