PRO Business Innovation Moldova

Project Information

PROBIM

Grant agreement ID: 879980

DOI

10.3030/879980

Project closed

EC signature date 31 January 2020

Start date 1 January 2020

End date 31 December 2021

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 24 375,00

EU contribution

€ 24 138,99

Coordinated by

CAMERA DE COMERT SI INDUSTRIE A REPUBLICII MOLDOVA CCI RM
Moldova

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PROBIM (PRO Business Innovation Moldova)

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

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

1. KAM services progress report
Section 1 - Overview of the progress towards the objectives
Under this work package provisions, an average of 7-day consultancy services assignment covering phase 1 or phase 2 of the SME instrument was envisaged to be provided to beneficiaries of the Horizon 2020 SME instrument in order to identify gaps, suitable coaches and support their work that would address the recognized barriers to growth on the basis of a jointly agreed ‘coaching plan’.
Section 2 – Issues encountered and actions taken to address them and improve performance and results
During 2020 and 2021 Moldovan Government signed the Association Agreement to the Horizon Europe Programme. Periodical meetings and discussions take place with local stakeholders and European partners, in order to draw up national plans on how to foster the attraction of entrepreneurs in the Programme activities and to be better prepared to start the Programme implementation.
Section 3 – Summary of services provided in WP1.
Unfortunately, due to the lack of successful SME Instrument applications, there were no WP1 - KAM services provided by Business INN consortium members in the Republic of Moldova.

The implementation strategy, as well as the present project, recognizes the need for innovation management consulting services development, as follows: ”[...]we do recognize a need for clear planning to develop the necessary capacity. Our approach is designed to ensure, therefore, that all Consortium members, and especially CCI RM, NARD, and MTTN reinforce their cooperation with Horizon 2020 National Contact Points and develop their own relations with European specialists in innovation projects management, in preparation for more in-depth support to the SME Instrument (and other relevant Horizon 2020 action) in future.[...] Whilst we expect the Consortium to be in a position to deliver this activity within the period of the Framework Partnership Agreement, there is not yet adequate capacity for high-quality implementation. For this reason, our early-stage approach identifies a necessary process of skills and capacity upgrading.”

The objectives of the present project proposal was:
1. To ensure the delivery of “Key Account Management” (KAM) support services for 2 SME Instrument beneficiaries in Moldova, with the aim of identifying weaknesses in the client innovation capacities, identify suitable coaches for addressing the identified weaknesses, facilitating and moderating the coach-client relationship and support client efforts during phase 1 and phase 2
of the SME instrument project;
2. Enhancing innovation management capabilities and processes, as defined by the CEN/TS 16555 standard, in client SMEs for 10 companies in Moldova;
3. Developing and testing PRO Business Innovation Moldova partners capacities for consultancy services required under KAM support for SME Instrument beneficiaries and innovation
management consultancy services in Moldova;
4. Collecting follow-up and impact data for services delivered through the present project, to be used by PRO Business Innovation Moldova, EEN partners, and other interested third parties (EASME, EC, IMPROVE Academy).

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 the reporting period the consortium’s activities were the following:
1) Identifying and assessing of suitability of client SMEs for support services of enhancing innovation management capabilities and processes.
2) Enhancing innovation management capacity and processes in client SMEs for more business effectiveness and efficiency.
3) Developing PRBIM partners capacities for delivering innovation management improving services, especially by using IMPROVE instrument.
4) Collecting follow-up and impact data for services delivered through the present project.

Taking into consideration the low level of innovation performance at the national level and the COVID situation, in the reporting period 7 client SMEs were served from different technological sectors, as the agri-food industry, waste management, textile, industry. The clients identified practice incremental innovation. For contacting SMEs with significant innovation activities and a high potential for internationalization there were envisages the list of the EEN clients, members of business support organizations and clients of signposting partners, SMEs with the prior submission of innovation projects for funding, patents, cooperation with universities, and R&D organizations. As well, there were identified weaknesses in the innovation capacities of the beneficiaries which hinder the realization of their growth and commercial potential.
As the specific deliverables in WP2 on EIMC were generated 17 reports by the Improve Academy website, www.improve-innovation.eu , based on the information provided by the clients, assisted by Consultants from consortium partner organizations. The consultants provided EIMC services to each client, assisting them starting with the completion of the report until the development of an action plan. Thus, after each generated report, consultants provided recommendations to their clients on how to prepare action development plans and to improve the weak positions, stated in the reports. During the preparation of the action development plans, consultants assisted their clients and continued to monitor the implementation of the plans.

The project achieved the following results foreseen in the Implementation Strategy:
1. List of companies identified as potential clients to be offered enhancing innovation management capacity services;
2. 17 clients mentored and 17 assessments provided, action plan implementation and monitoring the cases;
3. Improvement and training for innovation management enhancing services.
The implementation of the Business-INN-Moldova project contributed to raising the awareness about H2020 opportunities in Moldova; the intermediary results of the project were presented to other SMEs and related stakeholders attending the training events and other activities.

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 project implementation proves that the major impact achieved for the companies served was mainly in terms of enhancing or building competencies in the field of innovation management processes and innovation activities within the company; basic skills and competencies development for company management or in order to benefit from the EIC Accelerator and, generally, Horizon 2020 innovation support opportunities.
The cooperation with stakeholders contributed to the Network's regional integration and promotion of the information on how to access the services regionally. As a result of the cooperation, some enterprises from the regions benefited from EIMC services, and others received consultations on H2020 related questions.
In conclusion, we would like to mention that the Work Programme's implementation helped meet the needs detailed in the Implementation Strategy, as the main results were obtained. The consortium partners improved their capacities, which will help them to assist enterprises in the next period and to attend more results. The visibility of the H2020 programme was ensured being promoted on a national level through various events attended by consortium partners.

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