The International Economic Relations Center (IERC) to Bulgarian Industrial Association (BIA) is a project coordinator “Upskilling Lab 4.0” funded by the Erasmus+ programme. Among the project’s partners are organisations from Bulgaria, Spain, Slovenia, Belgium and Netherlands. The project “Upskilling Lab 4.0.” provide a model, framework and tools, including digital, to not only help companies of different size and stage of development connect but also to develop the skills, knowledge and competences of the personnel for Industry 4.0. The results of our project develop new educational approach (by the platform), content and materials to foster collaboration and innovation management based on the new standards group CEN/TS 16555. The main project goal is to provide skill improvement opportunities to companies’ staff (managers and employees) in order to connect international start-ups, scaleups, and established companies operating in specific verticals with focus on modern technologies and innovation (Industry 4.0) through a robust model of collaboration under the paradigm of open innovation. In terms of the latter the project focuses on business-to-business collaboration as key target are start-ups, scale-ups from one side and mid-sized and large corporats - from another. The specific target group is the staff of both groups - companies in start/growth and established companies. The project targets primarily mid- and upper level managers and secondary - employees - in innovation and collaboration roles. “Upskilling lab 4.0.” as it is revealed by the name aims to establish a model and conditions for collaboration in the Lab conditions for testing and developing innovations for two groups of businesses: in growth - start-ups and scale-ups and established - mid-sized and large. The project evolves through iteration cycles as it develops innovations and non-existing training products. The main results are the intellectual outputs with the intermediate results generated at the development steps (activities). Link to the official UpSkilling Lab 4.0 website: https://www.upskillinglab.eu/