Raising Innovation Capacity for Innovative Companies from Latvia (2017-2018)

Project Information

InnoSME-LV-2017-2018

Grant agreement ID: 739690

DOI

10.3030/739690

Project closed

EC signature date 27 February 2017

Start date 1 January 2017

End date 31 December 2018

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 45 548,75

EU contribution

€ 45 548,00

Coordinated by

LATVIJAS INVESTICIJU UN ATTISTIBASAGENTURA
Latvia

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - InnoSME-LV-2017-2018 (Raising Innovation Capacity for Innovative Companies from Latvia (2017-2018))

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

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The overall objective of the project Raising Innovation Capacity for Innovative Companies from Latvia (2017-2018) 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. The offered services are delivered in the geographical area NUTS1 region - Latvia by EEN-LV Consortium partner – Latvian Technological Center (EEN-Latvia/LTC).
The successfully fulfilled project differentiate between the case level of the innovation project led by the SME - beneficiary of the SME instrument of the Horizon 2020 and in intervention at the corporate level in the case of high innovation and internationalization potential SMEs. The nature of barriers and challenges related to each situation are different:
• on the case level - they are related to a search of a viable business models of the new offering or process to be developed in the course of the project;
• on the corporate dimension of the SME - the challenges are in the organizational practices and culture that can slow down future innovation projects or ability to benefit to full extent from their results.
To achieve this, the following objectives were foreseen:
Objective 1: To support SMEs, as the beneficiaries of the SME Instrument to identify bottlenecks to the creation of economic impact in companies benefiting from grants by Horizon2020's SME instrument and address these bottlenecks with the help of capable coaches.
Objective 2: To 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.

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 project consists of two work packages: WP1 and WP2. The management of these work packages was integrated as a part of EEN-Latvia/LTC activities, and the services are offered in parallel to ordinary EEN services. The awareness rising, as it is described in communication strategy and justified in Implementation strategy, of the SME Instrument and offered services Key account management and Enhancing SME innovation management capacity is achieved by using EEN-Latvia advertisement services: press releases, webpage een.lv innovation.lv EEN-Latvia newsletter, etc.
The selection of beneficiaries - SMEs is made by consensus between all senior Enterprise Europe Network innovations experts nominated for these in-depth services.
Work package 1 (WP1), included Phase 1 and Phase 2 of key account management (KAM) functions of SME instrument.
In parallel WP2 is implemented, to help particularly promising SMEs enhance their innovation management capacities. The purpose of this activity is to carry out a diagnostic audit of selected SMEs that are capable for growth and successful internationalization.

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 this period the Consortium successfully delivered 20 (7-KAM, 13-EIMC) service packs to companies from different industry sectors. The undertaken actions –service packages gave a significant impact for SMEs. The companies innovation capacity was increased. The main impact will be in next 3-5 year, however already today the companies have benefits: increase of turnover; new products were developed; service innovation introduced; companies pitched to approach investors and to take active part in different funding programs.

H2020 Brokerage and informative event in Riga,2018