About the Project

The aim of the RUSMECO project (co-funded by the European Commission) is to raise the competitiveness of innovative Russian SMEs. This is done by establishing a Community of Practice (CoP) between SME clusters in Moscow, St-Petersburg and Ekaterinburg. The intention of this CoP is to enable SMEs and other interested organisations to share knowledge and experiences on subjects of common interest and thereby to enhance individual management capabilities and SME performance.

The project started in May 2005 and will end in May this year.

 !! To participate in the event, proceed to our Online Events Chat Room. !!

 Some more information on the project is attached:

• The RUSMECO project presentation
• The RUSMECO flyer in English
• The RUSMECO flyer in Russian

About the Community

The RUSMECO community exchanges and collaborates on an online portal (www.rusmeco.ru). The portal offers forums, blogs, self-assessment, e-learning and an extensive library.

Another focus of the RUSMECO CoP activities is on fostering the collaboration and exchange with organisations outside the community. The platform thus contains a "brokerage area", where external companies can identify suitable SMEs from the RUSMECO community for collaboration and knowledge exchange.

A strong focus of the community is on face-to-face meetings. RUSMECO therefore also offers physical events and blended learning courses. The CoP kick-off events took place in November and December 2006 in the three participating Russian regions Moscow, St. Petersburg and Ekaterinburg. The focus of these events was on the topic "Intellectual Property Rights".

The next months will present events and training on:

• Collaboration Management
• Quality Management
• Innovation supporting programs and projects
• Marketing of Innovation
• International Business
• Knowledge Management

Participants in the KB online event

The project consortium includes a mix of 12 partners from Russia and four EU countries: universities, research institutes and industrial companies.

The following representatives of the RUSMECO consortium will take part in the event:

Liza Wohlfart and Lesya Bilan, University of Stuttgart IAT (Stuttgart, Germany).
Overall project coordinators.

Robert Slagter, Stiching Telematica Instituut (Enschede, the Netherlands).
Scientific project coordinator.

Tanya Emshanova, ViceVersa Consulting (Ekaterinburg, Russia).
Community coordinator,technical project coordinator and regional coordinator Ekaterinburg.

Victor Tisenko, Saint-Petersburg State Polytechnic University, Science-Intensive Engineering Center (Saint-Petersburg, Russia).
Content scouting and regional coordinator.

Irina Alexeeva, Russian SME Resource Centre Fund (Moscow, Russia).
Newswires and regional coordinator Moscow.

Some pictures from our kick-off events: