Establishing services to “Enhancing the innovation management capacity of SMEs that are members of the EEN Tunisia.

Project Information

APII-H2020-GA4-20-21

Grant agreement ID: 879656

DOI

10.3030/879656

Project closed

EC signature date 30 January 2020

Start date 1 January 2020

End date 31 December 2021

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 85 000,00

EU contribution

€ 85 000,00

Coordinated by

AGENCE DE PROMOTION DE L'INDUSTRIE ET DE L'INNOVATION- API
Tunisia

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - APII-H2020-GA4-20-21 (Establishing services to “Enhancing the innovation management capacity of SMEs that are members of the EEN Tunisia.)

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

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

90% of the Tunisian industrial fabric consists mainly of SMEs, which participates at a rate of 30% in the GDP and 80% of exports. Despite these statistics, 43% are recorded as mortality rate of SMEs in Tunisia. These SMEs are not innovative enough and easy to compete, which is essentially due to the lack of innovation in their management system.
As a support structure for innovation, APII is engaged in order to this project to assist and evaluate SMEs in order to enhance their capability to manage their potential of innovation.
The project's action responds on a large scale with the innovation policy strategy drawn up at the level of the Ministry of Industry and executed at the level of the APII by its center of innovation and technological development as a new service of acceleration at the SME
b.
For the company which aims essentially its sustainable development and its internationalization, this action will allow the company to :
- rise in competitiveness
- reduce costs
- win market share
- Capacity building of its staff
- Recruitment of new highly specialized expertise profiles
- acquire new technologies (new application, new solution ...)
- adopt new marketing methods
- ensure the sustainability of companies
- ensure a favorable climate for creativity and collaborative work
c.
This project represents a political initiative where the APII tries through, to set up a new service within its Innovation Center and technological development including the network EEN which is managed by the APII as coordinator of the EEN Tunisia consortium.
The purpose of this service is to assess and strengthen the capacity and performance of innovation management in enterprises

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

In relation to our main objective, which is to reinforce the capacity of 51 companies in innovation management, we have reached a state of progress of 51 companies diagnosed and evaluated. to achieve this result, we proceeded via the following actions:
• Following the pandemic due to COVID-19 which has affected most countries around the world and as part of efforts to support Tunisian companies in the face of this economic crisis, the Agency for the Promotion of Industry and 'Innovation "APII" as a member of the Enterprise Europe Network "EEN" mobilizes its advisers APII / EEN Tunisia to assist companies to initiate actions to diagnose the potential for innovation in order to support their society facing this crisis economic impact due to COVID 19.
• The diagnosis was made by means of an innovation management tool, online, meeting the criteria of the European Standard on innovation management systems, allowing the company to identify the key success factors of your innovation management, according to the following five dimensions:
· Innovation strategy · Organization and culture of innovation · Innovation lifecycle management · Innovation factors · Innovation results
• The program was promoted on the APII platform and on EEN Tunisia platform.

• Communication of opportunities and benefits of the program via the official APII website and this according to the work protocol specific to this period of the COVID-19 pandemic (http://www.tunisieindustrie.nat.tn/fr/newsdoc.asp?nom=2018/Programme-Renforcement)
• Promote and disseminate this program through the organization of series of webinars in collaboration with the 24 regional direction in Tunisia,
• Participation on workshop organized online for promotion of services of the consortium EEN Tunisia and the program of promotion of innovation in Tunisia.
• The participation of all members of the project team in training sessions organized online by IMP3rove Academy on topics of interest to companies such as:

N° Thème de la formation Date

1 Introduction to Sustainability-Driven Innovation Management and Tools
15-16 Juin 2021
2 Sustainability-Driven Innovation Management Action Plan Development
21-22 Juin 2021
3 Business Advisor Skills
22-23 Juin 2021
4 Design Thinking for Better Innovation Management
25-26 Juin 2021
5 Digital Business Model Innovation
29-30 Juin 2021

The follow-up of our actions was ensured by:
Customer evaluation sheet
Testimonials from participating companies in the webinars organized by APII
Return of customer satisfaction mail

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)

- introduce innovative products to serve new customer requirements and respond to societal challenges
- increase collaboration between Research and Industry
- anticipate the future to gain a breakthrough compared to its competitors
- provide products and services generating an interesting profit ensuring a comfortable growth and guaranteeing the sustainability of the companies.
- increase the contribution of innovative SMEs in the GDP of Tunisia
- increase export shares for SMEs in Tunisia
- gain an international reputation
- Assistance to participate in European funding programs including SME instrument h2020 by our NCP_SME

Societal involvement:
- Given the current and future ecological challenges, the company is sensitized towards ecological innovation by integrating a certain concept of sustainable development including the company's innovation policy.
- In relation to the internal environment of the company, the leadership is called to provide an internal environment allowing the personnel to be totally involved in the achievement of the objectives of the company, and this through rigorous management encouraging creativity, initiative, accountability and delegation and work by purpose and by obligation of result.

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