Funding projects

The Stuttgart Region is one of the most economically powerful and innovative regions in Europe. Its export strength, extensive investments in research and development and its international population make it one of the leading European regions.

Foto: Europakarte mit Standortmarkierungen /

The Stuttgart Region with Verband Region Stuttgart and Wirtschaftsförderung Region Stuttgart GmbH (Stuttgart Region Economic Development Corporation) is seizing the opportunities that Europe offers: It initiates and implements EU projects, organises events, helps shape European policy – among other things through its office in Brussels and its involvement in European networks – and works constantly to improve its competitiveness in exchange with partners throughout Europe.

European work in the Stuttgart Region is supported by many players. People in the local authorities, in business, science and research are committed to Europe in the Stuttgart Region – not as lone fighters, but together, according to the motto „joining forces“.

The Creative Industries Unit was or is a partner in the following funding projects:

2019-2022: IN SITU (Intergenerational Social Innovation Support Scheme)

http://www.insituproject.eu/

The IN SITU (Intergenerational Social Innovation Support Scheme) project focuses on socio-economic and demographic challenges. The main focus is on disadvantaged groups such as long-term unemployed or refugees, as well as young or older people with insufficient qualifications. The project aims to bring these people together across the generations in order to exchange experiences and to compensate each other for missing competences.

In order to meet the special needs in the partner regions, the project consortium will formulate a strategy for the development and promotion of intergenerational social innovations. On this basis and through intensive training and mentoring programs, companies and initiatives with a social focus will be created – for and with those affected. The main actors are supporters and organizations, experts in the field of entrepreneurship and social innovation, and public and private funding initiatives. The project duration is three years, the funding amount is 2,418,720 euros.

The project is managed by the European Office Vienna, which was also lead partner in the previous project CERIecon (Central Europe Regional Innovation Ecosystems Network). Further partners from Veneto/Italy, Rijeka/Croatia, Dąbrowa Górnicza/Poland and Maribor/Slovenia are also involved. WRS’s regional cooperation partner is the Stuttgart Media University (HdM).

2016-2019: CERIecon (Central Europe Regional Innovation Ecosystems Network)

Many Central European cities and regions face the challenge of presenting themselves as an environment in which people like to live and work. Young entrepreneurs and company founders could contribute to this with their new and innovative ideas, but they too sometimes encounter an unsuitable business culture or little interest in developing one. The CERIecon project aims to support and encourage young entrepreneurs and founders through an inspiring environment, additional training opportunities and the introduction of so-called „play parks“. With a mixture of infrastructural and service-oriented measures, these parks aim to improve entrepreneurial skills and competences for economic and social innovation. The seven Playparks, one per participating partner region, will be merged into a European network in order to benefit from cross-border and cross-cultural effects.

2009-2012: Pooling4Clusters

The project aimed to improve the innovative capacity of small and medium-sized enterprises in the seven participating partner regions by making the support services for clusters more efficient. A special focus was placed on the interaction between regional development agencies and the cluster initiatives, whose services for companies were to be better coordinated and more efficiently bundled.

2006-2008: ADMIRE

The aim of the 2-year project ADMIRE (Award for Design Management Innovating and Reinforcing Enterprises) was to raise awareness of design management among SMEs in Europe. The development, introduction and implementation of innovative design projects and processes increased the long-term profitability of the companies. For particularly innovative processes, the „Design Management Europe Award“ was initiated for European companies.