CORDIS

The proposal aims at providing the two new Enterprise Europe Network services:
1) Enhancing SME’s Innovation Management Capacity (EIMC) for innovating SMEs, and
2) Key Account Management (KAM) for SME Instrument beneficiaries
in the three Italian regions covered by the EEN consortium “SME2EU”: Tuscany, Marche and Umbria.
These new services will be provided in an additional but integrated way to the usual EEN activities related to the SME competitiveness and innovation.

The objective of the I-KAM2EU proposal is to improve the innovation management capacity of SMEs in order to enhance their competitiveness.
The establishment of an internal innovation management system will allow the SMEs to become more innovative and to achieve more success with their product, service and process. This would foster SME’s results, value and competitiveness. SMEs are often not able to adequately develop their management innovation systems and there are no local available services that help them to go in this direction. The proposal will establish services to make available the opportunity for a SME to have a rational and structured support to develop and maintain an internal innovation management system
Moreover, I-KAM2EU will support the SME Instrument beneficiaries to enhance the probability of successful exploitation of their project and to leave a footprint for the their future sustainable growth.

The EICM service is targeted to a number of selected SMEs who are developing innovative products or services and with high potential for international competitiveness, but who have poor knowledge or skills or ability to manage the innovation processes. The partners agreed to make use of “IMP³rove” as core tool for the assessment phase of the service.
The KAM service is reserved to SME Instrument Phase 1 or Phase 2 beneficiaries located in the three Italian regions covered by the proposal.

I-KAM2EU will provide 83 EIMC and 13 KAM services for a total of 96 services in 2015-2016.