5th Information Multipliers Workshop H2020: Opportunities for SMEs

This workshop was organised in Ankara on the 9th and 10th of March 2017. The training is dedicated to provide participants with practical knowledge of how to support SMEs in participation in H2020 and how to assess SME innovation capacity.

Two days training agenda was designed following the results of the evaluation of the 4 previous IMS events. The objectives of the event are the following:

• To provide IMS with practical knowledge on opportunities for SMEs participation in H2020;
• To train SMEs on assessment of SMEs innovation capacity;
• To train IMs on opportunities offered by H2020 SME Instrument;
• To enable IMS to provide support to SMEs to improve the quality of their proposals.

Agenda

Session 1: Opportunities for SMEs in H2020

• Opportunities for SMEs participation in Societal Challenges (SC) and Leadership in Enabling and Industrial Technologies (LEIT) vs. SME Instrument and FTI, Thies Wittig, Key Expert
• Other programmes dedicated to SMEs co-funded by H2020: Eurostars-Eureka, Odysseas Spyroglou, Key Expert
• Presentation of successful company: BYS Group, Mr. Tolga Kaskati

Session 2: Assessing SMEs Innovation Capacities

• Methodology for assessment of innovation capacity of SMEs, Philip Sowden, Key Expert

Workshop 1: Analysis of Case Study

• Presentation of case studies, Philip Sowden, Key Expert
• Team Work: Each team will receive a description of a company. The teams will use checklist to make the  decision whether the company is ready to go for funding, and which sources of funding they should consider. The results will be discussed and consensus reached    
• Presentation of Team Work Results and Discussion. Moderator: Philip Sowden, Key Expert

Session 3: Experiences from the SME Instrument

• SME Instrument: What is it? Who should benefit? Evaluator Experience, Yasemin Erdal, Non-Key Expert
• SME Instrument Phase 1 and Phase 2: Presentation of successful company - KuartisMed, Mr. Ahmet Saracoglu

Session 4: Development of Business Plan 

• Basics of business plan, Philip Sowden, Key Expert

Workshop 2: Business Plan: Key Questions

• Team Work: Each team will receive a description of the business. The teams will be asked to answer a set of business plan questions. The results will be discussed and consensus reached.         
• Presentation of Team Work Results and Discussion. Moderator: Philip Sowden, Key Expert
• Introductory remarks, Philip Sowden, Key Expert
• Team Work: Each team will try to fit the information developed in previous exercise into the series of questions based on an outline proposal for SME Instrument Phase 2. The results will be discussed and consensus reached.
• Presentation of Team Work Results and Discussion. Moderator: Philip Sowden, Key Expert

Workshop 3: Evaluation exercise

• Introductory remarks, Aleksander Bakowski, Key Expert
• Team Work. Each participant will receive copy of SME Instrument proposal Phase 1 and will individually evaluate its content. Comments will be provided on weaknesses of the proposal against requirements of good business plan development. The results will be discussed and consensus reached.           
• Presentation of Team Work Results and Discussion, Moderator: Aleksander Bakowski, Key Expert
• Wrap-up session, Aleksander Bakowski

Presentations & Supporting Material