ISE is an Interreg 2 Seas project which supports businesses from 5 regions (Kent, Hauts-de-France, East & West Flanders, and the SW of the Netherlands) with becoming more internationalised & innovative. There are 7 project partners (Kent County Council, Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce, Aditec, VOKA East Flanders, VOKA West Flanders, POM & the Innovatiehuis).Together they are helping SMEs to enable them to grow their business & find international contacts.

Since the start of the project, some 944 SMEs have benefited from various events in their regions in the form of 31 Taster Sessions which introduced innovation methods to SMEs. These were followed by 8 Sector-Focused Workshops led by sector experts from the wider partner regions and were attended by 162 SMEs.

A series of cross-border events have also taken place bringing together businesses from the 4 countries from all ISE target sectors: Food & Drink, Mechatronics, Digital & Creative & New Materials.12 of these were part of the 'Innovation Pathway' Programme with 283 SMEs attending, making new connections & participating in bespoke activities with a focus on product pitches, networking & building contacts.

Businesses have also gained useful insights & feedback on the potential of their products & services to fit into different European markets. Feedback from events was very positive: "the event provided help with innovation and product development" and "I just wanted to say thank you again for such a wonderful few days, the organisation was perfect and the event was so inspiring. There will definitely be some business to be done following this event."

6 Major Innovation Events have taken place since June 2018 enabling ISE companies to find out about market trends and meet international contacts from their sector. Events included CEBIT (Hannover), JEC World (Paris), Hannover Messe, Tech Open Air (Berlin), Anuga (Dusseldorf) and Industry (Barcelona). Two more of these events will take place in 2020; Horecava (Amsterdam) and Tavola (Kortrijk).

ISE SMEs are continuing to benefit from 1-2-1 assessments to explore their export & innovation potential. This is thanks to the diagnostic tool developed by the ISE partners. 113 businesses across the ISE regions have benefited from this tool which has provided them with concrete recommendations about increasing their innovation and internationalisation potential.

ISE is still offering opportunities for SMEs to get involved in the project during the first half of 2020.