25 January, 2023

We are beyond delighted to announce the start of the Interreg NPA project ‘Target Circular - Supporting SMEs to Success’ that kicked-off at an online meeting on Wednesday, January 25th.

The project will run for 3 years during which time Target Circular will:

• aggregate, develop and adapt methodologies and approaches to improve the service that business support organisations offer client businesses;
• provide training to other business support organisations in our regions and
• inform policymakers about how to improve the services offered to SMEs to increase their chances of success using the latest evidence.

Project Lead Niall O'Leary, Research Fellow at the Hincks Centre, has built an excellent team of 7 Partners and 2 Associate Partners from Ireland, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Iceland - all actively engaged in supporting businesses. In addition, the Circular Bioeconomy Cluster South-West, MTU Kerry Campus, will bring a cross-campus contribution to the project.

The first major activity will be led by business support organisation KOSEK, Kokkolanseudun Kehitys Oy, Finland, and Centria University of Applied Sciences, Finland, demonstrating a new evidence-based approach recently proven in randomised controlled trials to increase start-up success rates. This will be followed in the Autumn with project partner Ludgate offering a similar programme from West Cork.

To learn more about the Target Circular project, visit the Projects section of our website or click here.

Target Circular is co-funded by Interreg Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme which is financed by European Regional Development Fund contributions from Member States.