INNOVACTIS 2020-2021

Project Information

INNOVACTIS 2020-2021

Grant agreement ID: 879881

DOI

10.3030/879881

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

€ 276 007,50

EU contribution

€ 276 007,00

Coordinated by

INSTITUTO TECNOLOGICO DE ARAGON
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - INNOVACTIS 2020-2021 (INNOVACTIS 2020-2021)

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

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The objective of this project is to provide innovation support services to SMEs in the regions covered by the consortium members to two groups of SMEs:
• SMEs that have been selected as beneficiaries of the European Innovation Council (EIC) Pilot, including SME Instrument, phase 1 or phase 2, FTI and FET-Open projects, and the EIC Accelerator. For these companies, the consortium members will offer Key Account Management (KAM) services, which are accompanying services for the SMEs to identify weaknesses in their innovation capacities and suitable external coaches for their project implementation.
• SMEs that have high potential for growth and internationalisation but that need to Enhance their Innovation Management Capacities (EIMC). These companies will receive direct assessment services from the consortium members in order to detect barriers and develop and implement an action plan in order to enhance such capacities and overcome the detected barriers.

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

The performance of the consortium has been excellent. Regarding the KAM services, the consortium has achieved a performance of 231% of the target. The EIMC services reached the 81% of the target. The combined provision of services made a total of 102% of our total target, while we have involved fewer resources in the provision of these services.
The distribution of services in the consortium regions is not homogeneous. While some regions had an important number of EU funded projects that received KAM services, other regions performed a higher number of EIMC services in order to reach the project targets.

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)

The impact of the services provided depends on the type of service provided. The KAM services related to funded project proposals have a direct and measurable impact, which is described in each project proposal funded by the EU. All of them, the best projects among the best ones, describe new markets access, consolidation of current markets, increase of turnover, maintenance of jobs and creation of new jobs. The EIC Accelerator and SME Instrument projects, by its own nature, show an exponential grow potential that should allow them to create new jobs and have high rates of turnover increase. In this contractual period, we have also provided KAM services to some Seal of Excellence projects, according to the requests of EISMEA. These projects, although have not obtained direct funding from the EU, have been considered so good that have also received coaching services in order to get closer to the market.
The EIMC services' impact cannot be quantified so easily. The improvement of the innovation management capacities of the SMEs is an action that will have an impact in the mid- long-term. The companies report improvements in the innovation culture, allocation of resources to innovation activities, development of innovation strategies, improvement in the innovative ideas management, implementation of management tools, integration of the innovation in the business concept, etc. These activities will have an impact in the companies and will help them growth and internationalise.

Staff