e-aqua
is a project co-financed by the EC programme Interreg
III B "Atlantic Area" that has as main objective
to encourage the use of Information and Communication
Technologies (ICT) and promote e-commerce by all the economic
players of the aquaculture strategic sector.
e-aqua
consists of three coordinated actions: Observatory, Training
and Consultancy. In addition, the project includes dissemination
and coordination activities.
During this period partners will undertake an assessment
of the current situation in the aquaculture sector regarding
the Information Society Technologies and e-Commerce. As
a first step of the project, a research about the current
status and possibilities for developing ICT in the Atlantic
aquaculture sector will be developed in order to gain
reliable knowledge of the degree to which ICT, Internet
and e-commerce have been deployed by SMEs and are operative
in the participating Atlantic regions. The analysis will
check the pros and cons found by the aquaculture SMEs
in the usage of ICT and e-commerce for their activities.
Partners will analyse current ICT situation their expectations
and needs within 22 SMEs by country.
According to the outcome of the previous research, structured
training courses and/or seminars will be organised on e-commerce
and some ICT issues found necessary to address in each participating
region. Depending on the research results obtained during
the first stage of the project, partners could hold animation
sessions in order to get closer relations with the future
trained SMEs. These sessions will give SMEs precise and
concrete expectations, which will be compiled in a prospective
synthesis. Thanks to this methodology course programs will
be specifically adapted to satisfy the current aquaculture
SMEs requirements in each participating region. The goal
pursued by this activity area is to design and offer basic
and advanced training courses about the Internet and e-commerce
issues through a specific programme to the aquaculture business
sector and to propose adapted solutions to SMEs needs.
Within this trust relationship environment, training actions
will introduce the computer science and the communications
as driving forces for the enterprise achievements, paying
attention to the methods, procedures and technologies for
the e-commerce, but also considering other elements such
as legal aspects or security. The training programme will
be defined more precisely according to the results of the
previous actions. The courses will be organised with different
difficulty levels, attending to the diversity of technical
skills of the staff working in regional SMEs. This project
aims to train around 20 to 22 SMEs by country.
The feasibility assessment for the implementation of e-commerce
in a precise number of Atlantic regional SMEs will consist
in the deployment of a viability study on e-commerce in
specific SMEs selected for this purpose in each region.
This stage of the project consists on the provision of a
practical analysis and basic ICT structural consultancy
to the selected aquaculture SMEs. For this purpose IT specialists
will visit the selected enterprises and in a period of 5
days will provide them with a basic and clear business plan
to implement e-commerce in their business processes. After
a short analysis of the business in order to measure potential
risks and benefits, and the investment and resources required
for the implementation of e-commerce solutions in the selected
enterprises, the ICT specifically oriented actions will
be defined in each particular case.
The objective of this task is to perform an intensive dissemination
of the e-Aqua results. The main aim will be to create a
strong awareness at European level among interested parties.
The dissemination will be performed at two levels: local
level (in each region involved in the project), and European
level. These results will be disseminated through the normal
channels, such as the WWW, technical papers in scientific
journals and presentation of results at conferences, workshops
and seminars.
The project management work package is responsible for
the co-ordination of the project in both administrative
and technical terms aiming towards achieving effective operation
of the project as well as timely delivery of quality results.
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