This April saw us celebrating two years of fun-filled, design-based COSME projects, a festive follow up to last year’s COSME Networking Day in October 2017 where the COSME community met last. Last month, the major policy event ‘EU Industry Days’, organised by EASME, has provided a space to promote exciting projects ranging from recycling children’s toys, improving the indoor air we breathe and finding safe solutions to monitor childrens’ growth and mobility. Proving once again that innovation and diversification are but a few of descriptions fit for COSME’s selection of entrepeneuring SMEs this call!

The COSME stand was visited by Commissioners Mrs. Elżbieta Bieńkowska for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, and Mr. Carlos Moedas for Research, Science and Innovation. Also present were the European Parliament President Mr. Tajani and Mrs. Lowri Evans, Director General of Industry and both were very interested in all the promising developments the four present projects can already be proud of.

Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska talked to the founders of each of the four projects while admiring the tangible results of COSME funding in SMEs. Ms. Lowri Evans was very interested to learn in which ways COSME helped the SMEs to scale up their innovative ideas and turn them into businesses.

Our EP President Tajani also dedicated his time to the 4 COSME projects and was more than happy to pose for pictures you can enjoy watching on Flickr.

Here you will recognise your peers from the COSME design based consumer goods in full European entrepeneuring mode!

Commissioner Moedas has become a fan of Eco-Birdy that recycles plastic toys and transforms them in beautiful design furniture for children. Mr. Moedas praised the project on his Twitter account as one of the best examples of circular economy. Ecobirdy has also been posted on EC’s facebook page: a great achievement as the web has many followers across the whole of Europe! Congratulations!

COSME is the EU programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). It runs from 2014 to 2020 with a planned budget of €2.3bn and supports better access to finance for SMEs and to markets, rewarding entrepreneurship and offering more favourable conditions for business creation and growth in Europe.

We are currently harvesting some very promising results on the efforts invested in the implementation of our ideas and projects. We are very proud to be part of the group and of the wonderful ideas that just seem to keep on coming! So spread the COSME BUZZ!