The objective of the project was to provide a new Enterprise Europe Network service to enhance the innovation management capacity of SMEs in Lombardy and in Emilia-Romagna. The project has been implemented by three partners of the EEN SIMPLER Consortium, Finlombarda, the coordinator, ASTER and CCIAA di Milano/Innovhub SSI.
The work plan consisted of two work packages, one for each typology of services:
- WP1: “Key account management” for the beneficiaries of the SME instrument
- WP2: “Enhancing SME innovation management capacity” for innovating SME independently from a specific project.
EEN partners in Lombardy and Emilia Romagna, despite the short-time available to carry out the project, have successfully delivered Key Account Management services to the beneficiaries of the SME Instrument of Horizon 2020 and supported particularly promising SMEs to improve their capacity to manage innovation processes.
The new services were provided to two target groups of companies:
- Beneficiaries of the SME Instrument: the partners contacted and involved all SMEs that have received funding in Phase 1 SME Instrument - Horizon 2020 (Emilia-Romagna Region 3; Lombardia Region 9). The SMEs that required and used the services were 8 (Emilia-Romagna Region 2; Lombardia Region 6).
- SMEs with significant innovation activities and a high potential for internationalization with reference to the Innovation Management Service (IM): the service, well integrated with other Enterprise Europe Network activities, was provided to companies located in the two regions, selected on the basis of different criteria: “predisposition to innovation”, area of activity, investments in research, participation in research projects or involvement in other innovation activities of Enterprise Europe Network.
