Periodic Reporting for period 1 - P4SME (Peer for People, Planet, Profit in SMEs)
Período documentado: 2021-07-01 hasta 2022-06-30
The transition to economic, environmental and social sustainability has become a major priority for the European Commission (EC). Sustainable development, defined by the United Nations as “development that meets the needs of present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs” is therefore embedded in the recent “Political Guidelines for the next European Commission 2019-2024 ”.
Likewise, it is recognised that this transition must be based on a strong and resilient economy, and that SMEs provide the backbone for this. Therefore, it has become a political priority for the EU to ensure that the sustainability transition goes hand in hand with SME growth, and that sustainability becomes an opportunity for SMEs to grow in the Single Market and beyond by offering more sustainable products and services. This will also mean helping SMEs to address the challenges of sustainability in terms of up-front investments, new regulation and competing with larger companies benefiting from economies of scale.
The objective of P4SME project was to improve the support in terms of sustainability that the European STPs, incubators, innovation agencies or similar organisations are providing to their tenants or client companies. For that purpose, the consortium has identified and analysed tools, programmes and initiatives that might help SMEs to become more sustainable and will implement in the medium-term an efficient method based in those inputs to be applied through pilot actions in their territories. In order to achieve this objective, peer-learning activities were designed to facilitate cooperation and knowledge transfer among the involved STPs (FUNDECYT Science and Technology Park of Extremadura, Johanneberg Science Park, Tallinn Science Park Tehnopol) within the project time frame of one year.
In addition, it is expected that other STPs, incubators or innovation agencies that provide services to SMEs are able to work with a holistic approach of sustainability in order to provide their client companies with added value services that lead them to generate sustainable products and services.
Likewise, it is recognised that this transition must be based on a strong and resilient economy, and that SMEs provide the backbone for this. Therefore, it has become a political priority for the EU to ensure that the sustainability transition goes hand in hand with SME growth, and that sustainability becomes an opportunity for SMEs to grow in the Single Market and beyond by offering more sustainable products and services. This will also mean helping SMEs to address the challenges of sustainability in terms of up-front investments, new regulation and competing with larger companies benefiting from economies of scale.
The objective of P4SME project was to improve the support in terms of sustainability that the European STPs, incubators, innovation agencies or similar organisations are providing to their tenants or client companies. For that purpose, the consortium has identified and analysed tools, programmes and initiatives that might help SMEs to become more sustainable and will implement in the medium-term an efficient method based in those inputs to be applied through pilot actions in their territories. In order to achieve this objective, peer-learning activities were designed to facilitate cooperation and knowledge transfer among the involved STPs (FUNDECYT Science and Technology Park of Extremadura, Johanneberg Science Park, Tallinn Science Park Tehnopol) within the project time frame of one year.
In addition, it is expected that other STPs, incubators or innovation agencies that provide services to SMEs are able to work with a holistic approach of sustainability in order to provide their client companies with added value services that lead them to generate sustainable products and services.
Based on a Twinning+ methodology, the peer-reviewing was used to analyse the mode of operation of each partner STP and to identify best practices related to the sustainability assessment of SMEs.
Besides the aforementioned methodologies exchanged among partners, external speakers were invited to share additional sustainability-related initiatives or tools. In particular,
• when addressing the social dimension, the Joint Research Center (JRC)-Unit I2 (EU Policy Lab) from EC (Belgium) shared its Canvas for Social Economy, a project in collaboration with the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW), and the EBN Social Impact Special Interest Group (Belgium) shared its Community of Practice aimed at raising visibility on social innovation incubation initiatives and support accelerators to shape and run programmes maximising the social impact of their start-ups and SMEs;
• when addressing the profit dimension, Inèdit Innovació, a strategical eco-innovation studio located in Barcelona (Spain) that works towards the transition to a smart, prosperous and sustainable future and has large experience in sustainable business models, shared its circularity self-assessment tool for companies that allows to evaluate the degree of circularity to enable context-aware decision-making that favours the sustainability and competitiveness of the company.
• when addressing the environmental dimension, Circular Change, a non-profit organisation located in Ljubljana (Slovenia) with a strong international network that connects key players to make the circular economy a reality, shared all the circular economy-related initiatives in which they are involved, detailing the Circular 4.0 project aimed at strengthening digitalisation processes by SMEs to foster innovation processes and accelerate the transition to the circular economy in Alpine Space.
The sharing and cooperation among partners took place via three workshops, two of them on site at the place of residence of the partners, and one online due to the Covid-19 restrictions at the time. Each workshop covered the different dimensions of sustainability: the first one focused on the social dimension (5 good practices shared), the second one focused on the profit dimension (4 good practices shared) and the last one focused on the environmental dimension (4 good practices shared). In each workshop, the good practices were presented and discussed and the specific barriers and recommendations for the implementation of the shared good practices were pointed out resulting in conclusions and recommendations for the Design Options Paper composition. The DOP aims, therefore, to enable the transfer of a coherent method to approach sustainability with SMEs. By using collective experience and knowledge, business support organisations will be able to address the identified shortcomings and failures of existing practices, in sustainable and effective ways, and will improve the delivery of sustainability support services to SMEs.
Besides the aforementioned methodologies exchanged among partners, external speakers were invited to share additional sustainability-related initiatives or tools. In particular,
• when addressing the social dimension, the Joint Research Center (JRC)-Unit I2 (EU Policy Lab) from EC (Belgium) shared its Canvas for Social Economy, a project in collaboration with the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW), and the EBN Social Impact Special Interest Group (Belgium) shared its Community of Practice aimed at raising visibility on social innovation incubation initiatives and support accelerators to shape and run programmes maximising the social impact of their start-ups and SMEs;
• when addressing the profit dimension, Inèdit Innovació, a strategical eco-innovation studio located in Barcelona (Spain) that works towards the transition to a smart, prosperous and sustainable future and has large experience in sustainable business models, shared its circularity self-assessment tool for companies that allows to evaluate the degree of circularity to enable context-aware decision-making that favours the sustainability and competitiveness of the company.
• when addressing the environmental dimension, Circular Change, a non-profit organisation located in Ljubljana (Slovenia) with a strong international network that connects key players to make the circular economy a reality, shared all the circular economy-related initiatives in which they are involved, detailing the Circular 4.0 project aimed at strengthening digitalisation processes by SMEs to foster innovation processes and accelerate the transition to the circular economy in Alpine Space.
The sharing and cooperation among partners took place via three workshops, two of them on site at the place of residence of the partners, and one online due to the Covid-19 restrictions at the time. Each workshop covered the different dimensions of sustainability: the first one focused on the social dimension (5 good practices shared), the second one focused on the profit dimension (4 good practices shared) and the last one focused on the environmental dimension (4 good practices shared). In each workshop, the good practices were presented and discussed and the specific barriers and recommendations for the implementation of the shared good practices were pointed out resulting in conclusions and recommendations for the Design Options Paper composition. The DOP aims, therefore, to enable the transfer of a coherent method to approach sustainability with SMEs. By using collective experience and knowledge, business support organisations will be able to address the identified shortcomings and failures of existing practices, in sustainable and effective ways, and will improve the delivery of sustainability support services to SMEs.
As regards peer-learning activities and enhanced knowledge and skills of the partners on sustainability, the expected STPs were involved in the learning process and their staff increased their knowledge and capacity.
As regards the development of a method to address sustainability and support services integrated in STPs’ portfolios, each partner is currently exploiting a pilot in its region to be completed in the medium-term. Specifically, FUNDECYT-PCTEX has launched in June 2022 a sustainability programme addressed to current users of Enterprise Europe Netwrok services. The programme includes training sessions and expert advisory support on sustainable business models, putting into practice 3 of the sustainability initiatives shared in the framework of P4SME:
- Tool for advice towards the SDG goals, promoted by FUNDECYT-PCTEX
- Future sustainable business models scheme, promoted by JSP
- Canvas for Social Economy (incorporation of social layer in business models), promoted by JRC
Starting in May 2022, JSP launched an initiative for inclusiveness and increased social sustainability based on the learnings and inspiration from the 3 good practices shared in the framework of P4SME:
- Community of Practice on Social Innovation, promoted by EBN
- Canvas for Social Economy, promoted by JRC
- Acceleration programme for social entrepreneurship, promoted by FUNDECYT-PCTEX
Tehnopol selected two good practices shared in the framework of P4SME to be piloted in the ecosystem fully, or as a part of the excising set of services provided today:
- Canvas for Social Economy, promoted by JRC
- Circularity self-assessment tool, promoted by Inèdit Innovació
Finally, as regards promotion of the project’s outputs, all communication channels were used during the project realization phase and the dissemination process is ongoing and progresses as expected to achieve the target of reaching 800 organisations (through IASP, EEN and EBN networks) plus the EU authority EISMEA (through the website of DOPs developed under H2020-INNOSUP-05 and the EU publication “Handbook of service design by innovation agencies – Compendium of project results: Innsup05, peer learning of innovation agencies”).
As regards the development of a method to address sustainability and support services integrated in STPs’ portfolios, each partner is currently exploiting a pilot in its region to be completed in the medium-term. Specifically, FUNDECYT-PCTEX has launched in June 2022 a sustainability programme addressed to current users of Enterprise Europe Netwrok services. The programme includes training sessions and expert advisory support on sustainable business models, putting into practice 3 of the sustainability initiatives shared in the framework of P4SME:
- Tool for advice towards the SDG goals, promoted by FUNDECYT-PCTEX
- Future sustainable business models scheme, promoted by JSP
- Canvas for Social Economy (incorporation of social layer in business models), promoted by JRC
Starting in May 2022, JSP launched an initiative for inclusiveness and increased social sustainability based on the learnings and inspiration from the 3 good practices shared in the framework of P4SME:
- Community of Practice on Social Innovation, promoted by EBN
- Canvas for Social Economy, promoted by JRC
- Acceleration programme for social entrepreneurship, promoted by FUNDECYT-PCTEX
Tehnopol selected two good practices shared in the framework of P4SME to be piloted in the ecosystem fully, or as a part of the excising set of services provided today:
- Canvas for Social Economy, promoted by JRC
- Circularity self-assessment tool, promoted by Inèdit Innovació
Finally, as regards promotion of the project’s outputs, all communication channels were used during the project realization phase and the dissemination process is ongoing and progresses as expected to achieve the target of reaching 800 organisations (through IASP, EEN and EBN networks) plus the EU authority EISMEA (through the website of DOPs developed under H2020-INNOSUP-05 and the EU publication “Handbook of service design by innovation agencies – Compendium of project results: Innsup05, peer learning of innovation agencies”).