Family businesses play a crucial role in sustainable economic development, job creation, regional support and competitiveness of the European countries. Unlike big international companies and corporate businesses, family firms have the valuable ability to overcome times of recession and economic stagnation which makes them a stable backbone of the economy. Moreover, their base is rooted in the country which assures keeping the economic profit and taxes inside a state. The goal of having healthy and prosperous small and medium-sized family businesses is thus favourable for all (not only) European states.However, family businesses face several specific obstacles which make it more challenging for them to survive in a long-term perspective. For instance, they face the challenge of transferring the company to the next generation. To be able to make this happen successfully they need to prepare a complex step-by-step plan. The EESC counts that 450 000 European family enterprises yearly face this challenge and about 150 000 of them shut down as a result of a failed transferring process. In other words, yearly about 600 000 jobs cease to exist because of the unsuccessful succession process.The SUFABU project’s main objectives are to help family entrepreneurs to manage the succession process successfully and to raise awareness about the necessity of implementing family businesses into state legislation. The consortium consists of partners from the Czech Republic, Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain, Belgium and Norway. Our goal is to create an innovative digital training system which would provide family entrepreneurs with knowledge and skills that will assist them in planning and coping with the intergenerational exchange and which would introduce the issue to a broader public. The main output of the proposed project is a complex and exhaustive learning platform based on different and complementary learning tools. During the project implementation, we will collect at least 36 case studies from all partner countries, realize desk research and write national reports, develop at least 10 micro-learning videos and in cooperation with several experts in the field prepare textual presentations. Thanks to the training platform, family businessmen will learn how to plan the process ahead, how is the process handled in different countries, different contexts and different business backgrounds, what are the possible obstacles which could occur during the process and much more. The primary target group of the project are family entrepreneurs and businessmen of any generations, both predecessors and successors. The secondary target group consists of public representatives, policymakers, public bodies, business associations and a broader public. The SUFABU project also aims to raise awareness about the issues connected to family businesses and thus prepare the basis for public debate about anchoring family businesses in states legislative and necessity of supporting and educating programs for family entrepreneurs. We will reach the target groups via countless dissemination activities and, moreover, we will organize 5 dissemination conferences in each partner country and one Final Dissemination Conference with expected number of at least 180 participants / stakeholders in total. The main reason for implementing this project transnationally is because it could help achieve the goals of the Europe 2020 Strategy prepared by the European Commission to improve productivity, strengthen competitiveness and support a sustainable economy. Carrying out the project transnationally has a wide range of benefits for all participants and target groups as it contributes to the exchange of good practices among family entrepreneurs and experts in the field in different countries. But above all, it could help real people with their businesses. The results of SUFABU project are expected to be actively used after project ends thanks to our cooperation with countless of family business associations, action groups and educational institutions who are interested in using the outputs for their members, followers and students.

"“Family firms have been the invisible giants of the European economy for far too long. It is time to stand up and fulfil their true potential in Europe! Family firms are crucially important for Europe. They make a significant conribution to Europe's GNP and employment, and tend to be great innovators, with a longer-term vision.""Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, Former President of the European Commission (EC) Scope and Benefits: Around 14mln EU companies (65-85% of all EU businesses) are family businesses, contributing 50% to Europe’s GDP and more than 60 mln jobs (60% of all jobs). Our project, SPRING, aims to help EU family businesses to fulfil their potential, by offering them a complete package with the necessary training, mentoring, support and guidance in the following areas:A. Smooth succession and business continuity, accounting for multi-dimensional factors (leadership, management, governmance, ownership, legal issues), through failed and successful casesB. Strategy for growth and internationalisation, built on innovation and regeneration.C. Development of entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship and interpreneurship across generations, converging the entrepeneurship and family business training content, promoting a start-up culture and an enterprising and innovation-based growth mindset within family businesses and considering other strategies besides succession (exit strategies, external investors in the company, etc.)D. Inclusive and responsible family business acts to ensure they adopt not only CSR practices but the full cycle (circular economics), to maximise value creation for all involved stakeholders, promoting inclusive entrepreneurship among the next generation members and female leaders.Main activities and outputs: Design and pilot an innovative and practical SPRING Training and Consultancy programme, jointly offered by renowned EU universities and adult training and consulting companies. This will be the first of its kind in Europe."