Chamber of Achaia

Chamber of Achaia is among the first Chambers of Greece with a long history, established on 1836 and is a compulsory Union of merchants, manufacturers, artisans and professionals who acts within the prefecture of Achaia, of the Region of Western Greece. It is a Public Law Legal Entity and offers consultative services to the Government. The Chamber also practices administrative decentralization services which are named by the government as well as advisory work through the participation of its representatives to 40 committees and boards. It studies the financial problems of the area acting within the framework of the general interest of the Government with purpose to support the private initiative and all forms of entrepreneurship.

 

Chamber of Achaia is considerably active in the field of enhancing innovative entrepreneurship, developing international outlook and competitiveness of SMEs and fostering potential start-up entrepreneurs and newly-established micro and small enterprises.
 

Moreover Chamber of Achaia participates in several initiatives that foster the development of entrepreneurship and implements special actions related to sustainable growth of the Region of Western Greece. More specifically the Chamber of Achaia is the leading part of the Managing Authority of European Programmes related to SMEs of Western Greece, Peloponnesus, Ipeiros and Ionian Islands. The specific MA is responsible for the evaluation, and monitoring of all investments realized by the SMEs within the frames of EC Funding.

The Chamber of Achaia undertakes several activities in order to promote various aspects of entrepreneurship. Of outmost importance are the initiatives that are related to innovation support since the correlate to AGROINNOECO project concept. These initiatives are presented in brief bellow:

- The integration of research and innovation results in industry production results in developing new competitive products and services, that satisfy new needs and ultimately creates new jobs and income in the Region with multiplying benefits for the national economy.
- The attraction of Greek and international investors that could utilize local know-how and invest in products and services, consequently can lead to increasing the competitiveness of the local and national economy with parallel positive side effects.

- Applied research presentations,

- Speeches by policy makers, financial actors and innovation & startup ecosystem representatives,

- Lectures on issues concerning technology transfer, knowledge management, intellectual property rights, and financial resources for the conversion of innovative ideas into products,

- Workshops for academic students and start-up founders on issues concerning soft skills building and entrepreneurial operations,

- B2B meetings for developing synergies for new projects and business ventures.

More specifically, during PatrasIQ event, researchers present to the productive sector as well as to investors mature, research results that can potentially be exploited productively and commercially. Furthermore, problems that the productive sector is facing are being discussed in order for researchers to offer feasible solutions. The initiative contributes to the creation of a crucial competitive advantage, both for the research community and the productive sector, through the perpetual effort to resolve problems and implement innovative ideas.

The purpose of these actions is to familiarize both researchers and the productive sector with the knowledge management process and the exploitation of innovative ideas, the mechanisms and conditions for building networks and clusters, for achieving cross-sector collaborations and exploring alternative ways of financing innovation.

The exhibition is currently being organized under the auspices of the Ministries of Education, Research and Religious Affairs and of Economy, Development and Tourism, through a framework agreement between them and the University of Patras, the Chamber of Achaia, the Region of Western Greece, the Hellenic Open University and the Technological Educational Institute of Western Greece.

The action aims at creating an ecosystem for supporting innovative entrepreneurship and increasing employment. A key component is the development of synergies and collaborations between the academic / research sector, the business world, policy makers, regional authorities and local communities.

To this end, it is necessary to implement various actions to enhance the transfer of knowledge, experience and innovation across the entire Region. In this context, actions planned include the establishment of an annual process where applied research will meet real economy in a daily basis, in order to foster the development of products and services of high added value that will incorporate knowledge and innovation and will systematically claim a share in the global market.
 

1.Continuous documentation of the full range of innovative technology intensive enterprises and of the needs of existing businesses

2.Development and operation of an entrepreneurial discovery tool

3.Development of direct research-business collaborations and synergies

4.Introduction of research results, technologies, business methodologies and production methods to new and existing businesses

5.Search and development of financial tools (direct loans, equity funds, business angels, crowdfunding, etc.)

6.Development of partnerships with foreign networks to promote local products, services and businesses

7.Exchange of good practices at national and international level in cooperation with Technological parks, Incubators, and other innovation structures.

8.Entrepreneurial coaching and mentoring for business development in new markets, extroversion and overall idea to product process

Our area as well as the surrounding one, has a strong academic and research element, which is admittedly a driving force for the birth of new, innovative methods and solutions. However, the disperse location of R&D points and the geomorphologic shape of the Balkan peninsula impedes the effective transfer of innovation between areas, the decentralization of knowledge flow and ultimately the development of entrepreneurship.
 

In order to overcome this disadvantage, Achaia Chamber aims at establishing Teleworking and distance Capacity Building centers (including premises and equipment) to support a range of local as well as remote functions such as the organization of seminars & trainings and distance-learning sessions, as means of skills enhancement of both microSMEs and professionals, in order for the SMEs to multiply their range of provided services and for the freelancers to acquire skills in modern professional free tools, and to utilize novel forms of occupation (teleworking) and build new business collaborations.

Chamber of Achaia maintains a competitive structure that aims at achieving its development goals through European and National programs and other initiatives. This structure is essentially the Chamber's Development Agency which includes the Department of European and National Programs, with executives that come from the market and have significant experience in various thematic fields and disciplines, having designed and implemented a large number of projects and initiatives. For more information please contact:

Mr. Panagiotis Vafeidis, EU & national projects
Tel. +30 2610241244
Email. pvafeidis@e-a.gr