BACKGROUNDGlobal competition has generated a need among all the enterprises, and especially SMEs, to adjust their strategies for their survival. There is a general belief that the future accelerated growth and sustainability of SMEs will largely depend on the use of appropriate technology and the acquisition and absorption of knowledge. Technology and the transfer of discoveries and knowledge to SMEs is a recognized milestone in building and sustaining a robust and innovative European economy but the professional requirements and the skills needed to work across countries, institutions, regulations and sectors to facilitate this process are fragmented, not enough supported, limited by too complex processes & technical languages.OBJECTIVESThe general objective of TTTEA is to increase and upgrade skills and competences of European SMEs in the field of transnational technology transfer and accelerate public and private stakeholder organizations in increasing their responsiveness to SMEs skills needs.Specifically TTTEA aims at 1) minding the gap between SMEs and transnational technology innovation processes; 2) establish a permanent, transparent, recognition oriented, evolving & multi-actor training mechanism which will allow to respond to the needs of SME's 3) increase institutional capacity and awareness of responsible actors of industrial, technological and training policies about the role of transnational technology transfer for SMEs and extend cooperation between SMEs, Research, Service Providers and VET& Training System actors.TARGET GROUPSThe target groups of the project include: SMEs: Managers, Technical and administrative staff, consultants; Cluster Organizations: technical staff, consultants; R&D Centres / Universities (including their Technology Transfer Offices): researchers, technical staff; Technology Parks and Business Development Centres: technical staff, consultants; Economic Development Bodies (Regional Development Agencies, Governance levels designing policies): policy officers, management, technical staff; VET and Higher Education: trainers, researchers, technical staff, administrative staff, learners. The estimated value of directly involved target groups members is 500 units.ACTIVITIESIn order to achieve the planned objectives, the project has been structured around 8 Work-packages and 4 Intellectual Outputs which will be implemented by 7 complementary partners combining training, technology, outreach to SMEs and policy anchoring capacities: WP1 - Project Management; WP2 - Quality Management; WP3 - Evaluation and Risk Management; WP4 - Dissemination and Exploitation; WP5 - Minding the GAP: SMEs & Transnational Technology Transfer, (M2-M7) aimed at creating a knowledge base about current successful practices which combine technology transfer & training methods to support these processes and further strengthen them; WP6 - Mapping skills needs & Develop Competence Profile (M6-M13) which focuses on mapping the competences of the TTTE Agent; WP7 (M13-M28) focused on producing the curriculum and in the development and testing of the TTTEA Training Program; WP8 (M26-M30) will deliver 2 sets of final guidelines, one for policy levels and the second one for VET system & Innovation system actors and to set up of a Transnational Technology Transfer Training Cooperation Network". RESULTSThe main project result with a long terms perspective consists in creating a winning coperation mechanism between training & educational system and European SMEs which will contribute to adopt transnational technology transfer as a means to accelerate growth and development. Shot term project results may be summarized as follows: 1) SMEs increased awareness level about technology transfer processes at transnational level; 2) Training & Service Providers increased knowledge about how to simplify technology transfer processes; 3) available training (including competence profile, training course structure and content); 4) increased capacity of the educational / training / service side to respond to educational / training needs with a more close to market and understandable language; 5) effective participation of the governance level & VET System actors to the information and awareness raising initiatives; 6) increased knowledge about how developed training can be transformed & readapted according to technological trends and SMEs needs (and how formal VET training course can be anchored to more situational learning settings based on SMEs daily operations).