Research Project CONSIDERATION

Project Duration: 09/22/2023 - 09/21/2026

Project CONSIDERATION engages with users, trainers, and consultants to develop, pilot, and test a learning platform with tools enabling SMEs to develop their own Digital Strategy. Competitiveness is gained by competency development for a combined digital, sustainable, and inclusive transformation

The overall project objective is to enabling SMEs to self-evaluate/develop their own digitalization strategy. Included are sub-tools to enabling SMEs to measure and report green transition, use data for business analytics, transform towards digital business networks and models and to set up inclusive competency development.

The project’s activities are organized into four content-related work packages, including required research. One work package (WP2) is dedicated to selecting the platform, as well as creating the structure, and content of the Digital Strategy Development Tool (DSDT) and sub-tools. The next content-related work package (WP3) focuses on training the trainers on the DSDT tool and sub-tools and in line with this, the workpackage contains development of course materials and conducting courses and workshop for the trainers, while probing and testing the provided tools. The next work package (WP4) aims at training the SMEs on the use of the solution through workshops and courses. The last work package (WP5) is dedicated to evaluating the previous activities using research methods and improving the solution based on the feedback. Also this work package is about promoting the solution and ensuring its durability.

The main target groups are SMEs; incubators, technology centers, clusters, ICT service providers and educational Institutions and teachers targeting SMEs.

The project partners consist of 3 universities, 3 technology parks, 1 business college and 1 chamber of commerce. The project involves 8 partners from Denmark (2), Germany (1), Lithuania (2), Poland (2) and Sweden (1). The project is supported by 12 associated partners which are regional authorities, business support organizations as well as educational institutions from Denmark, Germany, Lithuania, and Sweden. The project is led by Roskilde University, Department of Social Sciences and Business (DK).

The total project budget is 1,8 mio EUR

Funding

The RUC-led project has received around DKK 13.5 mio. to co-create an open learning platform for small and medium-sized companies (SMEs). The aim is to support SMEs in creating digital and sustainable development.

The project will prepare a tool for developing a digitization strategy for companies, as well as a set of sub-tools. The tool is developed on an open source platform with associated courses to support SMEs' competence in working strategically with digitization and sustainability.

The grant comes from EU Interreg South Baltic.

News

The collaboration

Roskilde University (LEAD), Universitetsvej 1, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark
- Head of Project, Margit Neisig, Associate Professor, Tel: +45 4674 3909, Email: neisig@ruc.dk
- Project Staff, NN, Ph.D student
- Financial Officer, Kristina Würtz Poulsen, Email: wurtzpo@ruc.dk
- Communication Officer, Juliane Kvitsau Mølgaard, Email: kvitsau@ruc.dk
Witeno GmbH, Walther-Rathenau-Straße 49A, 17489 Greifswald, Germany
- Alexander Schwock, International Project Manager, Tel: + 493 834 550 102, Email: schwock@witeno.de
West Pomeranian ICT Cluster, Niemierzyńska 17a, 71-441 Szczecin, Poland
- Magdalena Ławicka, Chef Operating Officer, Tel: +48 512 07 94 64, Email: magda.lawicka@klaster.it
- Monika Duszkiewicz, Office Coordinator, Email: monika.duszkiewicz@klaster.it
University of Szczecin, Aleja Papieża Jana Pawła II 22A, 70-453 Szczecin, Poland
- Magdalena Ławicka, Assistant Professor, Tel: +48 512 07 94 64, Email: magdalena.lawicka@usz.edu.pl
- Aleksandra Rudawska, Assistant Professor, aleksandra.rudawska@usz.edu.pl
- Hanna Soroka-Potrzebna, Assistant Professor, hanna.soroka-potrzebna@usz.edu.pl
Klaipeda Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Crafts, Naujoji Uosto st. 9 - 9, 7 floor, LT-92121 Klaipėda, Lithuania
- Vitalija Brazauskiene, Acting Project Manager, Tel: +37.046.390.869, Email: vitalija.brazauskiene@kcci.lt
- Renata Kasperavičienė, Finance manager, Email: buhalterija@kcci.lt
Kazimiero Simonavičiaus universitetas (KSU), Bijūnų st. 17, Apartment 330, LT-92294 Klaipeda/ Dariaus ir Girėno g. 21,02189 Vilnius, Lithuania
- Jolanta Bieliauskaitė, Rector, Tel: +37 067 743 792, Email: jolanta.bieliauskaite@ksu.lt
- Reda Juodkūnienė, Project Manager, reda.juodkuniene@ksu.lt
- Lars Clausen, Managing Director, Next Society Institute, Email: lars.clausen@ksu.lt
Blue Science Park (svb) AB, Campus Gräsvik 2, Minervavägen 4, 37175 Karlskrona, Sweden
- Jörgen Adolfsson, CEO, Tel: +46709918003, Email: jorgen.adolfsson@bluesciencepark.se
- Daniel Hansson, Innovation Leader, Digital, daniel.hansson@bluesciencepark.se
- Jenny Johnsson, Financial Manager, jenny.johnsson@bluesciencepark.se
Køge Business College, Uddannelsesvej 20, DK-4600 Køge, Denmark
- Finn Arvid Olsson, Head of development department, Tel: +45 24869915, Email: fao@khs.dk
- Stig Sirich Andersen, Project Manager, Email: ssa@khs.dk
Dedicated letter of Support:
- Esa Kokkonen, Lead Coordinator of the EU Strategy for the South Baltic Sea Region, Policy Area Innovation (EUSBSR PA Innovation), Director of The Baltic Institute of Finland
- Ministry of the Interior, Building and Digitalisation, Executive Department "Digital Transformation", Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Germany),
- Chamber of Commerce and Industry Neubrandenburg for the eastern Mecklenburg-Western Pommerania (Germany),
- Klaimeda ID (Lithuania),
- Techtank AB (Sweden),
- Karlskrona Municipality Business Development Department (Sweden),
- Blekinge Institute of Technology (Sweden),
- Almi Blekinge (Sweden),
- Business Center Bornholm (Denmark),
- Region Sjælland, Afdeling for Regional Udvikling (Denmark),
- Business Lolland-Falster ( Denmark),
- Zealand Technical School and Vocational Training Center (Denmark),
- Roskilde Business College (Denmark)

Blue Science Park Karlskrona

Klaipeda Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Crafts

Klaster IT

Kazimieras Simonavicius University

Køge Handelsskole

Roskilde Universitet

University of Szczecin

Witeno

Project CONSIDERATION is part of the South Baltic Interreg programme 2021-2027 - Programme Measure 1.1 Digitalising the region.

Through the South Baltic Interreg programme the project CONSIDERATION is linked to a broader EU agenda in general and to the European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR), which is the first of the four Macro-regional Strategies in Europe. Especially, the project CONSIDERATION is related to the EUSBSR Policy Area Innovation (PA INNO) emphasizing 3 actions: Challenge-driven innovation, Digital innovation and transformation and Co-creative innovation.
EU’s Green Deal and ambitious and urgent goals on the twin digital and green transition further underline the importance of innovation cooperation in BSR and EUSBSR.

The project CONSIDERATION is aligned with all 3 PA INNO actions, e.g., by:
- Creating methods and tools for the facilitation of the systemic change needed for green transition and sustainable and inclusive growth – when SMEs are creating their digitalization Strategy;
- Help SMEs learning about digital, data-driven solutions for sustainable business and growth in BSR (promoting the twin transition in BSR);
- Facilitate the understanding and change of mindset and applying the co-creation principle in improving SMEs capabilities and absorptive capacities for the twin digital and green transition;
- Developing and piloting systematic models and practices to engage BSR SMEs, researchers, test facilities and end users in co-creating a learning platform for SMEs own digital strategy development, that takes into consideration the green transition and sustainable and inclusive growth.
The work packages for Project CONSIDERATION are:
The Project Management is led by Roskilde University (LEAD). The lead partner is handling the project management in cooperation with the project partners.
The LEAD is doing the contracting and have regular as well as ad hoc communication (incl. conflict management, risk management) with all partners. All partners assign a responsible to the steering committee, with meetings planned at least in the beginning and as midterm follow-up, but if needed more often.
The project management of the lead partner (incl. risk and quality management) and the documentation of the project activities includes:
•   Continuous financial management and budgetary control
•   Overarching administration and documentation of all work packages, activities and deliveries.
•   Coordination of activities relating to external evaluation (SB Interreg) and the follow-up of the results from the midterm evaluation.
The project will regularly have partner meetings, in which a coordinator from all partners take part, and help the LEAD partner to coordinate the project. Thus, all project partners are contributing to the project management by participating in partner meetings and work meetings and assisting the reporting to SB Interreg. The diverse partnership strengthens the ability of the project to create an innovative solution by sharing knowledge, experiences, and competencies across all the work packages. All project partners contribute to the efforts to communicate the aim and results of the project.
Kick-off workshop and joint project workshops for each WP, a detailed project plans and a compliant digital infrastructure will be developed at an internal kick-off workshop. The workshops will be a valuable tool to further align expectations and thus make barriers visible, solve issues and to create a common project culture. The project has already developed a preliminary good project culture from the seed money project, but as new persons and also associated partners are extending the team and the network, also the project culture needs to be extended and maintained. This will also create a systematic approach to the knowledge sharing on the cross-border added value and results produced within the projects, and to setup a shared working-culture regarding implementation, regular update and share responsibility and anchoring of the joint communication plan.
Furthermore, each work package will have a dedicated joint project WP kick-off workshop, focused on the aim of the work packages which will be held in and by different partner-countries. This turn-taking will also strengthen the cross-border approach, value-added and collaboration.
Each year, the project will furthermore arrange a joint international workshop for digitalization strategies in SME (one per year), which of practical reasons is attempted to be coordinated with other joint project meetings.
Other workshops will be arranged on a country-by-country regional basis, as to make sure to reach all local stakeholders. However, the communication materials and event concepts, as well as online communication will be shared across the borders.
The Project closing will make sure, that the platform, tools, and social capital will live-on, in a more permanent organizational construction, which in this application is termed “capitalization”. This means that the project management and partners will make sure to anchor the results/outputs in an organizational form, that both financially and organizationally are able and feasible to secure the future maintenance and development. This will be top of mind in the final work package (WP 5), but something the project management and its partners will have in mind from the very beginning. It may also be an item at one or more of the international workshops for digitalization strategies in SMEs. External expertise will support the project were relevant.
In this WP both the digital platform, as well as the platform-developers and the structures are decided, based on open-source availability, know-how and potential R&D to develop, and adapt sub tools. This will include selection of developers (external expertise) and regular consulting, as for the DSTD development and digital platform to match.
Most effort however is to specify, create and design the DSTD and the sub tools (including the R&D activities needed to make sure of the state-of-art and relevance).
The project team needs to collaborate on developing a questionnaire for management boards allowing them to self-evaluate the SME’s situation and use the DSDT to create a path for the strategy. This questionnaire needs to be consolidated in research and evidence, as to have credibility across variable sectors, countries contexts and sizes of SMEs.
The creation of the content for the sub tools (sustainability evaluation tool, business data management and analytics tool, digital business models tool, skills evaluation and planning tool and didactics for digital, blended and hybrid learning) will include continued R&D activities as each of the sub tools need to be both state-of-the art and adapted for a variety of SMEs.
The first version of the DSTD-tool needs small-scale internal test with selected SME's (min 1 per country), and an update and expansion of content, which will continue until half a year before closing of project.
Each year a joint international workshop for digitalization strategies in SME (one per year) is organized as to get both research-based, and practical knowledge sharing added to the project.
Knowledge as well as description of the tools and content will be communicated to all relevant stakeholders/ target groups:
•   A variety of SMEs lagging in digitalization compared to other regions in their own country and need to close this gap to stay competitive. The project does not focus on a specific branch of industry, or sector, as the SMEs in the South Baltic region have different strongholds, but as the South Baltic regions mostly are rural areas the SMEs are lagging the average digitalization in their respective countries. This is what they have in common,
•   Incubators, technology centers, clusters, ICT service providers who after end of project may provide third-party solutions through the platform for a price, but to offer such solutions requires a small fee paid to sustain the platform and free tools in the future.
•   Educational Institutions and teachers targeting SMEs, knowledge institutions and scientific communities, as well as public organizations and private associations or consultancies supporting SMEs and digitalization
•   Even though the content is ready for launch half a year before end of project (see end of WP2), the communication about the content will continue until the end of the project.
This WP is about course development (online and offline) using results of WP2, targeted potential trainers and consultants, who may use the DSDT in their teaching of and consultancy work targeting SMEs. Furthermore, acquisition and training of potential trainers and consultants are conducted, and the courses are implemented with small tests and eventually reiterations.
The courses in mind are courses related to the DSDT and sub tools and not neither general courses like in excel, SAP, or the like. Nor will it be courses in proprietary software.
Workshops and information events for stakeholders (teachers and consultants) will be arranged in all participating countries based on shared information material and communication concepts but adapted for each language and country/local region as to reach local stakeholders.
Based on feedback and evaluations, training material / courses for trainers are improved.
All materials need to be translated into the local languages and as well adapted for inclusion of people med disabilities and with the perspective of inclusion of both genders.
Learnings from “train the trainer” will be described, analyzed, and published for all the target groups, but especially for
• Educational Institutions and teachers targeting SMEs, knowledge institutions and scientific communities as well as public organizations or private association or consultancies supporting SMEs and digitalization.
Even though the train the trainer and learning tools is ready for launch end of July 2026 (see end of WP3), the communication about the learning from the “train the trainers” will continue until the end of the project.
In this WP the joint course material and course concepts are developed and translation. Participants for the SME trainings are acquired, and trainings are organized and implemented with pilot actions with at least 2 SME per country. This is used for joint improvement of the courses and the training materials for the SMEs and creating post training Questionnaires.

Local/regional country by country workshops and information events (2 per region) are introducing the DSTD, sub tools and course material for stakeholders (CEOs, managers, etc in SMEs).

Learnings from “train the SME” will be described, analyzed and published for both:
•   CEOs, managers, etc in SMEs (different narratives of how the tools can help in different specific cases)
•   Employees/staff (different narratives of how the tools can help in different specific cases)
•   Educational Institutions and teachers targeting SMEs, knowledge institutions and scientific communities as well as public organisations or private association or consultancies supporting SMEs and digitalization.
This work package will create and interprete evaluation forms and interviews pf DSDT users, as well as improve the DSTD and sub-tools accordingly.

It will advertise the use of the DSDT and accompanying SME using the DSDT, and develop a capitalization concept (a permanent non-profit organization, with future sponsors as well as fee-paying service-providers and open-source developers). It will acquire future associate partners, to continuously inform SMEs about the DSDT, and consultants and trainers from knowledge institutions, chambers of commerce, business hubs, and business colleges who make use of the DSDT-platform.

General communication about the learnings from the project will be conducted to all target groups.

More about the project

CONSIDERATION: All publications

Here you will find all project related publications from project partners affiliated with the project. This includes publications by people not employed by Roskilde University.