The project aims to use the experience, the tools, the capacity and the partners’ knowledge in order to address a common innovation support challenge namely to improve the efficiency and minimize the risk of financial instruments for innovation for SMEs through the integration of designing thinking skills and processes into the design and management of the financial instruments in order to become user friendly. The project will create a full guide that will help funding agencies/innovation agencies and managing authorities to improve the performance using design thinking. The toolbox/guide, entitled “Design Option Paper”, will help innovation agencies/ funding agencies to : - Minimize investment risks of the financial instruments by developing a method that can be used during the investment decision phase of all the financial products - Create user-friendly financial instruments by using the tool Financial Instrument Blueprint that will be developed - Understand what are the needs of their target groups (SMEs) by using “Persona tool” - Map SMEs journey when participating in a Financial Instrument by using the “Business Journey Tool” - Identify the level of SMEs satisfaction per type and stage of a financial instrument - Find the gaps/ issues and improve the process/ structure of the Financial Instruments - Learn to test the new financial instrument before the full launch in the market by using “Prototyping Methods” The Peer learning activity will serve to learn from the best and to share good and bad practices regarding the performance of financial instruments. The realized Design Options Paper will serve as a “guide” or a “handbook” to other organizations that design and/ or implement financial instruments for SMEs.

This proposal adequately addresses the specific challenge and scope of the topic, as set out in the work programme, aiming to respond to the need of providing high quality consulting services, for the enhancement of innovation management capacities of the Portuguese SMES, namely the beneficiaries of Horizon 2020 SME Instrument and those with significant innovation activities and a high potential for growth and internationalisation. The envisaged outcome is to provide services to about 30 SMEs in 2014. There will be 3 EEN PT (PORTUGALINOVA NET) partners – IAPMEI, ADI and CEC - providing these services, relying on their qualified staff with expertise on innovation management and extensive knowledge of national SMEs to carry out the foreseen support activities to SMEs and ensuring national coverage. The work plan will be based in two work packages - “WP1 – Key Account Management” for the beneficiaries of the SME Instrument” and “WP2 – Enhancing SME Innovation Management Capacity” for Innovative SMEs independently from a specific project. The companies suitable to receive KAM services (WP1) will be contacted following the EASME communication to the Coordinator of the Consortium regarding the Portuguese SMEs Instrument approved. By taking part in the present call “Enhancing the innovation management capacity of SMEs by the European Enterprise Network”, the three partners will intensify its activity of supporting SMEs to develop their innovation management strategy and internationalization processes, dedicating their senior expert staff to work with potentially innovative companies. We expect to help these companies to overcome their innovation process gaps’ by making use of assessment tools such as IMP³rove and support their efforts to internationalize successfully, by being more efficient and more effective in incorporating and applying the results of their participation in “SME Instrument” projects or accessing financial support through other available instruments.

The Start-at-best proposal will be focused in making STARTups and SMEs (small businesses) the BEST place to work, by promoting and fundings small-scale / big-outreach worlplace innovation projects. The proposal is coordinated by the Startup Europe Regions Network, a Brussels based associated born under the auspices of the European Startup Europe Initiative and the Committee of Regions, and that groups several national and regional innovation agencies across Europe, and is directly supported by 3 of these agencies. The project will devote more than 78% of its resources to fund startups, through calls for proposals that will allocate grants of 7,5K€ to a minimum of 30 small businesses in Europe. Our proposal will contribute to making Workplace Innovation easy for SMEs and especially for startups and micro-firms across Europe, by providing financial means to small firms to allow them to experiment new solutions and by developing a strong content basis provided through an easy accessible and clear web site based on an repository of real life, startup-inspired cases that are described in terms of a set of key features and which help to provide answers to companies that are in need for a workplace change. The need and desire to change will be brought to the surface through ways such as workshops, awareness sessions, consulting, etc. Workplace innovation represents a rising tide, but the boats that reach the swell first will be first to succeed. The partners in this proposal are ideally placed to achieve these goals as they include: a leading European association of regional agencies devotes to startup and SME innovation created under the auspices of the Startup Europe EC initiative, the Startup Europe Regions Network (SERN); and 3 regional/national agencies (ASTER, IT, Cork Innovates, IE and ANI, PT) responsible for the management of SME support funds in their regions, and that will enlarge their support to cover workplace innovation projects through this proposal.

The recent EC decision to rely on a “Seal of Excellence” to recognize Horizon 2020 proposals with outstanding (but non-funded) projects, caused significant constrains for national agencies responsible for managing Structural Funds. To address this issue, we propose a “Peer learning on ways to enhance good practices in SME innovation support using the “Seal of Excellence” (PEER FOR EXCELLENCE)”. PEER FOR EXCELLENCE aims to produce a Design Options Paper for the implementation of financing mechanisms (public and/or private), that will help all European, national and regional funding agencies to harness the potential of the distinction provided by the “Seal of Excellence” to successfully fund high impact innovation projects. PEER FOR EXCELLENCE will be based in the sharing of experiences and practices analysis supported by the twinning advanced methodology. This will allow the leveraging and systematization of the knowledge, not only of the members of the consortium, but also of all of the relevant European process stakeholders. This work will be supported by an initial assessment of existing practices in European countries, and will compare them with the ones adopted by the national/regional authorities in each of the participating countries. This comparison will be made based on both the explicit and the tacit knowledge that exists in the participating organisations, thus enabling a process of peer learning among them (and with other interested parties that have similar challenges). The submitting organizations have a relevant stake in the national/regional funding mechanisms in their country, where they also play a significant role as host organizations of the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN), supporting several SMEs that were already distinguished with the “Seal of Excellence”. This enables privileged first-hand knowledge of both parties perspective (funding entities and SMEs) on this subject.

The CoDEPlugin project (COnnecting the Dots – Embedding Plug-In within national innovation support schemes) aims to enhance the alignment of national and regional innovation programs with the European Innovation Council's (EIC) Plug-in scheme. This novelty under Horizon Europe, is designed to streamline the process for innovation-driven companies—startups and SMEs—to access support under the EIC Accelerator. However, many countries still face challenges in certifying their programs, resulting in unequal access to this European-level support. CoDEPlugin responds this issue by analyzing the gaps between national support programs and the Plug-in scheme's requirements. The project will conduct an in-depth assessment of the needs of startups and SMEs, the state of certified and uncertified programs, and the barriers hindering wider certification across the EU. The CoDEPlugin develops policy recommendations and practical guidelines to help innovation agencies design programs that align with Plug-in standards. Key activities include knowledge exchange among stakeholders, including Plug-in contact points, policymakers, and innovation agencies, and the creation of a Design Options Paper. It will provide actionable recommendations for aligning national programs with the Plug-in scheme and will be piloted to test its applicability. Fostering collaboration and sharing best practices lead to a more coherent and efficient European innovation support ecosystem. The CoDEPlugin consortium is well-represented by a diverse group of countries: strong innovators like FR, DE, moderate (IT, PT), which have successfully certified their programs. In contrast, Poland (emerging innovator), the largest of widening countries, ‘s not achieved certification. The consortium ensures a comprehensive analysis of the challenges and opportunities across stages of Plug-in implementation, providing a robust response to the needs of both well-established and underperforming innovation systems.