Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SMEntorEGE (SMEntorEGE)
Période du rapport: 2019-01-01 au 2019-12-31
1. Key account management for SME Instrument beneficiaries: This target group is the SMEs who are the beneficiaries of the SME Instrument, FTI and FET-Open. The SMEs who will be the beneficiaries of the SME Instrument, FTI and FET-Open under Horizon 2020 will be forwarded to us through the related department of EC. SMEntorEGE will aim to provide 7-day service package of Key Account Management services to 5 SMEs. To realize the full target of the project, we have mainly focused on the proposed services in the region. Despite all our joint effort in collaboration of EEN Consortium members, based on our knowledge, but there is no winning EIC pilot from our region yet.
2. Enhancing SMEs’ innovation management capacity: This target group is SMEs who have a high innovation and internationalization potential. The SMEs for this target group will be selected among approximately the 100 companies which have developed and submitted at least one innovation project to the Regional and National Turkish Scientific and Technological Council (TUBITAK) or Directorship for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (KOSGEB) for obtaining R&D financial support between the years 2012 and 2017 in the region but have failed or developed a contracted project with universities. Therefore, the initial target group of SMEs will be those 100 companies who are relatively familiar with the concept of innovation, have the intention to improve their capabilities and possess some infrastructure to support this ambition. 60 SMEs who wish to increase efficiency and effectiveness of their investment in R&D, innovation and internalization will be selected from this initial group based on the selection criteria specified in the Work Package descriptions and priority will be given to those with higher innovation capacity and experience. Therefore, the project will aim to provide a 7-day service package of Enhancing SMEs’ innovation management capacity services to 60 SMEs. Under WP2, all targets were realized despite the issues discussed above from WP1. Total 60 companies targeted to provide EIMC services and this has been 100% realized and 60 companies received EIMC services at the end. All cases closed in the reporting period.
As we have observed formerly, companies are not confident about preparing an EIC proposal due to lack of project management skills, confidences, not awareness of TRL level of their projects, and language barrier. In order to solve these problems, in close collaboration with EEN, face to face meetings were organized with those companies, success stories shared and experience sharing sessions were organized. In addition to this, social media was used to increase awareness and sharing success stories. In addition, we have set up project reviewing meetings with the companies to increase the level of project applications from phase 1 to phase 2. Due to economic and political issues countrywide, it was very difficult to motivate companies for R&D and innovation activities. For that reason, it required more time to convince companies for innovation assessment and activities compare to previous periods.
2. Enhancing SMEs’ innovation management capacity: This target group is SMEs who have a high innovation and internationalization potential. The SMEs for this target group will be selected among approximately the 100 companies which have developed and submitted at least one innovation project to the Regional and National Turkish Scientific and Technological Council (TUBITAK) or Directorship for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (KOSGEB) for obtaining R&D financial support between the years 2012 and 2017 in the region but have failed or developed a contracted project with universities. Therefore, the initial target group of SMEs will be those 100 companies who are relatively familiar with the concept of innovation, have the intention to improve their capabilities and possess some infrastructure to support this ambition. 60 SMEs who wish to increase efficiency and effectiveness of their investment in R&D, innovation and internalization will be selected from this initial group based on the selection criteria specified in the Work Package descriptions and priority will be given to those with higher innovation capacity and experience. Therefore, the project will aim to provide a 7-day service package of Enhancing SMEs’ innovation management capacity services to 60 SMEs. Under WP2, all targets were realized despite the issues discussed above from WP1. Total 60 companies targeted to provide EIMC services and this has been 100% realized and 60 companies received EIMC services at the end. All cases closed in the reporting period.
As we have observed formerly, companies are not confident about preparing an EIC proposal due to lack of project management skills, confidences, not awareness of TRL level of their projects, and language barrier. In order to solve these problems, in close collaboration with EEN, face to face meetings were organized with those companies, success stories shared and experience sharing sessions were organized. In addition to this, social media was used to increase awareness and sharing success stories. In addition, we have set up project reviewing meetings with the companies to increase the level of project applications from phase 1 to phase 2. Due to economic and political issues countrywide, it was very difficult to motivate companies for R&D and innovation activities. For that reason, it required more time to convince companies for innovation assessment and activities compare to previous periods.
In order to increase the number of beneficiaries from EIC pilot (formerly known as SMEI) different awareness activities organized under this WP, and despite this we have not reached the number we have targeted. As a result, there are not any successful project during 2019 and therefore we could not provide KAM services. Furthermore, one of our client applied for EIC Phase 2, 3 times during 2019 as results of our Innovation Assessment and suggested action plan. The company improved their project’s strength and invited to pitching in the first month of 2020. We are hoping that it will be the first Phase 2 awarded project in our region. In order to increase the number of beneficiaries, as we did in last period, again we haveconducted a short survey among SMEs in the region whether they are aware of EIC program and if so why they do not apply. The results were almost similar with last year, but additionally this year as a huge difference between EIC and SME Instrument programmes, we have realized that the cancellation of Phase 1 process have prevented the companies which are eligible to apply for only Phase 1. We observed that those companies tried to apply for other national grant programs such as R&D and entrepreneurship programs of TUBITAK, which is the National Funding Agencies. Under WP2, as it was last period, very close collaboration between the project and EBIC Ege consortium has been realized. Since both project staff are in the same building it was very easy to sustain collaboration. The staff of both projects continued to have regular meetings twice a month and informal meetings occasionally. In some activities such as company visits and meetings, they participated together in order to provide better information to companies. All dissemination materials the leaflets, brochures and other printed materials prepared and printed by EBIC-Ege project also included information about SMEntorEGE project and its services. The potential beneficiaries were visited by EBIC-Ege consortium for different purposes also signed post to SMEntorEGE project staff and vice versa. This close collaboration and being in the same host organization and under the same roof helped each project (EBIC-Ege and SMEntorEGE) to deliver their targets successfully.
The project has two-fold impact. First impact is to increase the innovation level of companies by measuring their innovation level and providing services to enhance their management capacity. We are experiencing that the services under the project is helping companies to see their bottleneck and barriers in their innovation system. With the tool used in the project, SMEs are also able to compare their results with their competitors in the same sector, companies in the same region and with all companies who participated to this program. Furthermore, based on the innovation score chart, each company receive recommendation from experts to enhance their innovation management capacity, get rid of barriers and new advices for improvements. Furthermore, in the long run, services which have been provided will also help companies to access SMEI funds for their R&D and innovation projects. In brief, the project has a positive impact on improving the innovation management capacity of SMEs. Second impact is on employment in the region. After the services under WP2, companies understood how important to manage innovation in the company. This first step help them to see their gaps and needs and let them willing to set up their R&D and Innovation department with experience staff. Therefore, this service helped companies to make them understood how important innovation for their competition and creating jobs for educated people in the region. Furthermore, the companies who receive financial support from SME Instrument program is bringing disruptive innovation in to the market. Also a way that accelerates companies’ economic growth, export performance as well as growth in employment.