Two categories of SMEs will cooperate in the project, therefore, two-level of benefits will be guaranteed:

a) higher performer SMEs coming from different countries that will directly participate in all project activities and will be involved during all project lifetime. These partners will be direct beneficiaries of project outputs, and will directly benefit from the analysis to be conducted, models to be shared, the best practices that will be discussed and shared. This category (selected as a high innovative performer) will have the opportunity, during the project lifetime, to transfer directly in their organization project results.

b) testing SMEs: for these, the benefits are constituted by different project outputs. Some of them will be directly transferred during project lifetime such as the diagnosis (monitoring) tools that the will be elaborate to identify SMEs needs – a useful instrument that they can always use (also after the project lifetime) as a self-diagnosis tool, and some other will be delivered after the testing phase, as set of needs (in terms of skills and competences) that currently hinder their innovation process. The skill-assessment and/or map-competences carried out on this group can be considered as a benefit for all SMEs not only at project level but also at regional level. It is important to underline the transferability of the results achieved, at national and European level, because the ex-ante analysis revealed a common gap for SMEs at European Level.

The private business sector is constituted mainly by Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), ranging from single-owner to 250 employees. Although the SMEs are the real driving force of the European economy, they are still facing considerable difficulties in managing R&D processes. Providing an updated Map of SME’ innovation needs can help to better define how to train industrial researchers able to manage SME’ R&D process in a more effective way. A more dynamic interaction between them and HEIs and the direct participation of SMEs in training and educational processes are the first steps to overcome the encountered obstacles.

Four SMEs of different countries are the direct beneficiaries of this process. Idea75, DEST, Noesis, Exquisite. The mapping of SMEs needs will be ensured through testing phase involving directly 100 Smes (10-20 for each country).

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BENEFITS:

-Stronger link with academia….

-Easier and more systematic access to innovation…

-More skilled researchers inside the company for boosting R&I cooperation, internationalization, information exchanging and competitiveness