Establishing in-depth services enhancing the innovation management capacity of South West of France SMEs in 2020-2021

Project Information

MAGIC SWF SMEs 20-21

Grant agreement ID: 879780

DOI

10.3030/879780

Project closed

EC signature date 17 January 2020

Start date 1 January 2020

End date 31 December 2021

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 335 933,75

EU contribution

€ 335 932,00

Coordinated by

CHAMBRE DE COMMERCE ET D'INDUSTRIE DE REGION OCCITANIE
France

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MAGIC SWF SMEs 20-21 (Establishing in-depth services enhancing the innovation management capacity of South West of France SMEs in 2020-2021)

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

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Raising the competitiveness of SMEs from South West France by offering services linked to innovation management.
The project involved 3 partners of the Enterprise Europe Network South West France consortium which covers the region Nouvelle-Aquitaine and the Midi-Pyrénées territory. The general objective was to contribute to raise the competitiveness of SMEs from this area by offering support services in the area of innovation management. The project also contributed to develop more efficient and more effective innovation processes and higher quality innovation management capacity assessment and support services.
The support was delivered as service packages to 2 groups of SMEs:
a) Beneficiaries of the Horizon 2020 SME Instrument phase 2 and EIC Accelerator and SMEs awarded with the Seal of Excellence: to enhance the probability of a successful exploitation of the innovation project results and lead to the sustainable growth of the beneficiary beyond the participation in Horizon 2020. The support service pinpointed weaknesses in the innovation capacities of the beneficiary, selected suitable coaches to address the identified weaknesses and monitored the coach-client relationship and to accompany the beneficiary through their European project.
b) SMEs with significant innovation activities and a high potential for internationalisation: to enhance their innovation management capacities to be able to gain new international markets and leaderships. The support service consisted in an in-depth innovation assessment in order to develop and implement a tailored action plan to improve the SMEs capacity to manage innovation processes. The partners used dedicated assessment tools: IMP3rove, Check’Innov, Innovation Way and CCI MAP.
The project lasted 24 months and provided 95 support service packages.

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

KAM services
Based on the 10 KAM services targeted for 2020-2021,11 KAM cases have been implemented. To be noted that all cases are related to SMEI, EIC Accelerator and Seal of Excellence projects, none to FTI or FET projects.
A common methodology and assessment tool (smE-MPOWER) have been implemented.


EIMC services
Based on the 99 EIMC services targeted for 2020-2021, 84 EIMC packages have been implemented in the consortium geographical area: 77 in Nouvelle-Aquitaine and 18 in West of Occitanie. These results are consistent with the geography: the experts dedicated to the project in Nouvelle-Aquitaine covered a larger territory (84 061 km2) than partners involved in Occitanie / “Midi-Pyrénées” (45 348 km2) and the resources allocated to the project by the partners.
Of the 84 EIMC packages, 37 “new packages” started in 2020, 28 started in 2021 and 19 packages started in 2019 were completed in 2020/2021.

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)

Contribution to the growth objectives for KAM clients
The supported SMEs indicated that the kam services enabled them to:
• be connected with the best possible coaching options that would meet the specific needs of the SMEs and foster the business development
• identify new market opportunities and strategic alliances
• increase presence in the international market to enhance skills, to develop business
• models that speed up the internationalization process

Efficiency and effectiveness of innovation management for EIMC clients
The partners brought to the majority of the 84 SMEs supported:
- a better awareness about the relationship between the innovation management processes and the market competitiveness
- the ability to identify and establish their own system of Innovation Management as a strategic asset for growth on the market by introducing innovation from the very start of the definition of a Business Strategy and to getting to manage innovative ideas and project portfolio in an efficient manner
- strengthen SMEs’ capability to deal with the challenges of each stage of its life cycle including aspects such as strategy, organisation, management, financing and resource development
- a stimulation of a new reflection on internal processes, with a growing awareness on innovation management processes and improvements on specific points (for example marketing…)
- develop soft skills, knowledge about IP protection, networking, …