Periodic Reporting for period 1 - INCAME-2 (INnovation CApacities of Mediterranean Enterprises)
Période du rapport: 2015-01-01 au 2016-12-31
From most of partners, strong actions to promote both the activities related to the SME-Instrument and to EIMC have been carried out. The staff of the host organizations involved in the EEN activities has taken part in courses, working groups and trainings as:
• Centralised Network trainings PUMP UP THE KAM Bruxelles 28 29 June 2016;
• Working Group KAM e EIMC 19-05-2016 Milan;
• EXPERIENCE SHARING Innovation Needs Analysis and Coach Selection ROME 6-7 OCTOBER 2015-09-09;
• Decentralised training - IMP3rove - Introduction to Action Plan Development – 18-19 April 2016 Palermo Consorzio Arca.
Any initiative to inform, raise awareness and support companies was carried out by the consortium partners with the aim of making known the H2020 Program to companies and SMEs, informing on how to participate and providing support, in order to have a greater number of participating companies and consequently more KAM cases in perspective.
By way of example, P05 as far as concerns EIMC services, has sent “promotional” letters to the companies, to invite SMEs with a suitable target directly, to allow them to take advantage of the analysis of innovation management system, and of the production of personalized action plan. In the case of P08 and P13, the companies were contacted either by e-mail or telephone in order to promote directly the project and if necessary the service. P09 published in 2015 a specific “Call for expressions of interest concerning the EIMC service”. In the case of P10 a call to make appeal its services has been organized, offering with a small notice the consulting days of EEN, days that would still be free within EIMC / IS activities.
In terms of results obtained are noteworthy some cases that after the phase 1 applied with success in phase 2 obtaining a grant or in some case the seals of excellence.
All companies served with KAM and EIMC services have been properly registered to receive services related to COSME activities (drafting of technological offering profiles, involvement in B2B, CM or workshops, scouting, personalized audit, identification of alternative funding sources, etc..).
As far as concerns tools used by the Consortium for the delivery of the services, according to the characteristics and size of the company, together with the Intake Check used to get a picture of the specific company for the purposes of the assessment tool selection, two instruments were used:
1) the IMPR3OVE tool ""IMP³rove - European Innovation Management Academy"";
2) Innovation Health Check - questionnaire and evaluation platform were made available by the Enterprise Ireland EEN partner.
Downstream of the assessment activities have been defined the specific action plans for each company and, subsequently, were activated supports for the implementation of the action plans. Finally for each company was elaborated a report describing activities carried out and expected impacts.
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Synergies with actions under COSME have produced preparatory actions, to propose and deliver specialized services with the help of the EEN experts. In terms of expected impact all assisted companies expect to increase presence in the international market to enhance skills, to develop business models that speed up the internationalization process by eliminating differences with European competitors.
The potential impact on job created or maintained and the financial gain or saving allowed cannot be exactly estimated. However, the provision of the EIMC services should at least have allowed the preservation of the Clients’ status quo in terms of maintenance of employment levels and an increase in the Clients’ competitiveness thanks also to a greater awareness on innovation management and its importance. Since participation in the Instrument SME Instrument in the geographic area covered by Consortium, is not very high, the number of companies followed is contained. At the same time, in some cases the limited size and structure of the company’s’ organization and the consequent impossibility in applying analytical methods which require the presence of structured organizations with at least some component of R & D or marketing development made more difficult the selection of suitable companies to the provision of EIMC services
The number of SMEs supported overall is 122: 30 as KAM and 92 as EIMC.