After the success of the Pilot Project, which involved a total of 79 small-medium businesses (SMEs) and 34 transnational partnerships between European enterprises, WORTH Partnership Project is back with renewed expectations. The project aims to bring together SMEs, start-ups, innovators, designers, art & craft and creative people coming from various countries in the EU in order to create new products, processes, and innovative business models. The duration will be 4 years and will support 150 cross-boundary partnership projects, involving a minimum of 450 companies (SMEs and start-ups).
The Worth Partnership Project application call will be on-going for 4 years, with different windows of opportunity. The first call, that opened the 18th of September 2017, will close the 31st December 2017 for the first partnership formation. Application intakes will occur again in the following years 2018, 2019 and 2020, aiming to support 150 partnership projects, which will involve a minimum of 450 companies (SMEs and start-ups).
It is a genuine opportunity for individual artisans, designers, or small-medium businesses that have an unrealized project on the back burner, because once the project has been selected, each partnership will be supported for the full duration through:
– financial support
– tailor-made coaching and mentoring by sector specialists
– networking activities and market positioning support
– legal support and intellectual property rights management
– participation in two international sector exhibitions or trade fairs for meeting buyers
A concrete example of this is the partnership created between TESSITURA LUIGI BEVILACQUA and EMMA SHIPLEY at the last edition of Worth. Tessitura Luigi Bevilacqua spoke of Worth: “The idea we started from was a design of Emma Shipley, characterizing her entire collection. The result was a jacquard fabric depicting a tiger and meant for use in the creation of a clutch. The jacquard weave conveys a greater depth perception and three-dimensional scope to the print, when compared to the printing technique usually employed by Emma. It is always stimulating to interact with emerging talents, as a new source of inspiration. When the centuries of history and tradition represented by our company come together with new talents, it is always an interesting mix”.
