The project idea started from the need of several European cities of art and UNESCO World Heritage to explore the values that make up the identity of a sustainable city and in particular, to strengthen entrepreneurship policies in the field of artistic and contemporary crafts (ACC).The promotion of succesful entrepreneurship and sound business environment for SMEs has always been a major concern for the EU. SMEs are the main source of jobs in Europe and make a major contribution to the growth of the employment. In the ACC sector they have an important economic impact to local & regional economies of the partner territories.The overall objective of the project is to promote entrepreneurship and business creation in the ACC sector by improving the effectiveness of regional and local development policies through sharing and exchanging experience and good practices. The project proposal builds on existing experience and networks developed by the partners at theirlocal/regional level and previous cooperation projects. The partnership of the project is composed by: Municipality of Florence as LP; National Association of Italian Municipalities–Tuscany; National Institute of Arts and Crafts (France); Public Foundation The Legacy of al-Andalus; Bistrita Municipality; Regional Association of Municipalities Central Stara Planina; Municipality of Burgas; Chamber of Commerce of Barcelona; Budapest Entreprise Agency; Aalto University School of Art and Design-University of Vaasa; Municipality of Riga; Vilnius Old Town Renewal Agency; Craft Council Ireland; Municipality of Reims; Slovak Chamber of Commerce and Industry.The partnership of INNOCRAFTS includes local authorities and bodies representing cities of art and/or UNESCO World Heritage Sites, worldwide recognized for their unique and very rich cultural, architectural and artistic heritage and assets, that have a potential impact on creative and cultural industries if promoted appropriately.The project, thanks to its EU-wide and well balanced partnership with 7 partners coming from 6 new MS, aims to assure a relevant added-value at European level thus actively contributing to reduce regional / local disparities in Europe. The interregional cooperation will provide the opportunity to learn from successful policy actions implemented by local /regional authorities and relevant stakeholders in the field of ACC comparing different policy experience to improve and enhance local policy measures and plans.The expected results of INNOCRAFTS focus on the sub-theme Entrepreneurship and SMEs aiming to exchange experiences in common policy issues concerning the ACC sector: identification and promotion of effective business models, improvement of business support services (business incubators & business parks), access to innovation and financial assistance to SMEs (through non-grant intruments), SMEs internationalisation and support and promotion of young and female entrepreneurs. Achievements: The overall objective of the INNOCRAFTS project is to promote entrepreneurship and business creation in the artistic and contemporary crafts sector by improving the effectiveness of regional and local development policies through sharing and exchanging good practices and experiences. The partnership of INNOCRAFTS includes Local Authorities and bodies representing cities of art and/or UNESCO World Heritage Sites, worldwide recognized for their unique and very rich cultural, architectural and artistic heritage and assets, that have a potential impact on creative and cultural industries if promoted appropriately. An intense schedule of exchange of experiences to improve local and regional policies aiming to support entrepreneurship and SMEs creation in the artistic and contemporary crafts sector is being implemented by project partners. The emphasis is put on most successful policy experiences developed in the partners territories with a particular regard for those that satisfy specific quality criteria in terms of innovativeness, effectiveness, relevance, transferability, and have already provided tangible and measurable results in reaching their objectives. To assure an effective process of exchange of experiences, partners will involve relevant policy-makers and local and regional stakeholders. The main tools allowing the exchange of experiences and good practices between partners are the Joint Interregional Seminars (JIS), Interregional Training Sessions (ITS), Study Visits and guideline on each policy theme, including an intermediate assessment on potential transfer of good practices and policy recommendations for the further development or improvement of partners policies. Project activities got started with a Kick-Off meeting conference held in April 2012 in Florence allowing partners to establish the strategic, operational, financial circuits of the project , as well as to discuss project methodology and indicate their representative in the projects managing groups. The INNOCRAFTS team met for a Managing Group Meeting in Bratislava in June 2012 to define project implementation timetable, managing and other internal rules. In order to promote and disseminate the project, an official website (www.innocrafts.eu) and an official account on Facebook (www.facebook.com/pages/Innocrafts/545605052132067) have been created, as well as the 1st INNOCRAFTS brochure and 1st project Newsletter were published in the framework of the project Communication Plan (CP). This tool represents the project communication and dissemination strategy, able to set up objectives and goals, activities, tools, contents, outputs, target groups and knowledge transfer methodology. In order to strength the partners policy capacity to support entrepreneurship and SMEs, to modernise their economies and improve their global competitive position, the project team is implementing an intensive transfer of experiences, knowledge and know-how on jointly selected best practices and approaches in the areas of a) business models and support services (including business incubators and business parks and other related facilities), b) access to innovation design and financial assistance to SMEs, c) SMEs internationalization, professional networking and information exchange, d) promotion of entrepreneurship among specific target groups such as young and female entrepreneurs.