RO-Boost Inno SMEs – Boosting the Innovative Potential of Romanian SMEs

Project Information

Ro-Boost Inno SMEs 4

Grant agreement ID: 880053

DOI

10.3030/880053

Project closed

EC signature date 13 December 2019

Start date 1 January 2020

End date 31 December 2021

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 95 487,00

EU contribution

€ 95 481,00

Coordinated by

REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AGENCY OF THE WEST REGION ROMANIA
Romania

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Ro-Boost Inno SMEs 4 (RO-Boost Inno SMEs – Boosting the Innovative Potential of Romanian SMEs)

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

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The objectives of the Ro-Boost Inno SMEs Consortium implementing the specific actions for increased innovation management fall under the Consortium’s vision stated in the implementation strategy: to help “SMEs in Macro Region 4 Romania become active players it the single market in terms of: innovative capacity, entrepreneurial discovery, dynamic partnership, proactive responsiveness to change, agility in accessing available funding with high impact implementation (smart investment).”

In this light 2 objectives were aimed by the RO-Boost Inno SMEs:

• To enable SMEs with growth and internationalization capabilities to achieve their full potential through innovation by supporting them in attaining the means and techniques to efficiently manage innovation in all its aspects.

• to facilitate ambitious SMEs’ access to means to achieve better performance in the implementation of their innovation projects within the SME Instrument Programme

Thus the Consortium sought throughout the reference period to raise awareness among innovative SMEs of the importance of the management of innovation processes in attaining and sustaining growth through continuous adaption and improvement of the business value. The Consortium engaged in challenging obstacles face by innovative SMEs and also in filing in the gaps existent in the regional business support ecosystem. The specific tools related to innovation management were thus exploited to provide meaningful insights in estimating the risks of investments in new innovations and helped SMEs to identify means of reducing these risks.

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

2 companies were awarded under Horizon 2020 SME Instrument, Phase 1 in 2019, both from the West Region. The Needs Analysis was conducted at the end of 2019, and the coaching support was delivered in 2020.

Both SMEI beneficiaries are companies active in ICT field which developed the following radical innovations:
1. Augmented Reality platform as a service. Following coaching the start-up improved thei value proposition and reframed their business strategy. New MVP is under development.
2. Smart ioT solution for Agriculture. Following coaching the SME prepares for applying for EIC pilot.

Enhancing Innovation Management Capacities of SMEs

22 EIMC cases have been completed in 2020by the RO-Boost Inno SMEs Consortium. The EIMC services involved companies in the filed of advanced manufacturing (incremental process and product innovations), ICT (radical product and service innovations). FOOD (incremental process innovation), construction (incremental service innovation), and tourism (incremental service innovation)).

The Consortium improved their skills through a virtual trainings on Agile Innovation and Sustainable driven Innovation delivered by experts from Imp3rove Academy.

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 EIMC services delivered have impacted the beneficiaries in terms of improved capabilities to generate new ideas and shorten innovation life cycles. 3 of the companies started to implement new processes / services. 6 updated their innovation strategies, and 1 redefined their business model.
All clients supported with EIMC services have also benefited from EEN COSME services, mainly advisory services on access to international markets and access to finance, but also partnering services for market expansion.