Impact: 91 SMEs have been supported over the period: 21 SMEI beneficiaries and 72 for IMC.
• €21 million has been brought in to the companies in terms of funding and investment
• €20 to € 30 million new turnover is forecast from their new innovation projects
All Scottish SMEI beneficiaries have been supported through COSME (EEN “Phase III” services), as well as being linked into the full range of support available regionally and nationally. The EEN Scotland team has all worked closely with all the implicated coaches, introducing them to the host structures’ company account managers and teams. IMC and SoE clients have been offered business innovation coaching as part of the service package. Holistic all round support (EEN and wider innovation ecosystem) has been made available to all our SMEI and IMC clients.
Pipeline and capacity building
The approach of EEN Scotland has been to focus not simply on delivering coaching services to SMEI winners: but on actively building the pipeline and mentoring potential strong SMEI applicants. Potential applicants were filtered from IMC clients, winners of national/regional innovation project challenges and host structures’ clients with measurable innovation, international and growth ambition/potential.
Resources were dedicated (under COSME) in preparing them for possible submission to the SMEI programme (focussing on impact, connections to markets and customers, validation of innovation, Return on Investment , investor readiness etc). The EEN team mentored and supported the highest potential projects and SMEs by appraising their innovation projects, building capacity (international and innovation) and helping to develop and critically review their bids prior to submission. This pipeline, capacity building and project development has been supported through the COSME SGA, and closely linked to the Innovation Management capacity activities.
As can be seen below, this approach and close tie-in with the COSME activities paid dividends, resulting in markedly higher success rates than those of the SMEI programme overall:
• 86% of the total funded Scottish SMEI Phase II beneficiaries were mentored by EEN Scotland prior to submission.
• 70% of the total funded SMEI Scottish proposals were mentored by EEN Scotland prior to submission.
• 66% of total Scottish SMEI applications over the funding threshold, were mentored by EEN Scotland prior to submission.
• 64% of Scottish SMEs receiving a Seal of Excellence (SoE) were mentored by EEN Scotland prior to submission.
The project and associated service packages services have provided a catalyst for EEN Scotland to further integrate into the regional/national support ecosystem and host structure provision, and to define a more centred, holistic approach to serving our clients. The additionality and value add of EEN Scotland have been brought into sharp focus, allowing us to define a highly tailored service across our client base (H2020 and COSME) supporting our SMEs’ innovation, international and growth ambitions.
