Europe has a lower rate of start-ups compared to other parts of the world, e.g. US and Asia. Europe has to become as attractive for creative and young people as these other regions. Therefore it is crucial that we can offer attractive jobs and places to live, and that we boost entrepreneurial spirit before young people will start to leave our regions. We thus need to develop an attractive tailor-made ecosystem for start-ups to improve SMEs growth and entrepreneurial skills and that we overcome defined barriers. The partners have defined that collaboration and willingness to invest in long-term policy is important to increase the number and quality of start-ups in their region.
The OSS project will work towards this main objective: improve policies for SMEs competitiveness by enhancing advisory support services for first-time entrepreneurs. OSS want to build a complete ecosystem for the entrepreneur starting a new business. Every partner will contribute with expertise and best practices from their First Line Service (FLS) system, and when OSS is finished the Toolbox of experience and expertise will be presented.
Together, OSS will enhance the advisory support service adapted to the needs of the entrepreneur. With the experience of each partner’s policy, and stakeholders from different levels to participate in changing the policy affecting our main objective, we anticipate to change the different regions' advisory services.
OSS will look at the possibility to make the advisory services more assessable with the evolvement of digital capabilities.
OSS aims to address the following topics: FLS system as a complete ecosystem; digital capabilities; mentoring and collaboration between startups and businesses; collaboration between different levels of governance; access to finance; and business incubation.
All the activities are created to enhance added value for the entrepreneurs and to increase the user satisfaction towards the advisory system in each region. OSS will create change through change in policy.