eM-POWERing SME Clusters to help SMEs to overcome the valley of death

ended

The MPowerBIO project will obtain feedback from clusters, SMEs and investors on the concrete challenges they have regarding investments and build an online platform containing digital tools for evaluating investment readiness, as well as online training modules to build the capacity of clusters to train their SME members. The project will provide 10 training the trainers events for a total of 90 clusters across the bioeconomy, covering most of Europe, supported by the online platform. This will the improve the capacity of participating clusters to service their SME members, and allow them to test the learning on SMEs in a supervised manner, at a series of 10 regional events, helping the SMEs to prepare and present high-quality projects to investors. The best SME projects will be selected by investors, and invited to one of two European finals, which are based on the European Bioeconomy Venture Forum model, run by the consortium members. A total of 72 high-quality, screened and investment-ready SME are expected to pitch at the two final events. The proposal is based on two consecutive cycles, allowing 350 SMEs to be screened and supported over the project, with experience from the first cycle being used to improve the project second cycle. The proposal takes account of the difference in Europe in investment activities, the required skills for trainers and the different types of investors in each country. MPowerBIO will ensure that clusters become self-supporting in this respect on completion of the project, with the ability to maintain these skills within their own organisations. The project will produce a replication guide to ensure that project results can be widened to other areas after completion.