"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.
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