Projects
The Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry has a long standing experience in participating in European Commission and other funded projects. It is the Chamber’s belief that such projects are an invaluable tool for acquiring experience and gaining access to sources of knowledge relevant to the interests of its member enterprises, be that of educational nature, training, research or hands-on experience, in fields ranging from e-commerce, gender equality, environmental management, cross-border business cooperation and so on.
The recent and current projects implemented by the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry, include the following:
| Project Name | Project Description | Programme Name | Project start date | Project end date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Title European Centre of Vocational Excellence in Microelectronics Acronym ECoVEM | ECoVEM project brings together VET centres, polytechnics, industrial associations, social partners to establish European Cooperation platform of Vocational Excellence in Microelectronics to tackle the challenges of: digitalisation, artificial intelligence, green technologies, gender equality and technology, integration of migrants. ECoVEM will contribute to the sustainable VET governance at national and EU levels through involvement of policy makers in VET and employment, social partners, industrial associations and companies for: • lifelong teacher training and stimuli for raised teacher’s qualification • implementing the advanced countries’ best practices and approaches to excellence in VET into less advanced regions • efficient financial models for VET including work-based and apprenticeship and for investment in VET and applied research • raising the role of VET in Smart Specialisation Strategies ECoVEM embodies excellence in VET with 21 partners from 7 countries representing CoVEs for EQF 3-8, industry with national and EU industry associations, regulatory bodies in accreditation and certification and social organisations of women in technology and immigrants.https://ecovem.eu/ | ERASMUS+ KA3-Support for Policy Reform | November 2020 | October 2024 |
| LEARN “Towards a Holistic Transformation of Organisations into Learning Workplaces” | LEARN aims to develop a strategic approach for the transformation of organisations into ‘Learning Workplaces” through the design and development of an ISO certification so that organisations that are learning workplaces may be certified. | Erasmus+ | January 2020 | December 2022 |
| TechCMS “Technology-Enhanced Career Management Skills” https://techcms.eu/en/home/ | The main aim of the TechCMS project is to develop and deliver an innovative Virtual Career Guidance and Learning Centre and an on-line self-assessment tool to enhance the capacity of career counsellors through training, to provide career management skills to individuals and empower them through the use of the technology. | Erasmus+ | January 2020 | December 2021 |
| SEA OF EXPERIENCE (SoE) | Sea of Experience will establish a strong knowledge triangle among education, industry and public authorities; the Eastern Mediterranean Regional Network (EMReN). Sea of Experience will fully exploit the resources of this network to develop common blue training courses(educational themes concerning the target sectors of maritime transport, shipbuilding and ship repair, ports and cruises industry) that will be available through the innovative sharing pooling e-platform; thus, assisting sharing of training schemes and best practices. Finally, through the events, the workshops and the synergies that will be conducted and/ or established during the project the mobility of learners and teachers will be promoted not only in the EMReN but also in a broaden European level. http://seaofexperience.org/ | EMFF-Blue Economy-2018 | November 2019 | October 2022 |
| BLUE CROWDFUNDING | Blue economy innovation in Mediterranean could be significantly improved, if more investment funds would be available. One possible solution is use of Crowdfunding (CF), but in MED area knowledge and capacities for CF are still low in comparison to North EU. The BLUE CORWDFUNDING project aims to improve innovation capacities in blue growth sector by mainstreaming use of crowdfunding. Additional project’s ambition is to trigger change from using public funds for innovation to use crowdfunding and crowdsourcing to fund, test and validate innovative blue economy products and services. Consequently blue-economy SMEs will get better access to funding and will be able to deliver better and more innovative solutions. Project value: €2,112,691.00 Project is supported by the INTERREG MED Programme of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Total co-financing amounts: €1,996,946.50 | Interreg MED https://interreg-med.eu/ | November 2019 | June 2022 |
| NAYS | Core idea of NAYS is the Exploitation of Maritime Intelligence and interoperability system in the Supply Chain of the Cruise aiming to support this system through the creation of a cooperative network among ports (MSW) (G2G), among ports and cruises companies (G2B) and among cruises companies and local producers/ suppliers (B2B). | Interreg GR-CY 2014-2020 | January 2019 | December 2021 |
| GO_BRAND | GO_BRAND aims to support and reinforce SMEs active in the traditional food and beverage sector as well as in tourism, through synergies and networking activities for their best promotion and branding, with the overall objective of enabling them to access foreign markets abroad. | Interreg GR-CY 2014-2020 | November 2017 | April 2020 |
| FOCUS | The Agri-food SMEs represent an important part of the Balkan-Med economy and thus drive competitiveness and employment in the region. However, agri-food SMEs throughout Balkan and EU, face significant challenges. FOCUS project aims at establishing transnational Agri-food cooperation links among agri-food businesses, research institutions, technology providers, policy makers and customers that will enhance technology transfer and food innovation in order to facilitate the upgrade of agri-food SMEs competitiveness and extroversion. | Interreg BalkanMed 2014-2020 | November 2017 | October 2019 |
| INNOVENTER | Core idea of INNOVENTER is to establish social entrepreneurship VET training for SME entrepreneurs so they innovate, socially as well as in terms of establishing new business opportunities. Its main objectives are: Development of joint training curriculum and tailor‐made learning modules raising SMEs’ competitiveness through practitioners’ field visits exchange; Apply new innovative education and training methods/tools (online/mobile‐learning) through technology and knowledge transfer. | Interreg BalkanMed 2014-2020 | September 2017 | August 2019 |
| MENTOR | The proposed Blue Career Centre of Eastern Mediterranean (EM) and Black Sea(BS), aims to attract young people and experienced workers and fill existing skills' gaps by supporting activities that will increase employability in key Blue sectors of the region: Maritime Transport (shipping, ports, ship-repairs and shipbuilding), cruise and nautical tourism, aquaculture and offshore oil and gas. | EASME/EMFF/2016/1.2.1.2 - Blue Careers in Europe | March 2017 | February 2019 |
| iBLUE https://iblue.interreg-med.eu/ | “iBlue project will contribute to the sustainable relaunch of the yachting sector. Through the set-up of a Med transnational network, iBlue partners will attempt to help the economic upturn of the yachting sector by developing and providing business models for businesses within this sector, which integrate the 3-Pillar Business Model (3-PBM) methodology based on the sustainability aspects of Environment, Society and Economy. | Interreg MED 2014-2020 | February 2017 | January 2020 |
| AC4SME | SMEs are less likely to take on apprentices than larger companies, whereas they represent two-thirds of private sector employment in Europe. The aim of the AC4SME project is to involve a growing number of SMEs in apprenticeship, by developing and training a network of SME apprenticeship coaches in Chambers of Commerce, as well as providing them with necessary tools to support SMEs in offering quality apprenticeship placements. Report from the 1st Focus Group held in Nicosia, January 2017: “How Cypriot SMEs view the Apprenticeship System” (available in Greek only). | Erasmus+ (KA3 – Lot2) | July 2016 | July 2018 |
| PRESOLVE | The objective of PRESOLVE is to provide business intermediaries with tools to support natural or legal persons in difficulties with their business activities, where there is a likelihood of insolvency, where insolvency proceedings are pending, or after insolvency proceedings (second chance). | JUST/2014 | February 2016 | February 2018 |
| GEAR | The aim of this project is to assist in in the alleviation of EU unemployment by supporting the creation and growth of new start-up businesses, which will consequently leas to the creation of new jobs. This will be achieved by matching 77 New Entrepreneurs with 77 experienced Host entrepreneurs. | Erasmus for young Entrepreneurs | February 2016 | January 2018 |
| EUPA_NEXT | The project has two main objectives: At the sector Level the project aims to develop a European/ International qualifications for administration personnel in four EQF levels; At the policy level the project aims to identify the situation of the countries as far as ECVET is concerned and to develop national as well as comparative report | ERASMUS + | September 2015 | August 2018 |
| EWasteR | The general goal of the EWASTER project is to develop and establish a new quality interdisciplinary curriculum in E-Waste Recycling and Re-use management sector in Europe. Aiming to contribute to sustainable production and consumption by the prevention of WEEE and the re-use, recycling and other forms of recovery; to adapt curriculum contents, vocational training, delivery methods and assessment to the intended learning outcomes, encourage sense of initiative and entrepreneurship (business start-up) | ERASMUS+, Sector Skills Alliance | January 2015 | January 2017 |
| VALORG | Explore resources and development opportunities within the circular economy in the recycling of organic waste and crop residues. Link up the needs and employability of public and develop Model Programs of workplace training in the framework of the experimented activities of recovery of organic waste in circular economy | PROGRESS | November 2014 | May 2016 |
| NAAGRCY | The main scope of the projcect is to encourage the modernization of apprenticeship, embedded in Dual Vocational Education and Training (VET) systems in Greece and Cyprus. The proposed project will draw on best practices implemented in Germany, thus benefiting from the transfer of knowledge and experience. | ERASMUS+, Key Action 3 | October 2014 | September 2016 |
| ESCAPE | The project is based on transferable business model which will be ready to be replicated in other possibly interested countries, the project partners will propose innovative and sustainable transnational tourism packages for seniors in orders to increase tourism flows in Europe off-season, as well as carry out pilot tests to assess the effectiveness of these packages. | Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme | September 2014 | February 2016 |
| Leading by Example Project | The overall objectives to which the project will contribute is to increase the dialogue, trust, cooperation and reconciliation between civil societies, including the business communities, throughout the Cyprus, and to increase the involvement of Cypriot civil society in decision making processes at the political level. | Cypriot Civil Society in Action IV | July 2014 | June 2017 |
| Mediation Meets Judges! | The aim of the project is to foster the use of mediation in civil and commercial disputes and to increase judicial referral of disputes to mediation, providing judges with a “direct” knowledge about mediation and a practical toolkit | JUST/2013 | March 2014 | March 2016 |
| FIREMED | FIREMED project intends to approach both LRAs and Financial Operators that are charged with supporting energy sector SME development, in order to propose innovative financial instruments for the Local Development plans as well as innovative services and improve the matching between SME requests of financial means and Investors. The project goals will consider the financial situation of many countries and need to balance the public support of Energy sector, strengthening the cooperation between private and public Institutions. | MED 2007-2013 | May 2013 | June 2015 |
| STS MED ENPI | The STS‐MED project aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of CS (Concentrated Solar) small scale integrated systems and promote their wide adoption in the Mediterranean basin. It also aims at facilitating the growth of local economies combined with an improved environmental sustainability. | ENPI CBC MED | February 2013 | December 2016 |
| Go to Mediation! | This project focuses on the promotion of mediation in civil and commercial disputes and to improvement of access to mediation for businesses | JUST /2011-2012 | January 2013 | December 2014 |
| SYNPRATTO | The Syn-Pratto project is called upon to handle the low competitiveness component of products and services, the lack of specialised and trained personnel of Cypriot and Aegean SME. Moreover, the existence of a big number of small and very small enterprises with export orientation which are unable to satisfy the demands of the temporary model of the operation of the markets is among project’s core objectives. | Interreg IIIA Greece- Cyprus | October 2012 | September 2014 |
| EUEYEs | This project, covering the geographical area of Cyprus, Greece and Netherlands aims to create 60 successful relationships between new entrepreneurs and experienced host entrepreneurs in order to enhance the mobility of new or start up entrepreneurs and offer room for improvement in the competitiveness of enterprises. | Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs | May 2012 | January 2014 |
| ECO FUNDING | ECOFUNDING is a project designed to create new investment possibilities that favour green SMEs. The main objective of the project is to create a comprehensive platform of financial resources that link investors and entrepreneurs and include all financial engineering mechanisms that are promoted by the EU. At the same time, it will provide innovative solutions to financing concerning venture capital, private investment and the creation of public-private cooperation structures. | MED 2007-2013 | January 2012 | December 2015 |
| ENESKILLS | The projects aim is to enhance the vocational skills and knowledge of construction and on-site workers in existing and emerging technologies aiding towards implementing the EU directives for energy efficiency of buildings and near zero energy buildings | Intelligent Energy Europe | November 2011 | May 2013 |
| Authentic Learning | The project aims in advancing education by developing and applying a model of authentic learning based on real world problem solving through collaborations between schools and enterprises. The model focuses on developing a Teacher Training Program to train school staff in creating, implementing and evaluating learning activities using authentic learning approaches. | LEONARDO DA VINCI | Novemeber 2011 | October 2013 |
| Economic Interdependence II | The basic objective of the project is the promotion of the economic interdependence between the Greek Cypriot and the Turkish Cypriot community by helping the enterprises of the two communities to strengthen their economic relations and also by demonstrating the economic benefits of a settlement. | UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME | September 2011 | August 2013 |
| SYNERGO | The Syn-Ergo project is called upon to handle the weakness of development of extrovert actions of the small and medium sized enterprises of the border area Crete-Cyprus due to their island and isolation features. Also in the framework of this project a common brand name will be created for Crete and Cyprus products in the European markets. | Interreg IIIA Greece- Cyprus | May 2011 | May 2013 |
| CYEYEs | The CYEYEs project focused on the area of Cyprus only with the aim of developing 60 successful relationships under the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs programme. | Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs | February 2011 | October 2012 |
| SCORE | The SCORE project aimed to provide effective strategies and tools to improve policy making and implementation for energy efficiency in the buildings sector | CBC MED | January 2010 | November 2012 |
| EUPA | EUPA’s main objective was to develop a model for the recognition and validation of the qualifications of Personal Assistants based on learning outcomes | Lifelong Programme | October 2009 | July 2012 |
