The project is conducted within the Academy of Smart Specialisation, which is a collaboration on research between Karlstad University and Region Värmland in 2016-2020. The aim of the project is to develop and apply knowledge about gender, organizational change processes, gender integration* and norm-conscious innovation for increased innovation capacity, R & D intensity and growth of the region’s SMEs. Goal The project has been preceded by a feasibility study, which shows that regional SMEs, active in gender-segregated industries, have many common challenges from a gender perspective. These are the challenges that have laid the foundation for the development areas that should be focused specifically on in the project. The overall goal of the project is to develop and establish a regional gender academy that enables small and medium-sized enterprises to take advantage of the opportunities of gender integration, in terms of business benefits, innovation capacity and gender equality. Implementation The project has three main objectives: 1. Develop concepts and practical tools that can be used by SME to easily and cost-effectively develop the work with gender integration. 2. Develop and operate a network for the region’s growth and business-promoting actors, e.g. entrepreneurial organisations, clusters, county administrative board, municipalities, Chamber of Commerce, Almi and other key actors. 3. Further develop and establish a gender academy for SME, examine the effects of gender mainstreaming companies and develop an evaluation model. Business participation The project has as a target group SME in the industries; paper, IT and digitalisation as well as creative and cultural industries. These industries are some of the most gender segregated in the Värmland region and thus the project assesses that there is great potential to increase companies’ innovation capacity through gender and gender integration. A small number of SMEs will participate in a practical process based on their needs. Companies and the project’s experience from gender integration will then spread to a large number of SMEs in the form of large meetings. A leadership network will be formed for participating companies with the aim of enabling concept development of a gender academy and to support gender integration. Expected results and benefits at the end of the project period and in the long term Expected results are that the companies involved have developed their internal recruitment processes, working conditions, work environment and organisation and corporate culture from a gender equality perspective and thus become better at recruiting and retaining both women and men. The companies have developed their innovation processes from a gender perspective as a result of their efforts to visualise how norms shape innovation processes in companies and developed the corporate culture through increased knowledge of how norms regarding gender and masculinity condition innovation processes. This gives them a better opportunity to meet future market needs and increase their competitiveness. The companies have worked to review and develop their communication processes, which increased the opportunities to attract new skills and new customers Gender Academy for SME will after the end of the project be established as a resource bank and a centre for issues relating to gender, gender equality, innovation and growth in collaboration with the business community in the region and nationally. The digital concept igen is continuously further developed and used by companies to integrate their businesses. The project expects a reduced gender segregation in the regional labour market as well as increased innovation capacity, growth and R & D intensity at the region’s SME. An additional effect of the project is a clearer sustainability profile at the region’s SME through an increased focus on a sustainability perspective when it comes to HR issues.