Best practices already applied in support schemes for innovative SMEs and startups were shared among participants focused on the experience from implementation schemes similar to SME Instrument Phase 1, from other schemes supporting highly innovative SMEs and startups carried out inside and outside of the Consortium and from the European instruments designed to support this type of applicant. These experiences were shared via presentations of RFOS, presentations of guests, discussions during workshops, questionnaires, and surveys.
The opportunity to share experiences, discuss parameters of the calls, best and bad practices of providing services to SMEs, and the pressure and commitment to apply it on a national level motivated the agencies from (not only) widening countries to design innovation support schemes for SMEs and start-ups. Also, the discussion on the provision of coaching services and the budget allowing them to implement it right away encouraged them to do so. Moreover, the opportunity to select the best companies and let them compete with other European companies was inspiring.
10 consortium members managed to use the lessons learned in the GO-SME project in designing their funding schemes supporting highly innovative SMEs and start-ups. These were based on the common criteria that were agreed upon in the consortium of the project.
The Consortium discussed widely the experience of using national or international experts but did not find a way of sharing their pools. The most of participants were not willing to share the databases of experts and the Consortium did not get access to the EISMEA pool of experts. Each RFO approached this matter on a national level using its own resources or resources of its partners or networks they are part of.
Two tasks were dedicated to collecting experience from providing coaching services and about how to design support services. Only a small number of partners had real practice in designing coaching schemes (mostly those who implemented calls similar to SME Instrument in the past) hence many exploited the acquired know-how from the abovementioned tasks.
Each agency nominated 2 panelists for the International Evaluation Panel. Based on criteria focused on the experience from EIC Accelerator, thematic focus, nationality, and gender 10 experts were chosen to participate in the panel. In October 2022 10 RFOs nominated 48 companies for the International Evaluation Panel. The Consortium shared how they selected these companies, from which calls, and what criteria were applied during the Consortium meeting dedicated to the preparation of the International Evaluation Panel Meeting.
