Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - INCAME_2 (INnovation CApacity of Mediterranean Enterpises)

Teaser

As far as concerns the Consortium as a whole, the aim was mainly to provide support to bridge the differences in terms of capacity to manage innovation processes through a support for increase expertise internal to companies, to acquire greater awareness of the international...

Summary

As far as concerns the Consortium as a whole, the aim was mainly to provide support to bridge the differences in terms of capacity to manage innovation processes through a support for increase expertise internal to companies, to acquire greater awareness of the international market in terms of barriers, competition, intellectual property protection and accelerating the process of growth thanks to access to European funding for innovation and competitiveness mainly those in the framework of H2020 program.
From most of partners, strong actions to promote both the activities related to the SME-Instrument and to EIMC were carried out. The staff of the host organizations involved in the EEN activities took part in courses, working groups and trainings.
Several initiatives were implemented in order to inform, raise awareness and support companies was carried out by the consortium partners with the aim of making known the H2020 Program to companies and SMEs, informing on how to participate and providing support, in order to have a greater number of participating companies and consequently more KAM cases in perspective.
As far as EIMC services are concerned:
- “promotional” letters were sent to the companies to allow them to take advantage of the analysis of innovation management system
- companies were contacted either by e-mail or telephone in order to promote directly the project and if necessary the service
- “Call for expressions of interest concerning the EIMC service”.

Work performed

\"Work performed in the two years was in the first instance a preparatory work of information and awareness primarily for EIMC services and partly for those of KAM. The activities were integrated by follow-up and targeted interventions aimed at the individual companies. In the process of service delivery, activities were implemented in accordance to the work program.
In terms of results obtained are noteworthy some cases that after the phase 1 applied with success in phase 2 obtaining a grant or in some case the seals of excellence.
All companies served with KAM and EIMC services have been properly registered to receive services related to COSME activities (drafting of technological offering profiles, involvement in B2B, CM or workshops, scouting, personalized audit, identification of alternative funding sources, etc..).
As far as concerns tools used by the Consortium for the delivery of the EIMC services, according to the characteristics and size of the company, together with the Intake Check used to get a picture of the specific company for the purposes of the assessment tool selection, three instruments were used:
- the IMPROVE tool \"\"IMP³rove - European Innovation Management Academy\"\";
- Innovation Health Check - questionnaire and evaluation platform were made available by the Enterprise Ireland EEN partner;
- SmE-MPOWER.
Downstream of the assessment activities were defined the specific action plans for each company and, subsequently, were activated supports for the implementation of the action plans. Finally for each company was elaborated a report describing activities carried out and expected impacts.
P01 (S. I. Impresa) as INCAME_2 project coordinator monitored the activities performances and common methodologies agreed at Consortium level. Declarations for common Methodology for KAM were collected from all partners in 2017.
P01 ensured the networking relations with EASME and other EEN partner involved in H2020 activities in framework of main institutional meetings (National meetings in Naples in May 2017, in Rende in December 2017, in Naples in May 2018, Coordinators’ meeting).
Consortium partners participated to meetings of the national working groups “KAM_EIMC” and “H2020_NCP”, in occasion of EEN national meetings, to discuss main topics, share good practices, increase know-how and competences.
In order to enhance the technical competences for the use of the case tracker and to build up ability to interact with SME Instrument coaches, Consortium staff attended several training sessions.
During 2017 / 2018 in our Consortium regions, 19 companies could benefit of a SME Instrument Grant (9 in 2017 and 10 in 2018) and so 19 new cases were assigned from P01 to KAMs (17 cases phase one / 2 cases phase 29). KAMs focused their activities on these cases and on some other cases of the previous year which were not closed yet.
Consequently, 28 clients in total were served, even though 26 cases were closed in (10 in 2017 and 16 in 2018). Closed cases represented 94,55 % of the two years’ target.
With regard to WP2 Enhancing Innovation Management Capacity for innovating SMEs, 120 SMEs (57 in 2017 / 63 2018) were assisted by the consortium partners, 60 cases were closed representing 73% of the target (which was 82,2), with a different rate for each partner.
In terms of number of clients served, some partners were very performing, first of all P13 (ARCA: 67 clients), followed by P08 (SPIN: 18 clients), P10 (UC PUGLIA: 15 clients), P05 (ENEA: 16 clients).
For completed cases, the most performing partners were (ARCA: 35 cases, representing 152% of the target) followed by P08 (SPIN: 10 clients, representing 94% of the target).
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Final results

The activities were carried out according to the aim of the IS specific for the two WPs and to COSME one.
The strategy as a whole aimed at the implementation of actions and the provision of specialist services that can bridge the differences with similar companies in the most developed part of Italy and start the improvement and growth of the ability to face the challenges from management innovation in order to develop an adaptive strategy to cope with the rapid changes that the single market requires.
Synergies with actions under COSME have produced preparatory actions, to propose and deliver specialized services with the help of the EEN experts. In terms of expected impact all assisted companies expect to increase presence in the international market to enhance skills, to develop business models that speed up the internationalization process by eliminating differences with European competitors.
The potential impact on job created or maintained and the financial gain or saving allowed cannot be exactly estimated. However, the provision of the EIMC services should at least have allowed the preservation of the Clients’ status quo in terms of maintenance of employment levels and an increase in the Clients’ competitiveness thanks also to a greater awareness on innovation management and its importance. Since participation in SME Instrument in the geographic area covered by Consortium, is not very high, the number of companies followed is contained. At the same time, in some cases the limited size and structure of the company’s’ organization and the consequent impossibility in applying analytical methods which require the presence of structured organizations with at least some component of R & D or marketing development made more difficult the selection of suitable companies to the provision of EIMC services
The number of SMEs supported overall was 148: 28 KAM services and 120 EIMC. In the previous reporting period a lower number of companies were supported (122: 30 as KAM and 92 as EIMC).
The total number of days spent in delivering KAM Services is 82 (28 clients served / 26 closed cases).
The total number of days spent in delivering EIMC Services is 531 (120 clients served / 60 closed cases).

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