Establishing in-depth services enhancing the innovation management capacity of South West of France SMEs in 2017-2018

Project Information

MAGIC SWF SMEs 3

Grant agreement ID: 739631

DOI

10.3030/739631

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

€ 250 527,50

EU contribution

€ 250 527,50

Coordinated by

CHAMBRE DE COMMERCE ET D'INDUSTRIE DE REGION OCCITANIE
France

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MAGIC SWF SMEs 3 (Establishing in-depth services enhancing the innovation management capacity of South West of France SMEs in 2017-2018)

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

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The project involved three partners of the Enterprise Europe Network South West France consortium which covers two regions (Nouvelle-Aquitaine and part West of Occitanie).
The general objective was to contribute to raise the competitiveness of SMEs from the two regions by offering support services in the area of innovation management. The project has also contributed to develop more efficient and more effective innovation processes and higher quality innovation management capacity assessment and support services.

The support has been delivered as service packages of 7 days to 2 groups of SMEs:
a) Beneficiaries of the SME Instrument of Horizon 2020: to enhance the probability of a successful exploitation of the innovation project results and lead to the sustainable growth of the beneficiary beyond the participation in Horizon 2020. Partners pinpointed weaknesses in the innovation capacities of the beneficiary, selected suitable coaches to address the identified weaknesses and monitored the coach-client relationship and to support the beneficiary through the SME instrument project
b) SMEs with significant innovation activities and a high potential for internationalisation: to enhance their innovation management capacities to be able to gain new international markets and leaderships. The support service consisted in an in-depth innovation assessment in order to develop and implement a tailored action plan to improve the SMEs capacity to manage innovation processes. The partners used two dedicated assessment tools: IMP3rove and Check’Innov.
The project lasted 24 months and provided 78 support service packages.

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

Based on the 13 KAM services targeted in 2017-2018, 21 KAM cases have been implemented in the consortium geographical area: 16 have been closed in 2018 and 5 cases are still on-going. Nearly all cases are related to phase 1 projects (17/21).

Based on the 71 EIMC services targeted in 2017-2018, 57 EIMC packages have been implemented in 2017-2018 in the consortium geographical area: 49 new packages and 8 packages started before 2017.

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)

SMEs served with the coach services are enthusiastic both by the KAM support (Needs & Gaps Analysis and follow-up) and the coach service outcomes. SMEs are very responsive and quickly agree to benefit from the service; and for closed cases, their feedback is very positive: “Coach assigned by the Network was an expert on the targeted maket. There have been several constructive sessions with him providing many information, also useful to prepare the phase 2 proposal” (SME’s owner quote).
The coaching service had already had a positive impact on SMEs as it enabled the SME owner to challenge the company business model as well as the development strategy, and accelerated the go-to market.

The accompanied SMEs indicated that the EIMC services enabled them to:
• become aware of the need to devote more time to this very strategic work
• better formalize their strengths and weaknesses
• structure a real innovation strategy based on a methodology and tools adapted to their needs.

Expected impacts for beneficiaries of the services are:
- increase their ability to innovate and to deliver innovations to the market
- increase market share
- increase turnover
- create or preserve job