InnoBremen – Establishing services enhancing the innovation management capacities of SMEs in the Federal State of Bremen

Project Information

InnoBremen

Grant agreement ID: 674835

DOI

10.3030/674835

Project closed

EC signature date 17 July 2015

Start date 1 January 2015

End date 31 December 2016

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 70 000,00

EU contribution

€ 70 000,00

Coordinated by

FREIE HANSESTADT BREMEN
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - InnoBremen (InnoBremen – Establishing services enhancing the innovation management capacities of SMEs in the Federal State of Bremen)

Reporting period: 2015-01-01 to 2016-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

"The project, carried out by Enterprise Europe Network Bremen under the topic “Specific activities in the context of innovation support (Horizon 2020)”, namely the in-depth services enhancing the innovation capacity of SMEs, i.e. “Key account management under the SME Instrument of Horizon 2020” and “Services to enhance the innovation management capacities of SMEs”, was implemented in 2015-2016.

Innovation is a key driver for the success of enterprises, a requirement for their competiveness and thus a precondition for exploiting international opportunities in the Single Market and beyond. Offering growth-oriented business and innovation support services to SMEs is therefore seen as the core task of the Europe Enterprise Network.

The overall objective of the action is to enhance management capacity of growth-oriented SMEs with significant innovation activities and a high potential for internationalisation. The consortium aims at delivering its services to two different groups of SMEs:

1. The Key Account Management services are provided to beneficiaries of the SME Instrument within the framework of the Horizon 2020 programme.

2. The ""Enhancing the innovation management capacity of SMEs"" services are delivered to enterprises with high potential for innovation and internationalisation.

In order to contribute to the growth of the EU by increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of investments in research, development of innovations as well as by contributing to a more efficient connection of actors along the innovation chains, the services have been provided since its introduction by the EC in 2014 and are available for SMEs in Bremen since then.

The services for the two different groups of SMEs differ:

Beneficiaries of the SME Instrument are accompanied through the project phases 1 and 2 to help identify weaknesses in the innovation capacities that hinder the realisation of growth and therefore limit the development of the full commercial potential. The service package ""Enhancing the innovation management capacity of SMEs"" (EIMC) aims at increasing the effectiveness of innovation processes in small and medium sized enterprises, namely by offering the provision of innovation and technology audits and technology transfer partnering services; these companies could become beneficiaries of European support for research and innovation afterwards. By means of an assessment of their innovation management a needs analysis will help to develop a suiting individual action plan.
"

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

"During the funding period 2015-2016 the following services have been offered:

1. Key Account Management services for beneficiaries of the SME Instrument under Horizon 2020
2. Service package “Enhancing the innovation management capacity of SMEs""

Both service packages, offered by Enterprise Europe Network Bremen as an integral part to other activities, has contributed to the enhancement of innovation management capacities in the respective enterprises. In 2015-2016, have been three beneficiaries for the SME Instrument in the Federal state of Bremen, only one of them being a coordinator, privileged to receive KAM services. Twelve EIMC work packages have been delivered to SMEs in the Federal state of Bremen.

"

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

In 2015-2016 there were three beneficiaries for the SME Instrument in the Federal state of Bremen, only one of them being a coordinator privileged to receive KAM services. The consortium has been able to deliver twelve EIMC work packages to SMEs in the Federal state of Bremen.

The EIMC services where provided to enterprises with significant potential for innovation and internationalisation. The actions have met the different objectives of the call and helped to unlock the existing potential within the beneficiary companies. The chosen methods have shown to be widely accepted as the close cooperation between the beneficiaries and the innovation management experts allows a good understanding of the processes and are therefore very transparent. The actions have been linkable to advantages for the beneficiaries e.g. in the signing of cooperation contracts for newly developed services, optimization of quality processes, enhancement of international sales, methods for the strategic development of products and services or granted national funding.
The services are expected to influence the innovation management capacities in the significant fields of business operation of the companies. The aim is to initiating growth with the implementation of tailor made action plans. The different ways of growth are derived from short- and long-term goals of the companies and are therefore individual.

Measurable impacts so far have ranged from identifying new market opportunities and finding cooperation partners for research activities up to the application for national funding. These impacts are in line with the Implementation Strategy of Enterprise Europe Network Bremen, namely the objective to facilitate access to European and international markets for SMEs and to provide growth-oriented, integrated business and innovation support services that help strengthen the competitiveness and sustainability of European enterprises).

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