The European Commission has recently launched an expert group platform called ‘Fit for Future’ which will involve representatives of European Union Member States and key stakeholders from various policy areas (Agriculture, Budget, Climate, Competition, Consumer affairs, Energy, Enlargement, Enterprise, Environment, External Relations, Fisheries and Maritime Affairs, Food Safety).

Communities, clusters and SMEs have all been hit hard by the COVID-19 epidemic. During the last few months we have seen rapid action taken by government as well as regional authorities to support businesses suffering from high fix costs without almost any sales under the current crisis. We have also seen clusters, networks and SMEs showcasing remarkable resilience and ability to help their members adapt to the new and challenging situation. This article highlights some of the actions taken in East and North Finland in response to the COVID-19 crisis.

The Executive Agency for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (EASME) is involved in implementing parts of the H2020 programme on behalf of the European Commission. They have recently launched a study on the effectiveness of public innovation support for SMEs in Europe.

The study aims to understand:

The Euro-Mediterranean Forum of Institutes of Economic Sciences (FEMISE) has created for THE NEXT SOCIETY a Scoreboard of innovation that includes particularities of the Mediterranean region while shedding light on the progress (or lack) achieved so far. Innovation scoreboards summarise different types of indicators that are related to the innovation process.