Innovation Management Support for SMEs

Project Information

Innosupport

Grant agreement ID: 739557

DOI

10.3030/739557

Project closed

EC signature date 26 April 2017

Start date 1 January 2017

End date 31 December 2018

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 50 500,00

EU contribution

€ 50 500,00

Coordinated by

IMG INNOVATIONS MANAGEMENT GMBH
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Innosupport (Innovation Management Support for SMEs)

Reporting period: 2017-01-01 to 2018-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The general objective of the described action is to contribute to smart growth in the European Union by increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of investments in research, development and innovation and by contributing to a better and more efficient connection of actors along the innovation chain.
To achieve the above mentioned objectives the proposed grant shall:
a) Identify bottlenecks to the creation of economic impact in companies benefitting from grants by Horizon2020's SME instrument and address these bottlenecks with the help of capable coaches. This service to beneficiaries of the SME instrument in the context of a giving project is called 'Key account management'.
b) Increase the efficiency and effectiveness of innovation processes in small and medium sized enterprises with significant innovation activities that could potentially become beneficiaries of European support to research and innovation but would not have effective access to consulting services for innovation management. This service, provided independently from a specific innovation project and focussing on a company's innovation management system, is called 'Enhancing the innovation management capacity of SMEs

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

The described strategy in the FPA was successfully implemented by all partners.
The objective was to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of innovation processes in small and medium sized enterprises with significant innovation. This service, provided independently from a specific innovation project and focussing on a company's innovation management system.
In two out of three SME instrument phase 1 beneficiaries led to a successful coaching.
Cooperation agreements with regional stakeholders (ISB an IHK) and the scale up project under COSME helped to identify SME for the EIMC service. Although three companies are interested in an innovation audit. In all three cases only kick off meetings, explaining the methodology took take place but the IMProve audits did not start in the reporting period.

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)

There is a clear relation between the competitiveness of (national) economies and their expenditure in research, development and innovation (RDI). However, on the company level this relation is less obvious. In fact, a company's share of revenue re-invested in RDI is not a strong predictor of the company's growth performance. Growth champions within a sector tend to have significantly better 'innovation management' ideas, they are more efficient in translating the more promising ones into projects and they are more capable of filtering out ideas which do not generate great expectations.

Enhancing SME’s innovation management will first of all help SME in their innovation readiness. Companies consulted in the described way will better understand what is needed for proper management of innovation projects and how to foster new developments.