SMEs

The European Commission’s new Sustainable Finance Strategy sets out several initiatives to tackle climate change while increasing investment in the EU's transition towards a sustainable economy The strategy will be more inclusive for SMEs. In recent years, the Commission took action to build the...

The SME performance review is one of the main tools the European Commission uses to monitor and assess countries' progress in implementing the SME strategy and the Small Business Act (SBA). The review provides comprehensive information on the performance of SMEs in EU countries and other partner...

Further to the adoption of the main Horizon Europe Work Programme on 15 June, calls for proposals are now opening. Under Cluster 4, the ‘Innovate to transform’ support for SMEs’ sustainability transition call is now open. With a budget of €10 million in 2021, this action will support the provision...

Since 2020, the European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund has approved 111 investments for highly innovative start-ups and SMEs, totalling around € 500 million. Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth said: “The EIC Fund has developed incredibly quickly and...

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, the health crisis has had a huge impact on SMEs globally. Since then, they face a challenging economic climate while having to deliver competitive and high-quality services. Many SMEs found it difficult to stay connected to their customers during the...

The European Union is currently working to reach its goal of vaccinating 70% of its citizens. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has announced that an additional 1.8 billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccine will be delivered by BioNTech/Pfizer. As these are delivered, more and more EU...

On behalf of the European Commission’s DG GROW, Prognos AG is conducting an EU-wide survey to collect insights on the effectiveness of the ECCP and EREK platform among users. The survey aims to answer the following questions: What has been the impact of EU cluster support for your cluster...

On 15 April, the European Alliance Against Coronavirus discussed how to increase resilience in SMEs with Veronica Elena Bocci from DITECFER. The session took place in the frame of the Spanish Cluster Congress 2021. Veronica highlighted that disruptions happen at a higher frequency than we might...

DigiCirc accelerates innovation by identifying cutting-edge circular economy solutions and promoting business development. From 2020–2022, DigiCirc is organising three Accelerator Programmes, with €2.4 million in funding for SMEs in: Circular cities; Blue economy; Bioeconomy. The second open call...

The European Commission’s Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) has published a study on the effectiveness of public innovation support for SMEs in Europe. The aim of this study is to gather evidence to determine whether the delivery of public innovation support in Europe...

Business leaders and policymakers across the Single Market are starting to outline long-term economic recovery plans as the EU’s vaccine programme increases. The global crisis has caused challenges for industries across ecosystems, however in planning for a sustainable recovery, the Single Market...

The European Commission recently launched the Horizon Intellectual Property (IP) Scan service. This tailored and free-of-charge IP support service is specifically designed to help European start-ups and other SMEs to efficiently manage and valorise IP in collaborative research and innovation efforts...