Enhance innovation management capacities in Andalusian SMEs. CESEAND InnoAses 2017-18.

Project Information

CESEAND InnoAses3

Grant agreement ID: 742009

DOI

10.3030/742009

Project closed

EC signature date 8 May 2017

Start date 1 January 2017

End date 31 December 2018

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 182 560,00

EU contribution

€ 182 560,00

Coordinated by

AGENCIA DE INNOVACION Y DESARROLLO DE ANDALUCIA
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CESEAND InnoAses3 (Enhance innovation management capacities in Andalusian SMEs. CESEAND InnoAses 2017-18.)

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

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The improvement of the Innovation Management Capacities of the European SMEs become crucial to achieve the objectives described in the 2017-2018 HORIZON 2020 work programme “Innovation in SMEs”, based on its three main pillars of Excellent Science, Competitive Industries and the Tackling Societal Challenges.
Its main objective is to create more and more innovative European SMEs and to increase their relations with other potential European partners, in order to reinforce their potential cooperation becoming more and more competitive into the single market.

The provision of European financial services such as Horizon2020 and its synergies with other European funds represent an important help to make new business and organizational models achieve the potential SMEs who are able to reach out new geographic markets.

According to this call, this project has achieved the following objectives:

• To address the lack of innovation as a barrier for SMEs growth.
• To enhance the innovation capacities of SMEs in Andalusia, in order to make them more competitive through the provision of advanced services.
• To increase the economic impact from innovation activities in SMEs.
• To drive forward non-technological catalysts for innovation in SMEs.
• To develop, on behalf of the entities which form the Enterprise Europe Network, new ways and tools to provide services to SMEs that contribute to enhance their competitive capacities.
• To provide support to beneficiaries of SME Instrument, accompanying them in their transition through Phases 1 and 2.
• To identify future potential applicants to successfully take part in SME Instrument.
• To develop methodologies that can be enhanced through their integration into the Andalusian Innovation Ecosystem.

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 consortium, despite having reduced in one the total number of members initially planned at the beginning of the contract by the withdrawal of Partner 03 ‘Instituto Andaluz de Tecnología’ IAT at the beginning of 2017, without having subsequently carried out any activity, has satisfactorily achieved the 86% execution of complete diagnostics initially planned.

The percentage of achieved objectives (87%) during 2017 and 2018 (25 KAM, 1 DIQ, 29 IMPROVE and 32 IHC) would have reached the 102% if 5 additional IMPROVE cases which are started but not finished: 5 KAM complete coaching activity (IDEA), 5 IMPROVE and 6 IHC services in progress by CEA; would be included in the percentage. It means a total of 103 advisory services realized in Andalusia, Ceuta and Melilla.

In this timeframe, the consortium continued delivering services in a similar way as in 2015 and 2016 through IMPROVE, IHC and CoachCom tools, providing as well the Digital Innovation Quotient (DIQ), the Key Account Management (KAM) and the Enhancing Innovation Management Capacities (EIMC) services.

Taking into account the regional Andalusian Smart Specialization Strategy and the three main pillars of the European Programme ‘Horizon 2020’: Excellent Science, Competitive Industries and Societal Challenges, the main activities carried out during this period have been the following:

• Identification of the different target groups (executed at the beginning of the contract): SME Instrument beneficiaries among other SMEs with significant innovation activities and high potential for internationalization.
• Description of the innovation management tools used in the project's implementation. IMP3ROVE (DIQ) and IHC Tool: SWOT Analysis; Innovation Management system; Innovation capacities: (Ideas Management, Projects developments, IPR Markets needs and Financial and Non-Financial Indicators) and other specific techniques take into account despite each diagnostic.
• Company visits and calls to detect interest of potential companies in the services mentioned above with the development and assessment of on average 7 days package services: Enhance SME innovation management capacities (EIMC) and Key Account Management (KAM) over the region covered despite both target groups.

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)

Some of the following capacities and know-how have been transferred to the advised SMEs:

• Provision of tools to gain an understanding of their organisation's context, especially the innovation ecosystem in order to turn it into a business ally.
• Raise awareness to establish the leadership and the commitment of the SME's management in innovation process and techniques to implement successfully an innovation plan.
• Enable SMEs to identify and encourage internal and external factors that support innovation as an enhancement of the business and develop the innovation management process.
• Set up a balanced scorecard that allows innovation management to be piloted and enhanced.
• Implementation of an exhaustive analysis, including recommendations and improvement proposals, for its possible successful participation in SME Instrument.
• A tailored made proposal of services managed by Enterprise Europe Network, which contributes to enhance SME’S business plan's development.

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