Call for proposal Enhancing SME innovation capacity by providing better innovation supportTopic: Professionalization of open innovation management in SMEsSCOPE:Collection and analysis of information and data on the application of open innovation in SMEs, taking into account different situations in Member States and in specific market segments. Identification of case-study examples and analysis of how these practices are organised and managed both in high-tech and low-tech industries. Publication and further dissemination of an annual report on the use of open innovation by SMEs in selected economic sectors.- EU-wide diffusion of success stories of SMEs using open innovation. Open innovation support schemes are currently implemented locally. Their scale and outreach is too small to invest significantly in developing content and guidelines and hence they attract limited attention from the entrepreneurs. This action will promote Europe-wide case-study examples that illustrate how entrepreneurs successfully transformed their business through a network of partners. It will also illustrate how managing such a network will allow SMEs to gain competitive advantage, overcome their size and resource limitations and how open innovation can become key both for creation and appropriating value.- Development of practical management tools to support and explain the identified case studies. The management modules should focus on (1) Strategy dimension, (2) Entrepreneurship skills, (3) Resource needs, (4) Tools to build trust and control and manage risk in a collaborative partnership. This will provide managers of small companies with hands-on guidelines on how to innovate and set-up innovation networks. The aim should be to raise awareness of open innovation in SMEs by identifying best practice examples that will help the professionalisation of open innovation management Europe-wide. The action should provide recommendations on how open-innovation information provision and training should evolve over time, beyond the scope of the present activity.- Development and testing of open innovation indicators to support management support tools within an SME. The developed quantitative tools should help management to make decision about the timing when to establish or end partnerships. Companies should be supported not only in partnering, but also in determining when, for how long and in which sequence partners should be drawn into the projects.The duration of this action will be three years.Deadline Date29-04-2015 17:00:00 (
Posted on: Tue, 28 Oct 2014 15:10:05 +0000