TAF Talks - A series of sharing and learning interactive sessions to help your project idea move forward

News article |

Join the “TAF Talks”, a series of sharing and learning interactive sessions to help you -project promoters from S3P-Industry- to move your project ideas forward and improve the quality of your TAF applications and/or encourage you to apply for the TAF support!

Dear S3P-Industry Community,

We are heading towards the end of the second year of the three-year Technical Assistance Facility for Industrial Modernisation and Investment (TAF) service. 

November 2020 and January 2021 will be crucial dates for the last allocation of TAF expert support to investment projects currently under development across the S3P-Industry. Therefore, we would like to offer you a series of virtual meetings with our business and legal experts, as well as current TAF beneficiaries. We believe that these meetings will help you advance in project preparation over the coming weeks, they will inspire you with ideas to boost your projects and they will facilitate the exchange of good practices among the S3P Community. We know that developing a cross-border investment project can be challenging: the objective of the ‘TAF Talks’ is to make this process easier for you.

TAF scheme postcard


What are TAF Talks?

The TAF Talks are virtual sessions featuring various contents and formats, that will take place between October 2020 and January 2021. Past service beneficiaries, TAF experts, and the TAF pre-selection team will discuss together with S3P-Industry project promoters the barriers to project development, and will help them better understand the scope of TAF and the benefit that this type of business and legal support can provide to their projects. In addition, the TAF Talks aim at providing project promoters with concrete advice and feedback on the rationale and structure of their investment ideas, to finetune them towards successful TAF applications. 
 

Types of sessions

The TAF Talks address the specific needs identified among the S3P-Industry. The Talks include:

  • Experience-sharing by TAF supported projects: Did you consider applying for TAF but are not sure what this service consists of in practice? In this Talk, direct beneficiaries of TAF services will present their experience with TAF support and, together with their project’s respective TAF experts, will clarify your doubts and answer to your questions on TAF in an open format discussion.
  • Technical Q&A on the TAF application: Are you working on a TAF application and would make use of some tips & tricks on how to make it successful? In this Talk, we will present the key elements and pitfalls featuring a good TAF application and answer any technical doubts that you might have on the application process. 
  • One-to-one sessions with TAF experts: Are you currently working on your TAF application, have developed an interregional business model or are fine-tuning your business plan for the application? Are you, however, uncertain whether your application fulfils all the criteria and if it will be judged positively by the Selection Committee? In this Talk, you will get the possibility to pitch your project to TAF experts. The TAF experts will provide you with immediate advice on how to improve your application. 
  • Horizontal capacity building sessions: You wonder what the common struggles are while developing an investment project, and would like to know what it takes to overcome them? This Talk focuses on key issues identified across projects applying to TAF and advise you on the steps to take to make your investment idea TAF-ready.


Who can participate?

The Talks are strictly targeted at project promoters coming from industry, clusters and/or other business entities. We strongly encourage the S3P partnership coordinators to mobilise their businesses to bring forward projects related to the thematic areas.


Why should you follow TAF Talks?

If your project is at early levels of maturity, we will help define the steps forward and see its future prospects. If you have a more advanced project idea, we will offer concrete business advice and discuss ways to improve it. For all project promoters, we will provide information on the scope and content of TAF expert support. Finally and yet importantly, the Talks will contribute to create a discussion platform for exchange of good practices, knowledge and inspiration. In this process, it is central for us to understand you needs with respect to developing investment projects and how TAF could better address them.


Next steps

- The first session was held on Friday 30th of October (9:30-10:30 am).

- The second TAF talk, a one-to-one pitching session, was held on the 10th of November.

- The third online workshop was held on the 9th of December, on capacity building in two specific areas:1. Governance aspects of interregional investment projects and 2. Development of platform business models. More details on the speakers and the agenda here.

- New! The next one-to-one pitching sessions will be held on the 19th and 22nd  of January. Contact the TAF team at TAF@ecorys.com to plan your session.

- New! A capacity building workshop will take place on Wednesday 27th January (10:00-12:00) on these two topics: 1) Getting started with financials, and 2) How can your project benefit from European clusters? Register here by January 25. More info on the agenda and the speakers here

Over the next weeks, we will inform you on all the specific TAF Talks planned for the weeks ahead. You will hear from us through emails, the TAF webpage on the S3P-Industry and our communication channels. All sessions of this series will be carried out virtually.

Meanwhile, we are happy to answer any of your questions on TAF and its support activities.

Feel free to contact us any time at taf@ecorys.com.

Talk to you soon!
Best wishes,
Your TAF team