Youth entrepreneurship: opportunities and strategies to strengthen innovative SMEs and start-ups support in the Greece – Italy Territorial Cooperation area is the focus of an international webinar which will be held via ZOOM on 9 July, from 10 to 13.

The meeting is organized by CIHEAM Bari, partner of the INCUBA-Cross Border agrifood incubators project, coordinated by the Region of Western Greece. The project received 900,000 EUR funding under the Interreg V-A Greece-Italy Programme 2014- 2020 with the aim of strengthening agrifood business incubators to support creation, competitiveness, and internationalization of start-ups and small and medium enterprises in Puglia and Greece.

The Ilia Chamber, the Chamber of Commerce of Bari, and ARTI Puglia complete the partnership together with the Chamber of Achaia and Puglia Region – Department of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environmental Protection as associated partners.

The meeting will bring together several participants, including representatives of international incubators and innovation actors to share and leverage knowledge and experience gained by Interreg Greece-Italy projects in support of start-ups and innovative SMEs. Discussion will allow sharing needs and taking stock of new challenges, which can be met by the future Interreg Greece-Italy programme 2021-2027.

The INCUBA project also intends to promote an agreement that will enable the institutions involved in entrepreneurship support to stimulate new projects to favour innovation and competitiveness at cross-border level.

Maurizio Raeli, director of CIHEAM Bari and Konstantinos Tzamaloukas, delegate from the Region of Western Greece (Lead Partner), will open the meeting.

Gianfranco Gadaleta, Greece – Italy 2014-2020 Joint Secretariat Coordinator, will announce some proposals – under discussion – of the next Greece-Italy cooperation program, also exploring the impact caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Other contributors on the meeting agenda are Damiano Petruzzella and Jocelyne Jawhar (Ciheam Bari), Barbara De Ruggieri and Annamaria De Marinis (University of Bari), Annamaria Fiore and Stefano Marastoni (ARTI), Athanasios P. Kalogeras (ATHENA Research and Innovation Centre – Industrial Systems Institute), Vitandrea Marzano (Municipality of Bari) for the Creative Camps project, Ioanna Ath. Giannoukou (University of Patras ) for the Ilonet project, Susanna Torres (Pino Pascali Foundation), for the Craft Lab project and Francesca Imperiale (University of Salento) for the Traces project.

The meeting will be moderated by Giordano Dichter, expert in incubation programmes.

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Puglia Region – Joint Secretariat Communication Officer

Carmela Sfregola +39 3493916007 c.sfregola@greece-italy.eupress@greece-italy.eu

ARTI – Apulia Region Agency for Technology and Innovation External Relations and Communication Service +39 080 96.74.217- 219 comunicazione@arti.puglia.it

Chamber of Commerce of Bari Press Office

Chicca Maralfa +39 080 2174236 chicca.maralfa@ba.camcom.it

Centre International de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques Méditerranéennes CIHEAM BARI

Press Office

Stefania Lapedota +39 080 4606271 lapedotas@iamb.it