SmeSpire European project kicks off

The smeSpire project which kicked off recently is a European community of SMEs built on environmental digital content and languages.

The smeSpire European project is a two-year support action of the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission for Research and Technological Development, funded by the Directorate General Information Society and Media within the EC's SME initiative on digital content and languages.

The main aim of the project is to support geo-ICT European SMEs to capitalise the benefits of the Inspire Directive, which "establishes an infrastructure for spatial information in Europe to support community environmental policies, and policies or activities which may have an impact on the environment".

This will be achieved through several concrete actions, the most important being: an assessment of the market potential for geo-ICT SMEs in relation to Inspire; the training packages, usable within an e-learning platform, designed to train professionals working in the management of environmental digital content related to Inspire; a Best Practice catalogue in the field of the management of environmental digital content across Europe; dissemination events organised in each of the participating 12 EU Member States to spread the results at national and local level; a network of SMEs and other institutional stakeholders aiming at bridging the gap between the Inspire-driven demand of environmental digital data and the industry-driven offer of geo-ICT solutions, stimulating, encouraging and facilitating the participation of SMEs; a business model aiming at enabling already established and new geo-ICT SMEs in Europe to convert technological innovation which is inside the INSPIRE implementation process into economic value; a database containing information about the geo-ICT SMEs in Europe, useful to map competences from SMEs across Europe and to conduct business intelligence studies and analysis; general awareness about the importance of interoperability, about the EIS/EIF (European Interoperability Strategy/European Interoperability Framework) and about relevant results from the EC ISA programme (Interoperable Solutions for the European Public Administrations).

The smeSpire project was presented at the Inspianre Conference 2012 which was organised in Istanbul between 23 and 27 June, within a dedicated workshop entitled "Are SMEs ready to capitalise Inspire benefits?" in which several SMEs - also non-project partners, have participated and shared their experiences.

Epsilon Italia is the project coordinator and leads a consortium with 15 partners (eight of which are SMEs) coming from 12 EU Member States. The partners of the project are GiSt - GiStandards LTD, UK; CENIA - Ceska Informacni Agentura Zivotniho Prostredi Cenia, Czech Republic; SAZP - Slovenska Agentura Zivotneho Prostredia (The Slovak Environmental Agency), Slovak Republic; IL ­- Info-Logica, Bulgaria; JRC - Joint Research Centre, European Commission, Belgium; EPSGR - Epsilon International SA, Greece; Paragon - Paragon Limited, Malta; EPSGY - Epsilon Consulting Limited; Cyprus GISIG ­- Geographical Information Systems International Group; Italy  PSU - Prof. Schaller Umweltconsult GMBH, Germany; FG - Fondazione Graphitec, Italy; AGI ­- UAB Aerogeodezijos Institutas, Lithuania Tracasa - Trabajos Catastrales S.A., Spain; and K.U.Leuven - Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium.

Further details and updates about the project are available at www.smespire.eu.