The partners participating in this action, Innobasque and SPRI, proposed fro the period 2015 and 2016 to deliver 28 “service packages” to SMEs in our region: 22 KAM services to SME Instrument beneficiaries (12 Phase 1 and 10 Phase 2.) and 6 “Enhancing Innovation Management Capacity” services. Regarding the KAM services, during the period, we have finished the 3 Phase 1 cases from 2014 and provided services to 25 Phase 1 beneficiaries and to 8 Phase 2 beneficiaries. Regarding the EIMC services, we have finished the 3 cases from 2014 and provides services to 7 SMEs of the 10 expcected in the proposal.
The conclusion in that the results of the SME Instrument calls in the Basque Country are excellent and in the Phase 1 case, the results exceed the expectations. The potential impact of the SME Instrument is very important both for the SME beneficiaries, in particular, and for the Basque industrial tissue in general. Besides, most of the projects developed by these companies are in line with our Basque RIS3 strategic priorities: Advanced manufacturing; Energy and Biosciences-health.
The consortium has successfully executed the Implementation Strategy and has developed preparatory actions for the KAM service in order to prepare interested companies for SME Instrument Phase 1 and Phase 2. During the period, the partners offered advice to the Basque SMEs interested in applying to the SME Instrument Calls, both Phase I and II, in particular to the SMEs with the Seal of Excellence. It is important to highlight that several Basque SMEs have been beneficiaries of the HOIRZONTE PYME Program an Initiative of the Spanish Government that support the SMEs winners of the Phase I Seal of Excellence. Unfortunately, there are no Programs, national or local, which support the winners of the Phase II Seal of Excellence. The consortium has focused its efforts in presenting the methodology to different specific companies, overall presentation of the methodology and service to the priority clusters in the Basque Country and send generic information in a newsletter.
Regarding the service offered by the Basque Node related to “Enhancing Innovation Management Capacities”, in 2015 and 2016, there have been important deviations with respect to the proposal. So far, just 7 of the 10 planned SMEs (4 in the 2014 Pilot Project and 6 in the BASKAM 2015-2106 project) have taken part in the service. It is quite difficult for us to convince SMEs to take part in a process like this. The principal reason is that uring the last years, the Basque Government has been very active in the promotion of innovation culture in companies offering specific grants to those companies that were aiming to improve their innovation capacity, so most of the industrial companies have a specific innovation process already defined so they do not see the benefits of using this specific methodology. Anyhow, in the next period 2017-2018 we will have to increase our effort in contacting with companies presenting the process of the EEN programme “Services Enhancing the Innovation Management Capacity of SMEs”, and showing the benefits of taking part on it.
