Eastern Romanian Business Support Network support for innovative SMEs

Project Information

ERBSN 4 H2020

Grant agreement ID: 830956

DOI

10.3030/830956

Project closed

EC signature date 7 November 2018

Start date 1 January 2019

End date 31 December 2019

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 63 005,00

EU contribution

€ 63 005,00

Coordinated by

CAMERA DE COMERT, INDUSTRIE, NAVIGATIE SI AGRICULTURA CONSTANTA
Romania

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ERBSN 4 H2020 (Eastern Romanian Business Support Network support for innovative SMEs)

Reporting period: 2019-01-01 to 2019-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The existing RO2 regional context does not encourage companies to perform as highly innovative or develop their business internationally.
RO2 is a modest innovator, according to Regional Innovation Scoreboard, with low innovation and R&D activities undertaken by SMEs.
Hence, the innovation activities refer mainly to modest product or service diversification so that to meet the local consumers demand with few enterprises including internationalization within their business development strategy.

ERBSN 4 H2020 project aims to:
- deliver Key account management (KAM) services for RO2 SMEs benefiting of SMEs Instrument / EIC Pilot under H2020 and support the for achieving their innovation project success;
- deliver services to enhance the innovation management capacities (EIMC) and processes of RO2 SMEs with innovation activities and potential for international growth;
- develop skills and competencies of ERBSN KAM and EIMC consultants.

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

During H2020 SGA3 2019, taking into account the RO2 situation described above and the fact that no regional SME was successfully applying to H2020 SME Instrument, no KAM services were delivered by ERBSN Partners.
Specific efforts were made within ERBSN COSME activities in order to support the development of successful SME Instrument proposals.
ERBSN consortium continued the efforts made in order to improve this difficult RO2 innovation performance situation.
On the other hand, for EIMC services, ERBSN active partners started or delivered over 100% of the planned targets for the SGA2.
Incremental innovation projects were, mainly, identified and supported as well as organizational and product innovations.
Client SMEs innovation management activities and processes were assessed and bench-marked using IMPROVE tool.
Shortcomings and needs of the clients were identified and prioritized with improvement action plans being designed and implemented.

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)

ERBSN 4 H2020 SGA3 project direct impact on SMEs was achieved by:
- offering SMEs custom-made in-depth services, based on their clearly identified and mutually agreed needs and gaps, thus tackling the very root of the SMEs innovation problems.
- proposing tools, methods and resources for improving SMEs innovation performance.
Both KAM and EIMC services are unique services in RO2 region.
Thus, the macro-regional innovation-related organizations, including R&D ones, benefited from introducing in-depth European innovation support services.

erbsn logo