EEN Scotland EIMC

Project Information

EEN Scotland EIMC

Grant agreement ID: 879448

DOI

10.3030/879448

Project closed

EC signature date 10 December 2019

Start date 1 January 2020

End date 31 December 2021

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 228 100,00

EU contribution

€ 228 100,00

Coordinated by

SCOTTISH ENTERPRISE
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EEN Scotland EIMC (EEN Scotland EIMC)

Reporting period: 2020-01-01 to 2021-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The project’s underlying objective is to encourage smart inclusive and sustainable growth in the EU by increasing effective investment in innovation linked to profitable exploitation in international markets. The project’s specific objective is to ensure that Scottish SMEs with international innovation and growth ambitions are empowered by unlocking their full growth potential through better innovation management capability and tailored mentoring and coaching. The aim is to support SME’s international competitiveness through the exploitation of new or enhanced products, process or service through improved innovation efficiency. Specific objectives include:
• Identifying of bottlenecks to the creation of economic impact in SMEs benefiting from the H2020 European Innovation Council (EIC) pilot and addressing these bottlenecks with the help of capable coaches. Ensuring that SME beneficiaries of the EIC Pilot receive the most appropriate support services to enhance successful exploitation of their innovation projects, during and beyond their participation in H2020. Linking these SMEs to the Business Acceleration Services (e.g. Phase 3 of the EIC Accelerator) as well to other regional and national support services and programmes to support the sustainable growth of the company.
• Increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of innovation in SMEs with significant innovation activities that could potentially become beneficiaries of European support to research and innovation but would not have effective access to consulting services for innovation support.
• Ensure EEN Scotland staff have the competencies to engage professionally with high-end target companies.

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

2020 and 2022 have been a very taxing years for Scottish companies, faced with the twin challenges of the pandemic and of the uncertainty around Brexit: the perfect storm. Our challenge was to help our clients not just to survive, but to innovate and identify/harness new emerging opportunities, (where necessary to pivot) and to grow: to provide a rounded support offer linking innovation management/ roadmap support to their innovation developments and finance roadmaps to reboot their innovation aspirations.

EEN Scotland and our clients both responded strongly to the challenge, working together to reach very positive outcomes. 65 full cases were completed over the 2 years, with good forecast impacts for the SMEs from the support provided.

The supported SMEs, with services closely integrated with COSME support, achieved highly credible results. There are strong expected impacts by end 2023 from our support: additional revenues from their innovation efforts £48.4 million, planned increase in R&D of £1.6 million and efficiency savings of £0.5 million. In addition, the 65 SMEs we worked with accessed £9.4 million innovation and R&D funding and finance over the two years to implement their innovation development and demonstration projects. In most of our cases we provide significant discrete packages of support to our SMEs over a number of years and it is heartening to see these clients growing strongly over time, even under very challenging circumstances.

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)

Enterprise Europe Network Scotland works closely with the other Business and Innovation support providers in Scotland: hand-in hand of course with Highlands and Islands Enterprise (SE’s sister organisation in the Highlands and Islands region), South of Scotland Enterprise Agency, Scottish Development International as well as with the Business Gateways (Business Gateways are managed through the Local Authorities and deal with the broader business base), the Scottish Funding Council (Higher Education and Research Institutions), Innovation Centres, Industrial Leadership Groups (sector driven), Visit Scotland and Skills Development Scotland.

Through the Team Scotland approach, and given the lead partner’s pivotal role in delivering economic development to Scotland, Enterprise Europe Network Scotland has privileged access to the entire business base and is in pole position to deliver Network services across Scotland. This collaborative approach has ensured that Scottish companies have access to a wide and necessary range of expertise in internationalisation, innovation, IPR, start-up and scale up, sustainability and access to finance; key in meeting the demands of companies through this challenging year.

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