Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - OaSIS (Optimizing Support for Innovating SMEs)

Teaser

The OaSIS project aims to fill the gap in the innovation support and management knowledge through: (1) Analysis of the existing approaches to SME segmentation and innovation support measures used by the Regional Development Agencies throughout Europe, (2) Detailed studies of...

Summary

The OaSIS project aims to fill the gap in the innovation support and management knowledge through:

(1) Analysis of the existing approaches to SME segmentation and innovation support measures used by the Regional Development Agencies throughout Europe,
(2) Detailed studies of the performance of innovating SMEs, in response to the specific support they had received,
(3) and creation of a unified, performance-based methodology for SME segmentation and improved targeting with existing support schemes. Unique Big Data analysis will lead to the discovery of hidden patterns and correlations among innovating SMEs, that lead to their success and highest societal and economic impact.

We can optimize your support measures (for SMEs), by processing and analysing funding data and growth metrics of European SMEs provided by Regional Developement Agencies via following scheme:
INPUT: Access to historic data and/or future innovation support instruments’ data.
PROCESSING: OaSIS performs a personalized analysis of your funding instruments & grants for different SME segments, and generate European benchmarks.
OUTPUT: Recommendations and evaluation on which support instruments are performing best, which seem promising, which work best in (other EU) similar environments for SMEs.

Our unique Big Data analysis uncovers patterns and correlations in innovating SMEs, and spot (early) “success metrics” which could lead to optimized funding schemes and improved targetting of enterprises with highest growth potential.

Work performed

In the beginning of the project detailed short and medium to long term strategy will be developed by consortium partners, utilizing expert inputs from partners dealing with specific parts of the project. This part will be divided into five main areas of interest:
• Strategy for identifying target audience and involving them in the consortium activities (e.g. data sharing). The foundation of the strategy is created through the mobilization of the ecosystem created by the European Association of Regional Development Agencies, which are large pan-European associations. Basic information will be collected in a structured way and will furthermore play a central role in the clustering and background analysis of the initiative.
• Preliminary methodology for data acquisition, created with expert inputs of consortium partners dealing with Big Data analysis taking into account different possible data types, different situation in Member States and varying willingness of the Development Agencies and SMEs to share data. This step also in-cludes creation of the set of numerical Key Performance Indicators, describing the relative performance of innovating SMEs in response to the specific support schemes, measured in both numerical (increase in profit, revenue, number of employees, partners, etc.) and non-numerical (increase in reputation, know-how, etc.) terms.
• Troubleshooting strategy for the possible lack of interest in data sharing among Development Agencies and SMEs.
• Strategy for active and passive marketing of consortium activities (website, workshops, seminars, conferences). Current strategies for improvement of the partners’ visibility will be the main targets for the activities. These actions will be strengthened by networking initiatives such as EEN, ESA TTPO, and other pro-fessional networks, clusters, and innovation hubs.
• Preliminary strategy for achieving a long term impact on SMEs and achieving project sustainability.

In all these actions the role of associations, in particular sectorial associations, industrial associations, and regional-national groupings, will play a crucial role in the effective multiplication of the efforts of the consortium. The organizations will be proactively involved during the whole course of the project: in the early stage – during the development of a strategy and identification of objectives, during the execution – in order to assess the widest possible number of players, and in the phase of validation of the methodologies and practical tools – to qualify the potential of the work done and to provide visibility and dissemination to the results, therefore widening the net-work and providing access to our solutions. European associations and technology platforms will provide a strong relevance to the capacity to reach the widest bench of potential beneficiaries of the platform as well and effectively to extend the exploitation potential.

Final results

Successful innovation results from new business models, the uptake of technologies, design and organisational changes, and “internationalisation” of business activities, rather than simply from scientific research and technological development. While there exists an increasing number of various innovation support measures used by development agencies and other bodies, the question of how to appropriately target specific types of SMEs with support instruments, which are best suited to their needs, potential, and ambition, remains unanswered. It is clear that the problem of addressing specific groups of SMEs with appropriate support measures is crucial for the societal impact achieved through their implementation.

The process of identifying groups of SMEs that could benefit mostly from specific support schemes has been referred to as the “segmentation of the client base” of support agencies. Many regions try to identify potential high-growth SMEs in order to target them with the most ambitious projects resulting in highest societal impact, while providing viable alterna-tives to other enterprises. However, the methodologies used for this purpose vary significantly and hardly take into account specific factors characteristic for the given region, while proposing very often a standard portfolio of support measures.

It is therefore evident that a thorough analysis of existing methodologies of the SME segmentation and targeting, their strong points, weaknesses, potential biases towards certain groups of SMEs, and opportunities for overcom-ing them is needed to understand the patterns of innovation opportunities and activities in different SME segments. Moreover, new, evidence-based methodologies of the segmentation of innovating SMEs and improved targeting of identified segments with support suited to their properties would most likely lead to the vastly improved efficiency and effectiveness of the support provided by various organisations and funding bodies. This would, in turn, result in the greatly improved societal and economic impact from the innovation support expenses.

The ultimate goal of the OaSIS project is to increase the growth and prosperity in Europe through strengthening the capacity of national and international ministries, innovation agencies, and other providers of innovation sup-port. These actions will lead to the optimization of innovation support schemes used throughout Europe and ultimately to vastly improved innovativeness of European SMEs.

All of the above actions will ultimately lead to increase in innovation, as well as in a vastly improved societal and economic impact from innovative activities, and, in broader perspective, to the growth of European economy and strengthening the ties between the Member States of the European Union. They will also help to improve Europe-an Union’s competitiveness and innovativeness in the global market and provide substantial social impact.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.projectoasis.eu.