SME Mission planning is underway. Savonia is running five training modules during the autumn months (see below for details). During the sessions they will discuss the Missions and interview companies in more detailed to establish their current status and development needs.

At present they have identified the following general streams as key Mission themes:

• new ingredients
• product development needs
• benchmarking good practices in production

If you want to participate in the training events or suggest themes for SME Missions, contact:  Anna-Maria.Saarela@savonia.fi

APRE, Italy
The Hub in Italy has been focusing on two key themes:

• Access to EU Financial Instruments for SMEs
• A cluster focus (possibly Mortadella) to address specific technology and innovation needs within the sector.

If you want to express an interest in the SME Missions being arranged for early 2016 by the Italian Hub or suggest other Missions themes, contact:  Matteo Di Rosa (dirosa@apre.it)

IPB, Portugal
The Portuguese Hub had its first Mission in November 2015. They ran a workshop that focuses on two themes:

• technology providers: such as high pressure; modified atmosphere packaging; paper packaging and skin packaging;
• software and services support to SME: such as FoodInTec  (an enterprise that offer software for production, traceability, etc) and Imperativo  (a consultancy service)

If you want to express an interest in the future SME Missions being arranged by the Portuguese Hub or suggest other Missions themes, contact:  Elsa Ramalhosa (elsa@ipb.pt)

CF+I, Spain
Missions are currently being planned for early 2016 and the Spanish Hub is very much open to suggestions on meat related themes.If you want to express an interest in the SME Missions being arranged by the Spanish Hub or suggest other Missions themes, contact:  Macarena Baylos (mbaylos@clusterfoodmasi.es)

Food Concepts, Poland
In Poland, the majority of traditional dairy producers are family companies in the micro scale.  Consequently, the owners have very limited time and resources for attending events and training courses; they also have few resources to invest. The Mission has been arranged to meet the needs and expectations of these producers, but also bearing in mind that the needs of larger scale milk producers must also be addressed.

The Mission will bring together the three groups of traditional dairy producers, with researchers and companies providing technology.

A series of events took place in December, 2015 in Warsaw.  For additional details, or if you want to express an interest in future Mission in Poland, contact: Dr Andrzej Fetlinski (fc@food-concept.pl)

ITENE, Spain
The provision of packaging solutions is a theme that appears throughout a number of the Missions planned by Hub Advisors. ITENE will be supporting other Hubs in the delivery of their Missions. However, if you would like to express an interest in a packaging event arranged by ITENE, contact: Vanessa Delmer (vanessa.delmer@itene.com)