ELISA – E-Learning for Improving access to Infomation Society for SMEs in the SEE Area

5C020

Greek Research & Technology Network
Av. Mesogeion 56
11527 Athens
Greece

Mr. Ilias Hatzakis
Tel.:	+302107474268
Fax:	+302107474490
Email:	hatzakis@grnet.gr
Homepage:	http://www.elisa-project.net

2 - Transport systems and IS
2.2 - Access to knowledge and the IS

(See here for a priorities and measures overview)

3rd Call

Participation in and access to the knowledge and information society is a basic precondition for future development of remote and rural areas. In many South-Eastern European countries the level of information and communication technologies (ICT) in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is very low. The competitiveness of South-Eastern European countries heavily depends on the productive utilisation of information and communication technologies (ICT) and the improvement of related human skills. The project aims at improving access to the knowledge and information society of these SMEs through close co-operation of academic and business communities at transnational level, by transferring know-how from EU best-practice training and by developing national training strategies. Emphasis is given to SMEs from rural and peripheral areas in Albania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria and Serbia as beneficiary countries. The project targets SMEs in the beneficiary countries, particularly management and personnel, ICT companies, researchers of Universities and National Research and Education networks as well as policymakers in the field of ICT.

The overall objective of improving access to the knowledge and information society will be achieved by the following actions and planned results: - Raising awareness of the benefits of using ICT in SMEs, - Customisation of a multilingual, highly-interactive and easy-to-use e-learning-platform meeting the needs of SMEs, - Creation of customisable multilingual training material for improving ICT skills within SMEs, - Pilot implementation of ICT training actions, - Design of SME ICT training strategies for the beneficiary countries, - Dissemination of the know-how gained by policymakers and interested organisations, - Raising policymakers' awareness of the importance of access to the knowledge and information society for SMEs, - Acceleration of ICT access of SMEs from the beneficiary countries, - Improvement of business performance via the adoption of e-business practices, - Adoption of e-learning as a training practice, - Improvement of transnational business collaboration, - Establishment of links between academic and business networks at transnational level.

Total budget (EUR):	1.252.223,28 EUR
ERDF:	677.100,00 EUR

Start:	10/2005
End:	12/2007

• Greek Research & Technology Network, Athens, Greece
• Free University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany
• University of Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia
• DANUBE , Vienna, Austria
• Systema, Athens, Greece
• Academy of Sciences of Albania, Institute of Informatics and Applied Mathematics (INIMA), Tirana, Albania
• SME Agency - Albania, Tirana, Albania
• University St. Cyril and Methodius, Macedonian Academic and Research Network (MARnet), Skopje, Macedonia
• Macedonian Association for Information Technology ( MASIT ), Skopje, Macedonia
• Association for computing, informatics, telecommunications, automation and management (JURIT ), Belgrade, Yugoslavia
• Association for computing, informatics, telecommunications, automation and management (JURIT ), Belgrade, Yugoslavia
• Information Society Technologies Foundation (IST Foundation), Sofia, Bulgaria
• ICT Development Agency, Sofia, Bulgaria