enhancing Innovation and Key Account Management by sme2EU

ended

The proposal aims at improving the innovation management capacity of SMEs to enhance their growth, competitiveness and cross-border partnerships. I-KAM2EU is the proposal by SME2EU (the Enterprise Europe Network consortium for the three Italian regions Marche, Tuscany and Umbria) to provide in its area in 2020 and 2021 two services continuing the ongoing positive experience in the years 2015-2019. 1) Key Account Management (KAM) service, reserved to SME beneficiaries of SME Instrument, Fast Track to Innovation and Future and Emerging Technologies Open calls of Horizon 2020, in the three Italian regions covered by the proposal. I-KAM2EU will provide 7 KAM services in 2020-2021. The effective number of KAMs will be determined by the real number of beneficiaries in the three regions. The consortium will active a pool of 8 people to assess the SME’s needs, to support the choice of a right coach and to moderating the coach-client relationship, ensuring that beneficiary receives the most appropriate support services which enhance the probability of a successful and sustainable exploitation of its innovation project. 2) Enhancing SME’s Innovation Management Capacity (EIMC) for innovating SMEs, targeted to SMEs with significant innovation activities and with concrete potential for international growth, about product, process, service or business model innovation. I-KAM2EU will provide 68 EIMC services in 2020-2021 to SMEs selected through a structured procedure. The consortium will active a pool of 14 people, able to use IMPR3rove (for most structured SMEs) and/or Innovation Health Check (for less structured SMEs) tools to assess the SME’s current status of the innovation management system, to make a gap analysis, to define an action plan, to monitor it and to check improvements and impacts.