The support of the European Commission, through its Leonardo da Vinci Community Vocational Training Action Programme, in this ongoing pilot project – MT/2002/B/F/139000 – is gratefully acknowledged.

This manual has been compiled by University of Malta Professor Godfrey Baldacchino (the NISSOS Project ideator and academic coordinator) with the kind support of the project’s 11 institutional partners, their delegates and associated support staff involved in the NISSOS Project.

These are: Estonia Chamber of Commerce and Industry-Saaremaa Branch (Delegate: Tullio Liblik); Kuressaare College at Tallinn Technical University (Maret Pank, Merlin Muur); Åland Trade Association (Mika Lindfors & Johnny Mattson); Åland Polytechnic (Anna-Lena Freman, Christer Kullman, & Thor-Bjorn Wik); Technological Institute of Iceland (Bjorn Gislason); Institute of Business Studies at the University of Iceland (Gylfi Dalmann Adalsteinsson); Foundation for Human Resources Development, Malta (Sandra Agius, Mario Grixti, Godwin Micallef, John Muscat Drago, Maria Pia Chircop); Malta Enterprise (Karl Herrera, Dorianne Debattista Grech); University of Malta (Roger Ellul Micallef, Saviour Rizzo); Malta College for Arts, Science and Technology (Frank Edwards); the Highland Council of Scotland (Catriona Maclean; Lisa Stephen) and the UHI Millennium Institute, Scotland (Maggie Marr; Anne Marie McDairmid, Stephanie Tristam; Billy MacKinnon, Terry Godfrey, John MacLatchey). Thanks also to the expert independent input of Joe Vella Bonnici (Malta), Ingi Runar Edvardsson (Iceland) and Tage Petersen (Denmark).

The institutional support of the University of Prince Edward Island, Canada, is also acknowledged.