This project summary was prepared by a member of the TWEURO Team from information provided by the project. Please contact us if any of the information requires updating or changing, or you wish to use our services to help in your dissemination activities. This page was last updated on: 09-10-1998

The aim of the GROW Project is to create and actively test through real trading the development of a potentially global trading infrastructure (GTI). As such, the structure created is intent on integrating five elements:

1. The people and organisations who are involved both actually and potentially in specialised food trading
2. A communication infrastructure and imaging system
3. Process information systems.
4. The software and applications that enable people to use information.
5. Content or information retrieval systems relevant to live trading in the specialist food area (whether audio, video, text or image). All with a strong emphasis on interoperability.

The GROW consortium involves representatives from all the relevant user groups in the specialised food sector, SNE food producers, national small business organisations, distributors, and retailers as well as individual consumers drawn in via the teleshopping pilot. By the end of the project, the pilots in Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Greece, will be linked and actively trading via the GROW demonstrator.

Users involved
 Rural and urban small businesses in both manufacturing and service, small business support associations, chambers of commerce, craft institutes, regional and sectoral development associations, software houses, universities, business schools.

Technologies and/or approach used
The project will utilise Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) communications, multi-media presentation and distribution, applications sharing, multi-vendor platforms and Intemet 3rd generation browsers.

Expected benefits for the citizen                                                                                                       The GROW concept will enable small business to participate and benefit from global trading therefore enhancing consumer access to new products regardless of the location of the consumer, with the focus on specialised and therefore short run product lines. GROW will significantly increase consumer choice.

Expected benefits for the users of the application
GROW will greatly reduce the complexity of trading both nationally within the EU and globally by storing standardised documentation on an electronic basis and providing both database and translation
support.

Expected benefits for the European Industries
GROW concepts are currently focused on the added value food sector, but could readily be transposed to other sectors which involve significant SME participation. The need to support small business global trading is urgent and will be met by GROW. The project will be of equal benefit in the areas of software encryption and teleshopping.

Contribution to EU-policies
The GROW concept strongly reflects the Fourth Priority embedded in the Bangemann report and meets the SME perspective both within the Fourth Framework and the EU SME Programme as adopted.

Since the project is in the business category other interesting sites to visit are:
Teletrade in ETD (European Telework Development) at http://www.eto.org.uk/ttrade/
and  MoU SME Electronic Commerce at http://www.eto.org.uk/ttrade/

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