Entrepreneurship and SMEs
Regional Initiative Project
CASTLE Cooperation Among SMEs Towards Logistic Excellence CASTLE was born to answer regional needs to improve SMEs logistics policies. It relies on a solid past cooperation among ten partners in Italy, Poland, Greece, Slovenia, Spain, Germany, Hungary & Austria, especially developed in Interreg initiatives. The CASTLE objectives and rationale are rooted in past research & study activities on the EU status and perspectives of regional logistics, which identified SMEs logistics networking as a priority intervention area for public policies. Logistics is the oil in SMEs’ economic machine and in a regions’ sustainable development, as its efficiency impacts on SMEs market presence and on the environment. CASTLE creates an operational matrix of best practices & exchange of experiences for the development of SMEs logistics public policies. This could help reduce the divide between transport & logistics efficiency against environmental protection & energy saving. Thanks to the set up of Regional Forums on Logistics, SME’s can bring their logistics needs to the attention of policy-makers. CASTLE’s “policy-learning” matches more & less experienced regions and improves policy-makers’ skills on 4 fundamental innovation topics: 1. strengthening the logistics supply & the logistics industry, 2. improving the logistics demand in the production systems (industrial areas & clusters), 3. strengthening logistics training for SMEs systems, 4. institutional & governance consolidation in logistics, public-private cooperation in policies set up. An ongoing best practices capitalisation, dialogue and transfer among the partners and with other EU regions is established also thanks to a specific enlarged transfer programme which targets 40 EU regions.
Lead partner Institute for Transport and Logistics Foundation (IT) Contact person Alberto Preti apreti@regione.emilia-romagna.it +39 051 527 31 59 www.fondazioneitl.org
(F)
(F)
(F)
Duration 11/2008-10/2011
(F)
Total budget €2,275,000.00
(P)
(P)
(E)
20
Istanbul
ERDF contribution €1,804,250.00
Partnership • Institute for Transport and Logistics Foundation (IT) • Emilia-Romagna Region (IT) • Institute of Logistics and Warehousing (PL) • Marshall Office of the Wielkopolska Region (PL) • Region of Crete (EL) • Stuttgart Region Economic Development Corporation (DE) • University of Maribor, Faculty of civil engineering (SI) • Foundation Comunidad Valenciana European Region (FCVRE) (ES) • Development Agency of Carinthia (AT) • Pannon Business Network Association (HU)