SMEPlus project partners met for the kick-off at the University of Gävle on 9 September 2019. The project management structure, the work plan and choosing the steering group members were on the agenda. The partners looked also into the spending plan, visibility rules and the partnership agreement. The communication plan and activities for the first semester are being launched to match the planned outputs of the project.
The partners will identify major regional stakeholders involved in energy efficiency in SMEs in their regions. A series of regional stakeholder meetings will take place. A visit to industrial SMEs in Sweden is planned for November 2019. The next visits in Semester 2 are organised by the Austrian (March 2020) project partner and the Romanian (May 2020) project partner.
A questionnaire is being prepared by the SMEPlus partners and will help to evaluate each of the policy instrument addressed in the regions: process and impact evaluation, barriers and drivers for energy efficiency as well as major non-energy-based benefits are being considered.
The lead partner presented a methodology for reviewing policies and programmes for energy efficiencies in SMEs, and raised questions on how to design relevant energy policies towards SMEs. As industrial SMEs represent 95% of the companies, their impact on economies is immense.
The partners discussed also the first progress report procedures during the one-day event. The lead partner also shared the good practice template to help the project partners prepare these documents.
The Twitter and YouTube accounts were launched, a short promo-video is already available online. Join us at #SMEPlus to get the latest insights!
