Description
The goal of the project is to exchange knowledge, carry out research activities, and disseminate state of the art know-how to SMEs and other relevant parties in the areas of e-business and e-government.

More specifically, for the domain of e-business and e-government, the project targets:

• The transfer of knowledge between Switzerland and Bulgaria
• The elaboration of Bulgarian case studies standards and methodology
• The dissemination of Case studies practices in Bulgaria
• The improvement of competitiveness in SMEs
• Focus on problems with information technology

In order to achieve these objectives, the project will:

• Integrate and coordinate research activities among Switzerland an Bulgaria
• Design and create mechanisms for the collection, analysis, and presentation of leading e-business/e-government practice in both countries;
• Establish and maintain a Web-based platform in order to make the knowledge base widely available and facilitate research achievements into good practice issues;
• Develop training materials for exploitation of both partners, SMEs and other relevant parties;
• Disseminate project results through online and offline activities, involving well established dissemination platforms such as eXperience (Swiss e-business case study database);
• Support the development of Centre of Information Society Technologies as Centre of Excellence (CoE) which will serve to conduct high quality research and to ensure the high quality of the case studies, compare and analyze cases, identify market developments and trends, and drive the conceptual advancement of the network;
• Transfer know-how to SMEs through various events;

The overall performance of the project will be underpinned by the project management and research activities, which are structured in the following tasks:

• Task 1. Analysis of specific demand in Bulgaria, methodology and didactical concepts definition
• Task 2. Jointly prepared courses for professionals and management
• Task 3. Joint program for researcher qualification, e.g. joint programs for Ph.D. students
• Task 4. Dissemination and publications on best practice in e-business and e-government
• Task 5. Develop and maintain a Web-based platform

The project will contribute the e-business and e-government research to be grounded in practice, as well as for transferring of Swiss knowledge and experience to Bulgaria. It will also strengthen the Bulgarian partner in business, economy and information systems research, knowledge intensive business services such as management and IT consulting and software engineering, as well as in the management of education and training.

Today, the project has started task 2:

• Subtask 2.1. Conducting an e-business survey to analyze the status of e-business in Bulgarian SMEs. Also to find potential cases for the first case studies.
• Subtask 2.2. Developing the case study methodology and the training guide for writers.
• Subtask 2.3. Training for authors with following support when writing case studies.

Participants/Target Group:
We invite all people who are interested in the goals of the Project REGEBLab to attend our meeting, especially academic and industrial institutions whom are interested in the work of task 2.