This funding instrument coordinated by the Croatian Agency for SMEs, Innovations and Investments (HAMAG-BICRO) is a small project fund targeted a financing micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in the project area in Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Montenegro under the cross-border Interreg A program area. It is a pilot project in the sense of being the first in the region that fosters cross-border local cooperation particularly directed at MSEs. Accordingly, the scope of these projects is comparably small, but still impactful as support is being given to the development and adaptation of business models, products, services and processes – with a specific cous on introducing new solutions to the market.
This project, deeply rooted in the Danube Region, provides a to be replicated pragmatic approach with a focus on the smallest of enterprise categories, which is still one that accounts for a very considerable share of the workforce allocation in the Danube Region. Therefore, it is an obvious choice as an EUSDR PA 8 Lighthouse increasing competitiveness of enterprises – most specifically directed at the main action of eliminating cross-border barriers and bottlenecks to people and businesses.
All other information can be found in the presentation (click link below) or, in more detail, in the PA 8 Lighthouses Study Document (link will follow).
Currently, this successful funding program of the Austrian national government (specifically: The Ministry of Labour and Economic Affairs together with the Federal economic chamber) is already in its currently running 4th round which is going on until 2026. The funding instrument is, as its name makes clear (in English: “SME.Digital & Green”) targeted at Austrian SMEs and their green and digital transformation in parallel. It aims at SMEs designing and implementing digitalization projects and bringing them to market. Market readiness of new solution, in turn, is an important booster of SME competitiveness and therefore relevant for funding initiatives in the whole Danube Region – which is why KMU.DIGITAL & GREEN was chosen as a PA 8 Lighthouse.
The program separates between planning (first step) and implementation (second step) funding. In addition to consultancy funding, there is also implementation funding available. SMEs can gain a total of max. 9.000 € for working on their sustainability and digitalization projects. Since the start of the programme in 2017, over 32,500 consulting and implementation projects have been supported with a total budget of 32,5 million euros.
All other information can be found in the presentation (click link below) or, in more detail, in the PA 8 Lighthouses Study Document (link will follow).
The Vanguard Initiative has been focused on interregional cooperation with around 40 member regions throughout the European Union for more than ten years. It promotes international project participation and makes the interest of regions in European policymaking visible. To further deepen the relationship between its member regions and to extend the portfolio of activities, in 2024 the Vanguard Initiative for the first time launched a joint funding mechanism targeted at institutions in its member regions. The call combines a wide range of topics and is based on using existing regional funding mechanisms existing in the regions. Applicants then have to find partners in the other regions and therefore make better use of their local funding mechanisms while at the same time fostering internationalization and gaining new insights.
It’s pragmatism in using existing funding in a way that supports internationalization, new supply chains and new contacts that are able to increase competitiveness makes it a project worth considering for future applications – and therefore, and EUSDR PA 8 Lighthouse.
All other information can be found in the presentation (click link below) or, in more detail, in the PA 8 Lighthouses Study Document (link will follow).
Funded by the Austrian and Hungarian Ministries of Finance and facilitated by Guidehouse and the Energy Community Secretariat (ECS), this only recently kicked-off initiative is keen to help enterprises throughout the Western Balkans region (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Serbia) by providing supply chain mapping and sustainable sourcing information, tools and networking. Under the caption of “Empowering sustainable industries”, the aim is to support the region’s transition to a greener economy. Not only can enterprises check the sustainability level of their enterprise as a service, but they can also receive information about engaging in more strategic, growth-pushing, and resilient supply chains.
As global supply chains come under pressure not only by geopolitical trouble and constraint but also by the imminent need to place them on more sustainable bases, this initiative has its finger on the pulse of the time and therefore is an EUSDR PA 8 Lighthouse. Throughout the Danube Region and especially among the smaller countries, there is demand for cross-national cooperation to make use of these kinds of potentials.
All other information can be found in the presentation (click link below) or, in more detail, in the PA 8 Lighthouses Study Document (link will follow).
The Slovene Enterprise Fund Voucher program has been in operation since 2019 and will continue to support enterprises in Slovenia until at least 2028. The vouchers given out by the program to the main focus group of it, SMEs, are small-value incentives directed at enabling a strongly simplified way for SMEs to gain support for targeted transformation projects. Availability is not limited to certain deadlines but given all year. In the current period running from 2023 to 2028, about 21 million € are available for funding. In the preceding period, the total number of SME projects funded amounted to nearly 8.000.
In this current program period, in line with political priorities of different levels, the program is focused on ESG guidelines and puts the spotlight on green, circular and digitalization projects. The voucher program has a demand-driven structure, which allows SMEs to apply for support in specific thematic areas relevant to their development needs, with application demands reduced to a possible minimum and based on a first-come, first-served basis. Its pragmatic approach is considered to be well replicable and therefore worthy of being an EUSDR PA 8 Lighthouse.
All other information can be found in the presentation (click link below) or, in more detail, in the PA 8 Lighthouses Study Document (link below as well).
The NextGen ERP program of ONEX in Bosnia and Herzegovina was a specific offer of ONEX competence network of experts on business development and digital transformation for SMEs. Therefore, it offered companies targeted services and planning how they can realistically and practically tackle their own digital transformation potential. Remarkably, this offer was not directed to a specific size of company. The analysis of funding options for each individual transformation project and screening of realistic options played a major part.
As main objectives, NextGen ERP was directed at digitalizing and automating core business processes, reducing the reliance on fragmented legacy systems, enhancing data transparency through real-time analytics and always packaging these solutions as examples for many more SMEs and other enterprises in Bosnia & Herzegovina. This wholesome approach provides the reason for ONEX NextGen ERP Bosnia and Herzegovina becoming an EUSDR PA 8 Lighthouse: It created a visible approach with concrete results for enterprises that could be replicated relatively easily in other parts of the Danube Region. SMEs, as many questionnaires and interviews in several projects over the years have shown, express the need for orientation in the jungle of support options and narrowing down a broad range of transformation investment options.
All other information can be found in the presentation (click link below) or, in more detail, in the PA 8 Lighthouses Study Document (link will follow).
Presentation: Digitalna firma – ONEX DIH Bosnia and Herzegovina / NextGen ERP
“global verantwortlich BW” is an initiative that is directed at mostly SME enterprises specifically in the Baden-Württemberg region that shows them ways to manage their supply chains with a stronger focus on taking responsibility for the consequences of their management. The main format is knowledge dissemination and exchange by a number of event formats and online handbooks, as well as practical workshops helping enterprises understand the options and strategies, they could make use of. Moreover, events for specific company networks play an important role in the initiative portfolio.
Sustainability is the core of the topics tackled by the initiative. By discussing the ways of shifting supply chains in a productive manner that does not compromise competitiveness but rather increases it by making new and sustainable supply chains more resilient to external shocks, global verantwortlich BW adds an important element to the support as well as networking infrastructure directed at enterprises in the Baden-Württemberg ecosystem. This, at the same time, is a replicable approach and therefore the reason for making it an EUSDR PA 8 Lighthouse.
All other information can be found in the presentation (click link below) or, in more detail, in the PA 8 Lighthouses Study Document (link will follow).
Presentation: global verantwortlich BW – Lieferketten nachhaltig gestalten
The Master Study Program Supply Chain Management, Logistics and Production is a study program put in operation by the Dual University of Baden-Wuerttemberg and is one of very view initiatives in the Danube Region that combines the idea of learning with the otherwise industry-led field of supply chains. One obvious characteristic element is that the study program is job-integrated and vocational, which means that it is designed to be studied while staying in the current job occupation in a fully integrated manner.
DHBW therefore offers students access to direct application of knowledge resulting in deeper learning effects and career advancement options which are essential points when facing the attractiveness of a study program.
This practicability-based, yet with direct regard to supply chains seldomly found approach is a PA 8 Lighthouse because it is easily replicable and a proven concept after more than ten years of operation. Moreover, it supports building a new generation of industry-integrated researchers, project managers, and strategic planners that have knowledge about this essential sector for competitiveness of enterprises.
All other information can be found in the presentation (click link below) or, in more detail, in the PA 8 Lighthouses Study Document (link will follow).
Presentation: Master Study Program Supply Chain Management, Logistics, Production
The RETHINK-GSC project tackles the focus point of EUSDR PA 8 at its very core: It focuses on analyzing not only the structure of supply chains in general in the Danube Region and the European Union, but it actively engages and works with enterprises in order to identify their potentials with regard to supply chains. New methodologies are needed in order to raise effectiveness and therefore competitiveness regarding the way especially SMEs work with partners. Also, the question of social, economic and environmental outcomes of different supply chain structures is worth analyzing. A special emphasis of the project is based on immaterial goods and their role in our current and future economy.
This hands-on approach directly involving SMEs makes RETHINK-GSC a project that is destined to increase competitiveness of enterprises in the Danube Region and therefore underlines its role as a PA 8 Lighthouse.
All other information can be found in the presentation (click link below) or, in more detail, in the PA 8 Lighthouses Study Document (link will follow).
The Supply Chain Intelligence Institute Austria (ASCII) is an institution funded by the Austrian national government and marks a new path in proposing an offer to companies with regard to the topic of Supply Chains: It is an institute that works with the sole and clear focus on the issue of forming, reforming and managing supply chains. Geopolitical pressure and factors of many kinds in the last few years have forced many enterprises in the Danube Region and beyond to consider the volatility of their own supply chains much more than before.
ASCII offers stakeholders and enterprises a clear path to reaching their own structure of secure value creation, coupled with a green transformation approach as it also considers how to make new supply chains more sustainable.
This new and streamlined approach, as well as the productive output in terms of e.g. studies on certain supply chain issues makes ASCII a PA 8 Lighthouse, as the competitiveness of enterprises benefits from this approach.
All other information can be found in the presentation (click link below) or, in more detail, in the PA 8 Lighthouses Study Document (link will follow).
Presentation: Supply Chain Intelligence Institute Austria – ASCII
