Navigator Consulting has been chosen to provide consultants to support the European Commission’s SME Instrument evaluation process under Horizon 2020.
According to the European Commission:
Horizon 2020 funds high-potential innovation developed by SMEs through the SME instrument. The SME instrument offers Europe's brightest and boldest entrepreneurs the chance to step forward and request funding for breakthrough ideas with the potential to create entirely new markets or revolutionise existing ones.
Provided with about € 1.6 billion in funding over the period 2018-2020, the SME Instrument will support groundbreaking innovative ideas for products, services or processes that are ready to conquer global markets. Available to SMEs only, the new scheme offers phased, progressive and complementary support to the development of out-of-the-box ideas.
There are no predefined topics for the SME instrument call; only the most excellent and impactful ideas will receive support.
In the last three years of implementation, around 4000 SMEs will be selected to receive funding under the SME instrument call.
The SME instrument supports close-to-market activities, with the aim to give a strong boost to breakthrough innovation with a market-creating potential. Highly innovative SMEs with a clear commercial ambition and a potential for high growth and internationalisation are the prime target.
The SME Instrument offers small and medium-sized businesses the following:
Business innovation grants for feasibility assessment purposes (optional phase I): EUR 50,000 (lump sum) per project (70% of total cost of the project);
Business innovation grants for innovation development & demonstration purposes (possible phase II): an amount in the indicative range of EUR 500,000 and 2,5 million (70% of total cost of the project as a general rule);
Free-of-charge business coaching (optional) in order to support and enhance the firm’s innovation capacity and help align the project to strategic business needs;
Access to a wide range of other business acceleration services and facilitated access to risk finance, to facilitate the commercial exploitation of the innovation.
Our responsibilities involve proposal evaluation with a focus on ICT, tech and fintech proposals. To date, two evaluations have been completed and five are underway.
Please note that to ensure confidentiality, we cannot provide further information on this process, the projects evaluated or the consultant/s implementing the evaluation.
For further information, please refer to the SME Instrument website.