Malta Business Bureau and international partners launch Horizon 2020 project

Design for Europe partners – the Business and Cultural Development Centre (KEPA) in Greece, the National Agency for Innovation and Research (LUXINNOVATION) in Luxembourg and the Malta Business Bureau (MBB) have launched a new Horizon 2020 project. DesignShots will focus its activities on peer-learning exercises to review existing design-driven innovation and the applicability of such systems in the respective partner countries. The project will draw on the use and uptake of design by SMEs, allowing the partners to identify how agencies and business intermediaries can better support enterprises to integrate design in their innovation processes.

Commenting on this launch, MBB CEO Joe Tanti said, “Following MBB’s past success in LIFE+, ESF, Leonardo and Erasmus+ projects and very recently our role as Ambassador for the European Commission’s Design for Europe Programme, it is with pleasure to once again be granted EU funding to imple- ment a Horizon 2020 Project. MBB is proud to join key partners KEPA and LUXINNOVATION to bring the latest innovation insights to Maltese businesses. In addition, we intend to continue aligning our work with the partner organisations in other areas of interest through each of our offices in Brussels for the years to come.”

The DesignShots concept aims to tackle the challenges that European SMEs face to integrate design driven innovation and become more resilient. Therefore, the project will explore the use of various support mechanisms for SMEs depending on their level of design maturity.

To this end, the consortium will use some of the already existing tools available on the Design for Europe resource repository ( www.designforeurope.eu) to diagnose the level of design used by SMEs. The project will create a new service that will be tested and piloted together with five selected SMEs in each partner country. This service will offer a diagnosis for each company’s design need.

MBB and the project partners have set the goal to continue supporting design driven innovation between both the private and public sector. The outcome of this initiative will be a ‘Design Options Guide’ that will provide fundamental tips and recommendations to other business support organisations when introducing or improving existing design services. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. For more information about this initiative, contact Ana Vella avella@mbb.org.mt