Unfortunately, there were no beneficiaries of the respective EU funding schemes in Thuringia, which entitle for KAM services. Thus, none of the 5 KAM service packages planned for 2020/2021, could be achieved.
Regarding EIMC services, 12 were planned to be provided to local clients, but only 5 could be achieved. Regarding the entire EIMC activities within the project period 2020/2021 we in fact did work together with 16 companies in total, all interested in EIMC services, but unfortunately not all of them were able to go through the whole process within the project period.
Main reason for this underachievement is to be found in the Corona pandemic. For EIMC services local information and capacity building events as well as contributions to the events of other local actors are the main source to raise awareness and attract local SMEs to these services. But none of the planned events in 2020/2021 could take place due to the Corona restrictions. Thus, the EEN -STIFT team couldn´t reach the target group for the EIMC services and this resulted in a major lack of promotion and awareness raising opportunities and thus, in the lack of interest in EIMC services. Online webinars were alternatively organised, but they couldn’t compensate the loss.
Another major impact on the EIMC service results was caused by by a staff exchange in June 2020 with one key innovation expert leaving the organisation and another one taking maternity leave for more than a year.
Neverthelees, for all local SMEs who benefited from EIMC services, the client-centric approach and the hub & spoke model has been applied. In this regard, the EEN-STIFT team has further developed and extended its already existing cooperation strategy with the local business and innovation support system to fully implement the HUB & SPOKE model based on the “NO WRONG DOOR” principle on the one hand and designing tailored services around a client/company on the other hand.
During the project period one of the EIMC beneficiaries acted as an ambassador and will do so in the future.
