The Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) is a key support network that assists small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in their innovation process and development on an international scale. The EU-funded InnoManage BB project provides innovative SMEs in the region of Berlin and Brandenburg with services related to two main specific objectives for the period 2020-2021.
The objectives of the InnoManage BB project are to:
- Provision of Key Account Management (KAM) services to the companies from Berlin-Brandenburg capital region, which have been awarded grants under the EIC Accelerator Pilot, Future Emerging Technologies or Fast Track to Innovation programmes.
- Provision of Innovation Management Capacity (EIMC) services to SMEs in 2020-2021. T The beneficiaries of these services are SMEs with existing, significant innovation activities that have a high potential for internationalisation.
Lack of innovation management capacity is an important barrier to the economic impact of innovation activities in SMEs. The Horizon 2020 work programme "Innovation in SMEs" therefore foresees support services for SMEs through the Enterprise Europe Network adressing this specific problem.
With the KAM services, the InnoManage BB experts provided high quality advice and enabled SMEs to increase their innovation capacity. The experts accompanied their SME clients in this process and supported the company in dealing with the weaknesses identified. The experts of the consortium facilitated the interaction between coach and client and linked the SME with regional, national and international stakeholders. Most companies took advantage of this offer and benefited from their work with the business coaches.
As part of the EIMC service, the network experts conducted an in-depth diagnosis and developed an action plan with the SME to address the weaknesses identified. The results of the analysis were used to provide ongoing and sustainable support to the SME in its process of working on these bottlenecks and improving its ability to increase its business and growth. Suitable SMEs were identified in close cooperation with the host organisations and regional stakeholders.
The InnoManage BB consortium all in all supported 42 clients.