WORK PACKAGES Pieter Raes: "Interreg offers subsidies to stimulate economic growth. But you don't get that money just like that. They require accountability, accuracy and structure. You often hear people say: 'Interreg? That's complicated ... ' The steps are clear, and if you just follow them, you'll be fine. The application and also the later project management itself went smoothly. In the end, eight work packages were described in the project proposal, complete with detailed budgets and forecasts". "When the project proposal was approved by Interreg, we drew up the corresponding use cases together with Dow and BASF", explains Jan Mol. "These briefly and concisely describe a practical problem, the ideal solution and the minimum goals to be achieved. It's a planned way of setting up product development". small enterprises: SMEs in the Netherlands and Flanders. That was also a condition of Interreg to stimulate the economy on both sides of the border". PARTNERS Jan Mol: "A good idea, which we continued with. We found partners in Dow, BASF, BEMAS, REWIN, BOM, Economic Impuls Zeeland, Avans Hogeschool, University of Twente, Sirris and Ghent University to submit a project proposal called 'Smart Tooling'. However, starting with 56 topics is impossible. Together with Dow and BASF, we have identified the most important areas of interest. What is industry really in need of? Which projects can offer results within the duration of this subsidy trajectory? We wanted to come up with concrete solutions. Concrete, result, structure: those were the key words when Smart Tooling was launched in September 2016". PROJECT PARTNER LIGHT (PPL) The then concrete Smart Tooling project was communicated to small companies in the Netherlands and Flanders. BOM, REWIN, Impuls Zeeland and the Flemish company BEMAS took care of this. During briefing sessions on the use cases, developers and users of the future tools could show their interest in becoming, as Interreg terms suggest, Project Partner Light (PPL). "At least 50 companies from Flanders and the Netherlands have applied," continues Pieter Raes. "In the end, after all kinds of pitches and discussions, 20 companies took part as PPL. These were existing single-person pitches, start-ups, but also larger organisations. All innovative, passionate technology companies". Pieter: "That first phase was very interesting, especially when you look back on it. At the beginning you can see a dot on the horizon, but it is difficult to define a final destination. Innovation means that you create, develop and improve something existing. We wanted to deliver tangible solutions. Some PPLs 8
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