Lack of innovation management capacity is recognised as an important barrier to creating economic impact (competitiveness, growth and jobs) from innovation activities in SMEs. The general objective of the proposal is to achieve overall long term capacity building in (Finnish) SME’s, particularly to make the innovation system in the companies more efficient and effective and to increase and accelerate the economic returns from innovation in the SMEs. Actions will be identified to address weaknesses in the innovation capacities of the SME that hinder the realisation of growth opportunities and of the full commercial potential. Hence, the improvement of this innovation management capacity upgrades the economic performance of the most promising SMEs. First specific objective of the project is to provide Key account management services to beneficiaries of the SME instrument. These services aim to identify bottlenecks to the creation of economic impact in companies benefitting from grants by Horizon2020's SME instrument. Based on the needs analysis the Key account management services identify suitable coaches to address the identified bottlenecks and also facilitates the coach-client relationship during the coaching project. Second specific objective is to provide services, which enhance the innovation management capacity of SMEs. This service will increase the efficiency and effectiveness of innovation processes in small and medium sized enterprises with significant innovation activities that could potentially become beneficiaries of European support to research and innovation but would not have effective access to consulting services for innovation management. The service includes an assessment of innovation management capacity and development actions based on the assessment.

URBAN TECH will support the acceleration of competitive success of European SMEs through market launch of new or significantly improved products and services with higher value (with higher quality, increased access, eco- innovative, resource efficient and internationally scalable). In long term perspective (strategic objective), URBAN TECH will innovate and increase the competitiveness of European Health Tech, Smart City and Greentech industries globally. Value proposition: • Offering innovative solutions to cross-sectoral and cross-border challenges, either public or private. • Bringing together different stakeholders of the industry value-chain to cooperate and innovate together. • Supporting SMEs and start-ups in scaling their solutions and products globally. Advanced partnership of cluster and innovation support organisations from 9 countries, entrepreneurial and innovation support measures providers to SMEs and start-ups, mediators between the societal stakeholders needs and solution providers. Partners’ network bringing together 3 500 start-ups and SMEs and wider outreach to 20 000. The core outputs of the project: • 300 clustered challenges from 9 countries and beyond • Online Open Space, based on Virtual Library of Challenges structured around Health Tech, Greentech and Smart City industries • 320 collaborative innovation solutions by SMEs selected for industry hackathons through Open Call • Up to 9 international industry hackathons, resulting in 80 cross-border and cross-sectoral innovation projects selected for incubation and 1st stage of support (in total, max up to 10 350 €) • ~30 projects selected for 2nd stage support (20-30 k €) for large scale testing and demonstration to deliver minimal viable products (MPVs) • 20 projects selected for Going Global stage support (up to 14 k €) • 20 tested and demonstrated products, partnerships and further public & private funding attracted through project business development and going global support in 3-5 years

Nowadays, the center of the bio-based economy is the development of integrated value chains removing sector barriers, where market and product innovations are driven by societal needs and vision of brand owners, and require the collaborations between different sectors through new bio-based value chains (from feedstock to products), also establishing co-operations throughout industry clusters. Open innovation has been identified as the major driver to perform innovation through the flow (in and out) of knowledge, technologies and competences, for organisations to design, plan, and implement market and product innovations as well as to establish sustainable partnerships joining forces with customers, feedstock suppliers, academia, and financial sector. In BiOPEN a consortium highly specialized in the bio-based industry, composed by five European bio-based clusters, three open innovation expert companies, and one research centre, will embark on an ambitious programme to support collaboration and knowledge sharing in the bio-based industry, stimulating the set-up of co-innovation partnerships for the development of new products and markets in the sector. BIOPEN ambition is to become a single voice for the bio-based industries in Europe, gathering expertise and promoting engagement and involvement of industry, researchers and academia at European and national level, by setting up an Open-innovation platform addressing strategic cross-cutting challenges such as (i) clustering and networking to develop new value chains and favour the emergence of co-innovation partnerships across the value chains; (ii) Stakeholders engagement and support with regards to setting-up at least 20 co-innovation partnerships alongside existing and new value chains; (iii) creation of a knowledge centre collecting the prospective and insight of the community, and providing access to relevant information for markets and products innovations in the bio-based ecosystem.

Objective of the proposal is to contribute to smart growth in the European Union by increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of investments in research, development and innovation and by contributing to a better and more efficient connection of actors along the innovation chain. In proposal actions have planned to identify weaknesses in the innovation capacities of the beneficiary that hinder the realisation of growth opportunities and of the full commercial potential of SME Instrument participants and to identify suitable coaches (based on the assessment above) to address the identified weaknesses and moderating the coach-client relationship, and furthermore to accompany the beneficiary through the SME instrument project. First spesific bjective of the project is to provide Key account management services to beneficiaries of the SME instrument. These services aim to identify bottlenecks to the creation of economic impact in companies benefitting from grants by Horizon2020's SME instrument and address these bottlenecks with the help of capable coaches. Second specific objective is to provide services, which enhance the innovation management capacity of SMEs. This service will increase the efficiency and effectiveness of innovation processes in small and medium sized enterprises with significant innovation activities that could potentially become beneficiaries of European support to research and innovation but would not have effective access to consulting services for innovation management.