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Design Customized Support for Innovative SMEs

Project description

New support service for SME innovation

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of Europe's economy and represent 99 % of all businesses in the EU. This is why the innovation of SMEs is encouraged. The EU-funded DCS-iSMEs project will create a new innovation support service to enable SMEs to develop their operations and for the host country to profit from the investments. The project aims to highlight the benefits of investing in SMEs and the benefits for SMEs. The project will compare two distinct groups of five enterprises. The first includes SMEs that applied for traditional programmes. The second group will make use of the new innovation support scheme. The project will follow both groups and will conduct a feasibility study.

Objective

The aim of this specific project is to set up a brand-new innovation support service –a service that will enable both the country make profit out of its investments on SMEs and the SMEs further develop their operations by enhancing the use of Design. Two closed groups will be developed; the first one will be a traditional group of 5 beneficiaries of previously implemented programmes, which will run the common procedure after finishing the implementation of their project –the Comparison Group. This group, just like all those beneficiaries till today, will have no contact/support by our organisation, after finishing their project. The second closed group will make use of the new innovation support scheme. A closed group of 5 SMEs –the “Treatment Group”– will be selected and they will be offered a Design Clinic service, a service that through which, they will fully understand their future challenges and which are their opportunities. They will be also offered some introductory workshops in order to understand the value of Design and its mindset. After the introductory workshops, they will receive a Design Customized Mentoring service –a service through which they will be provided guidance on how to strategically integrate design thinking in their products, services and operations. This is a new innovation support scheme, which seems more than needed. A call for expression of interest will be published targeting to SMEs that have already made use of a financial support programme. After selecting the Treatment Group, the project will directly call SMEs that will be monitored regarding their business indicators, and will not receive the new service, formatting the Comparison Group. This way, the project will assure that the two groups will be equivalent. The project will monitor both groups development rates and will come up with a feasibility study regarding the provision if the specific scheme, which intends to make permanent.

Keywords

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Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

CSA - Coordination and support action

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-INNOSUP-2018-2020

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Coordinator

BUSINESS AND CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT CENTRE
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 60 000,00
Address
6TH KM HARILAOU THERMIS LEDA MARIA BLOCK HERMES BUILDING
57 001 THERMI THESSALONIKI
Greece

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Region
Βόρεια Ελλάδα Κεντρική Μακεδονία Θεσσαλονίκη
Activity type
Other
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 60 000,00
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