Central Macedonia is the largest region in terms of size, second in terms of population and economic activity in Greece. The regional economy is based on traditional labour-intensive sectors comprising family-run SMEs.

A decisive transformation that introduces innovative business solutions is needed to increase the competitiveness of regional companies compared to the neighbouring and global markets.

The key issues that the peer review will address to help this transformation are:

• How to promote collaborative projects and create new market opportunities through platforms?
• How to engage existing enterprises to participate in such a project and communicate their needs?
• How to support collaboration that will be fostered through these projects and how to broaden their externalities and also benefit other companies within the region?
• How to use such platforms to boost RoP leverage with other types of funding?

Peers from across Europe

Under the moderation of Arnault Morisson and Marc Pattinson, Thematic Experts on Research and Innovation, a team of excellent peers from across Europe will gather to discuss these challenges and draft recommendations. The selected peers are:

• Alba Quer, ACCIÓ, Spain
• Américo Veloso Bento, ANI, Portugal
• Joep Hoveling, SNN, The Netherlands
• Juan Carlos Martinez, CEEI-Burgos, Spain
• Sevdalina Voynova, Sofia Development Association, Bulgaria
• William Gilles, IMODEV, France

The peer review is an invitation-only event. However, key learnings of the peer review will be published afterwards in a follow-up article on the Interreg Europe website.