Horizon 2020 (h2020), the program that funds research and innovation projects in various thematic areas in the European context with non-refundable grants.
Researchers, companies, technology centers, and public entities are welcome in this program, which has almost €80,000M for the period 2014-2020.
Spain leads Phase 2 of the SME Instrument H2020 with 12 approved projects out of a total of 63, ahead of countries such as Germany (10 projects), Norway (6 projects), France, Holland, and Sweden (5 projects each). This excellent result represents a return of 16.5 million euros for Spain in the call and positions us as the leading country in the European ranking by return. (These are data related to the third call).
These results are a reason to congratulate the new 12 companies that are accessing the SME Instrument and joining the other 170 projects in phase 2.
Companies will receive support in the so-called Phase 2 of the SME Instrument, which means that each project, 63 in total, will receive up to 2.5 million to finance innovation activities. The companies will also benefit from 12 days of coaching and business acceleration services.
Grupo VS passed Phase I of H2020 with the educational project DIDE due to the high social impact it represents, as the platform helps to identify early up to 35 needs in the learning, development, behavior, and emotion of children and adolescents from 2 to 18 years old. Dide automatically collects information from the child’s environment, providing a global view of their profile in order to intervene as soon as possible. For the first time, education managers in their departments and institutions will be able to have global statistics on the real needs of their population from 2 to 18 years of age thanks to the big data of díde.
We are currently organizing, together with the consultant Inspiralia, access to Phase 2, which includes training in communication skills to face with greater guarantee of success the stage of face-to-face interviews and live pitching sessions held in Brussels in front of a jury of independent experts. The success rates of the CV of 7.8% in Phase II stand out.
The importance of SMEs in the EU
- SMEs are key players in the European economy
- There are more than 20 million SMEs, representing more than 98% of the European business fabric.
- They employ around 87 million people (2/3 of all employment in Europe)
- They generate almost 60% of the net added value in Europe
- But only 25% are internationalized (the most innovative)
Conclusion for the EU:
- SMEs are a fundamental vector for the recovery of productivity, growth, and employment in Europe
- They are the source of technological innovations in products and services aimed at the market
The Center for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI) is the State Innovation Agency that advises, finances, and internationalizes the business projects of R&D and innovation of Spanish companies and entities and manages the Spanish participation in international R&D&I organizations, such as Horizon 2020, and in the Science and Space industries. The Feder funds of the CDTI allowed the development of dide after 5 years of research.
The díde team would like to thank the human team of Inspiralia and Carmen Marcos of IVACE for believing in our project, facilitating the procedures for the development of the horizonte 2020 program and providing us with all their support.
Original source of information:
IVACE (Valencian Institute of Business Competitiveness)
