The PYMEdia project, initially promoted by Barcelona Media (now Eurecat), capitalized on the Center’s experience in presenting and executing projects funded by the European Commission with the aim of supporting audiovisual SMEs in order to increase their competitiveness and innovation capacity through Participation in R & D funding calls for the European Framework Program.
The objectives of PYMEdia, wich are aligned with those of the INNOEUROPA program, fostered the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises in the audiovisual sector through personalized coaching through the “European Projects Office”, which was especially created for this purpose.
This unit offered information on research calls funded with European funds to the companies, as well as advice and support during the entire process of preparation and presentation of R & D projects.
The PYMEdia program received a very positive feedback from the audiovisual business sector and, in particular, SMEs, who positively assessed the innovation opportunities offered by the European Framework programme to improve their innovative capacity.
In total, 19 proposals were submitted to the fourth and fifth calls for the ICT program of the 7th Framework Program, with a closing date in 2009. Four of the proposals were funded.
This project was financed by the 2009 call for the corresponding aid in the subprogram to support the participation of companies and technology centers on international R & D programs, as regards the actions of Innoeuropa. The project is included in the Spanish National Program for the Internationalization (Programa Nacional de Internacionalización) of R & D within the framework of the Spanish National R & D & I Plan 2008-2011 with the file number PID-174000-2009-029.