SARA

SARA project aims at improving the support provided to female SME innovation processes by testing and developing a new model in the innovation ecosystem. In Europe, there are 23 million SMEs with an average loss of 3.1% in turnover due to low liquidity and a lack of innovative products. Women make up 52 % of the total European population but only 34.4 % of the European Union (EU) self-employed and 30 % of start-up entrepreneurs. Innovation Agencies strive at keeping the pace of SME innovation support demand, but their programs are not gender-oriented. Starting from the main idea “It takes a village to raise a child” (African proverb that means that an entire community of people must interact with children to grow in a safe and healthy environment), SARA will develop a new model to support Innovation Agencies in better gender-oriented activities. SARA responds to Europe's indications to develop and test a model for smart villages (accessibility, sustainability, new entrepreneurship), and it supports the co-design of new tools for female entrepreneurship by involving smart villages as an unusual place to create innovative enterprises for a better work-balance. Through this, promoting new forms of innovation and entrepreneurship proactively as suggested by the call “for a better innovation to SMEs”, Work Program 2018-2020. The project will use the peer learning methodology promoted by the INNOSUP-05-2018-2020 (Twinning) involving several regional innovation agencies with complementary skills. The partners will exchange knowledge and experience and develop appropriate local case studies (achieving a "learning by doing" process). The joint work of the project partners together with peer learning will produce a Design Options Paper for the implementation of local initiatives to develop a " Smart Villages an unusual place for women entrepreneurship " and related innovation support services and will promote an improvement in the role of Innovation Agency more gender-oriented.