Additional efforts were made during the period to increase synergies between COSME core EEN services and H2020 specific innovation management issues.
On the EIC, a special attention was given to identified recipient of the Seal of Excellence, which means mostly SMEs which had been assisted beforehand for the submission of a proposal. In particular, pitching and proposal preparation workshops were offered as part of COSME activity.
On the KAM services itself, coaching services were globally very much appreciated by EIC beneficiaries, although the tools for selecting the coaches made available to the EEN did not prove very efficient. Needs analysis are generally conducted leading to coaching needs requiring quite specific skills which can be hardly available in the coaching database. Peer exchanges between KAM but also very accurate coaching searches in professional social media like Linked In was often a relieving solution. Several coaching were also carried out with the active participation of the KAM which is entrusted by the SME and makes the relation with the coach smoother. From the experience of several cases now, we believe that EEN KAMs could play a deeper role in the coaching in the future as well
EIMC on the other hand focused most of the resources and activity of this project. The notion of Innovation Management is now broader than innovation and it encompasses new economy trends faced by companies like sustainability or digitalisation. Several cases were touching these notions. Besides, EIMC has become a real backbone of the EEN typical client journey with action plans leading to other EEN core business related activities, like regulation compliance or partnersearches for instance.
