Ιn 2008 when Europe and indeed the entire developed world was hit by the global financial crisis which brought with it the credit squeeze, a fall in house prices and tumbling stock markets together produced a slump in consumer confidence, consumption and investment. The European food industry has not escaped the shock: economic growth has slowed sharply and unemployment has increased in many countries for the first time in several years. Even though the effects of the financial crisis did not have a significant impact on the agro-food industry, as it has in other industries such as the automotive and financial services industries, this sector is also impacted by this economic crisis. Indeed the food industry is now facing a fundamentally different “playing field” than it faced a decade ago. In this context, the achievement of the EU internal market and the evolution of EU food legislation are also relevant. It has become clear that an essential prerequisite for future growth and competitiveness in the food industry is the preparedness of the authorities and industry to address the impact of globalisation and to face these challenges and take advantage of the opportunities offered by globalisation. This ascertainment had been a major concern of the project partners for a long time prior to this project as they all are organizations that support entrepreneurship and economic sustainability in many ways. The partners developed jointly the project during a sequel of meetings that took place in both countries during the last few months. The partners agreed on mutual cooperation concerning: joint staffing, financing, development and implementation of the project. The project is based on the benchmarking methodology, using an innovative approach to promote the sector's performance and competitiveness. Benchmarking is the continuous search for and adaptation of significantly better practices that lead to superior performance by investigating the performance and practices of other organisations. Benchmarking goes beyond comparisons with competitors to understanding the practices that lie behind the performance gaps. It is not a method for 'copying' the practices of competitors, but a way of seeking superior process performance by looking outside the industry. Expected Results: The project is expected to result mainly to the creation of a joint support office which will have as its basic mission to support companies from the food subsectors to improve their performance through the use of benchmarking, aiming to further ensure economic development and cohesion in the cross-border area. This first result is in accordance with the result indicator defined in the Program for the 3rd Priority Axis "number of partnerships and networks established in the framework of Priority Axis 3 "as it will end to the creation of one strong partnership ready to follow up with new relevant and added-value activities after the end of this project. Plus the trainings as well as the other activities that the pilot action includes will have equal participation of entrepreneurs of both genders. Moreover the implementation of the project will archive the following results: 1.Environmental benefits-benchmarking is a tool for environmental work 2.Economic benefits–Improve the performance and competitiveness 3.Business benefits-Identify individual strengths&weaknesses, Share performance data across an organisation, Save time and money on construction projects and offer value for clients, provide realistic and achievable targets, prevent companies from being industry led, challenge operational complacency,encourage improvement, allow employees to visualise improvement which can be a motivator for change, help to identify weak areas and indicate the needs for improvement. 4.Social benefits-new employment and raise in the quality of existing jobs by enhancing the competitiveness of the food sub sectors.Furthermore the project will result to:100businesses as participants in the research, 30 business participate in the pilot action in each country (50% women), 60 signed up members in the portal, 20managers trained and using the new tools