The volume of data that governments, businesses and organizations manage has grown exponentially and, if turned into actionable, “smart” data, presents vast opportunities to drive productivity, innovation and competitiveness in Europe. The EC 2014 Big Data Strategy recognises that data-intensive sectors of the economy are growing by 40% per year. However, even while the UK, Germany, Ireland and Netherlands are leaders in big data at post-graduate and industrial level, if the digital economy is to flourish, data skills must move out of specialist R&D and be taught as a transversal skillset to students at all levels. This provides a challenge to the VET sector, which is currently held back by its own deficit in data skills. The Smart Data, Smart Regions project will respond to this challenge by directly improving the ability of entrepreneurship VET policy makers and practitioners to understand, teach and implement smart data within their institutions. Moreover, it will help them use data to adapt and optimise entrepreneurship development strategies at regional level, becoming “smart regions”. To achieve this, partners will produce the following intellectual outputs: a) Create and publish a STRATEGIC GUIDE TO SMART DATA IN YOUR REGION to make the case for an integrated, cross sector approach to smart data and facilitate the creation of Regional Partnerships. b) Establish 4 REGIONAL SMART DATA PARTNERSHIPS to bring together 50+ stakeholders from VET, HE, public and private sectors to develop 4 Action Plans for improving smart data’s role in entrepreneurship policy, education and support in each region. c) Develop ESSENTIAL SMART DATA OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES: a curriculum, trainers’ guide and suite of interactive online learning materials for VET teachers and trainers in colleges, enterprise development centres, incubators, non-profits and public authorities. d) Produce a SMART DATA ONLINE PLATFORM, a multilingual, interactive portal to maximize target group engagement and long-term impact of the educational resources.The project methodology is highly participative at all stages. Alongside their leadership of an intellectual output each, all partners will contribute to a proactive dissemination strategy, including multiplier events in each partner country and an international launch, and focussed quality management and evaluation activities which include our target groups at each stage: - At least 50 high-level representatives of organizations from the fields of VET, entrepreneurship education, and wider economic development will participate directly in 4 Regional Partnerships- At least 60 professional teachers and trainers of entrepreneurship skills working in VET organizations will be trained in the Essential Smart Data open educational resources, benefitting approximately 700 VET students will benefit - At least 200 representatives of stakeholder organizations will participate in multiplier events. - Approximately 12,000 individuals will engage with the interactive online platform for the VET community interested in smart data skills. In terms of impact, Smart Data Smart Regions is a pioneering and transformative project because of its ability to overcome the smart skills deficit in two levels of the VET sector – practitioners and policy makers. As a result of the project, more and more VET institutions will effectively integrate smart data skills into their curricula as a vital transversal skill for the knowledge economy, meaning that thousands of students learning entrepreneurship at VET institutions and or start up entrepreneurs gaining assistance from business development service providers will being using smart data analysis for their own projects. In other words, the project will directly boost the ability of today’s students to become tomorrow’s successful entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and community leaders. The second target group - VET managers, policy makers and decision makers - will learn how to use data to adapt and optimise entrepreneurship development strategies according to their region’s needs and opportunities, creating genuinely smarter regions in the short and long term. They will be able to use data proactively to define future policy and will be more responsive to local needs and opportunities, creating a more tailored educational support system and generating more successful entrepreneurs. The end result: a significant long-term strengthening of the competitiveness of the local economy and an inbuilt capacity to continue learning and adapting to new contexts.The project has been designed to respond to a genuine need experienced by partner organizations and their counterparts in the vocational education, entrepreneurship support and economic development community at national levels so they each have a vested in ensuring immediate and sustained impact.