The project aimed to interrelate improvements in the innovation capacities of SMEs with the inclusion of other innovations in the process (social innovation), to facilitate the economic development of companies.

European Project that ran for two and a half years that aimed to develop and test the European innovation audit tool for social innovation. Deposit introduced the concept of social innovation to SMEs and innovation agencies.

• WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT?

  This project is part of the European HORIZON 2020 call for proposals. It is a consortium of 6 partners who, for 2 years, are going to work together. The Project aims to interrelate the capacity for innovation in SMEs with other innovations (such as social innovation) so as to enhance the potential for innovation in companies and facilitate their economic development.

  The project aims to delve deeper into the capacities for innovation and the ability to learn from partners: to know what they do to measure innovation and which tools and programmes they use as innovation agencies.

  Learning what others do will enable us to improve these programmes in our immediate environment and in our companies. One of the most important initiatives is the development of a tool to audit innovation that will enable us to boost the capacity for innovation and identify the potential that companies have. This tool will develop a new methodology and will provide support for innovation for the SME sector.

• WHAT ACTIONS WERE CARRIED OUT?
  • Developing, testing (and validating) an improved innovation audit tool to enhance the potential for innovation including aspects of social innovation.
  • Applying randomized control trials in a real environment (through the provision of services for SMEs) as a method to test the effectiveness of the innovation support scheme.
  • Helping innovation-driven SMEs to recognise market opportunities more clearly, and understand competing innovative solutions, and encouraging them to make the most of their capacities for social innovation.
  • Providing an example of best practices and encouraging other innovation agencies to experiment with policies and with the tested schemes.
• WHO FUNDS THIS?

  This project has been co-funded by the HORIZON 2020 programme

• GET TO KNOW THE PROJECT PARTNERS
  • Steinbeis innovation ggmbh, Germany
  • Croatian chamber of economy cce, Croatia
  • Agentia pentru dezvoltare regionalasud-muntenia, Romania
  • Stichting business development friesland, Netherlands
  • Torino innovazione centro di ricerca e di trasferimento tecnologico scarl, Italy