On the 18th and 19th of November 2019 in Leiden, the Netherlands, all the work package (WP) leaders of BEYOND4.0 spent two intensive days preparing the research framework for the main project fieldwork. Two external inputs have been provided by Prof. Peter Boxall, Human Resource Management, University of Auckland (https://www.business.auckland.ac.nz/people/pbox001) on "Prospects for high-involvement work systems" and Prof. Erik Stam, University of Utrecht (https://www.uu.nl/staff/fcstam), on "Measuring Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Elements, Quality and Performance".

The presentations of Mr. Frans van der Zee and Mr. Peter Oeij, WP4 and WP8 leaders, were followed by practical work on: research design; data collection instruments: surveys, checklists, interview protocols.

Mrs. Sylvie Hamon-Cholet and Mrs. Silvia Napolitano’s (CNAM) presentation was followed by discussion about the integration of EU level survey data from WP3.

The research consortium confirmed the choice of 6 regions (Oulu and Salo in Finland, Sofia in Bulgaria, Düsseldorf and Dortmund in Germany, Zuidoost-Noord-Brabant in the Netherlands, the Basque country in Spain and West-Midlands in the UK), and proceeded ahead with the selection of regional stakeholders and companies for the research.