Throughout the EU, the fragmentation of innovation ecosystems and the lack of interconnection between public national and regional agencies appear to be one of the main obstacles to securing support for the most promising SMEs. The GO-SME project responds to the need to provide financial support to SMEs and start-ups for the development of their innovative ideas. The aim of GO-SME is to share the best practices of participating research funding organisations (RFOs) and their mutual learning in designing programmes which would support SMEs and start-ups in an initial assessment of their innovative ideas so that they can progress to more advanced stages of innovation development. To achieve this aim, a combination of the following activities will be used: 1/learning from best practices already applied in support schemes for innovative SMEs and startups, 2/motivation of agencies from widening countries to design innovation support schemes for SMEs and start-ups, 3/cooperation in the setting up of comparable support schemes and sets of selection criteria, 4/sharing of best practices in the work with (international) experts and sharing of their pools 5/learning from best practices in providing coaching and mentoring services to innovative SMEs and start-ups 6/mutual opening up pools of coaches and mentors 7/offering of special services to running projects which will be selected as the most promising by an independent international panel. The added value of the project rests in its ambition to design national and regional programmes supporting innovative SMEs which could act as a pipeline for the EIC Accelerator and be part of the “plug-in” mechanism. At the same time, it can serve as a pilot project for a possible partnership co-funded from innovation ecosystems in the Horizon Europe programme.

The current proposal fully describes advising services to SMEs with the objective of increasing and accelerating the economic returns from innovation and proves ACCIÓ capacity to successfully deliver them. The services will be provided to two specific groups of enterprises: beneficiaries of the SME instrument, FTI, FET-Open; and SMEs with significant innovation activities and a high potential for internationalisation. ACCIÓ, as the Enterprise Europe Network Catalan node coordinator, is specialised in promoting innovation and internationalisation among SMEs and has implemented several successful programmes over the last 20 years. For instance, since 2014 INNCAT has provided advice services with IMP3rove, Innovation Health Check (IHC) and KAM methodologies. For next year, 2019, INNCAT will close a minimum of 49 KAM and EIMC cases of mentoring to enhance the innovation management capacity of SMEs; it is an increase of 22.5% compared to the services planned per year in the current INNCAT1718 project. The involved staff is fully committed to deliver the foreseen cases using the above mentioned methodologies and have a broad and extensive expertise in innovation, business support and management services. Moreover, 6 of the involved 8 staff members already participate in the implementation of INNCAT1718 for the delivery of KAM and EIMC cases. Therefore, they are fully capable to implement the described services and successfully advise Catalan SMEs in 2019. Additionally, a majority of staff members also offering EEN standard network services will enhance synergies and ensure the principle of the client centric approach.

Horizon 2020 call “Enhancing the innovation management capacity of SMEs” proposes advising services to SMEs with the objective of increasing and accelerating the economic returns from innovation. The current proposal fully describes these services and proves ACCIÓ’s capacity to successfully deliver them. The services will be provided to two specific groups of enterprises: beneficiaries of the SME instrument and, SMEs with significant innovation activities and a high potential for internationalisation. As the current coordinator of the Catalan node of the EEN (also for 2015-2020), ACCIÓ is specialised in promoting innovation and internationalisation among SMEs and has implemented several successful programmes over the last 20 years; for instance it is currently providing advise services for the period 2015-2016 with IMPRove, Innovation Health Check (IHC) and KAM methodologies with an EU financed project called INNCAT. The experience obtained, especially since the implementation of INNCAT, has given to our team of experts a deeper knowledge of these services and therefore we are proposing that a minimum of 80 services will be provided in the period of 2017-2018 for enhancing the innovation management capacity of SMEs. It is 42% more services than INNCAT1516. The proposed staff is fully committed to deliver the proposed services and is trained in IMPR3ove methodology and Innovation Health Check (IHC) and have a broad and extensive expertise in innovation and business support and, management. Moreover, 6 of the proposed 9 staff members have intervened in the implementation of INNCAT for the delivery of KAM and IMPR3ove services during 2014-2016. Therefore they are fully capable to deliver the services described and successfully advise SMEs.

Horizon 2020 call “Enhancing the innovation management of SMEs” proposes the offering of mentoring and coaching services to SMEs with the objective of increasing and accelerating the economic returns from innovation. The current proposal describes in detail the services focused on enhancing innovation management capacities of SMEs and proves ACCIÓ’s capacity to successfully deliver such services. The service will be provided to two specific groups of companies: beneficiaries of the SME instrument and, SMEs with significant innovation activities and a high potential for internationalisation. The minimum number of 7-day packages to be delivered are 20, although depending on the number of beneficiaries of the SME instrument up to 32 7-day packages could be developed. As coordinator of the Catalan node of the Enterprise Europe Network, ACCIÓ offers a wide range of innovation services to SMEs. ACCIÓ is specialised in promoting innovation and internationalisation among SMEs and has implemented several successful programmes over the last 20 years. In 2013 ACCIÓ's innovation advisors visited 100 SMEs for the first time, managed more than 4.000 expression of interest for technology transfer or partner search and reached more than 3.000 people through its monthly newsletter “EU R&D&I opportunities”. The proposed INNCAT team is fully committed in the delivery of the project, is trained in IMP3rove methodology and have a broad and extensive expertise in innovation and business support and management.