SME Instrument Phase 1: Results after cut-off

18/06/2014

"Horizon 2020 Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises"

Executive Agency for SMEs (EASME)

We made it, but for a price The scheme has been accepted and has attracted many SMEs new to the FP. The evaluation worked and results seem to be reliable. Pending legal validations, the 3-months TTG is in reach. We can't make everybody happy and emphasis is on the successful applications.

Disclaimer

This is the very first round of the SME Instrument. Beware of taking deep and elaborated conclusions after this initial round.

Proposals received 2.662 proposals received (our estimation was 2.500) success rate: 6%

2503 single company applications, 119 consortia with 2 SMEs, 34 with 3 and 6 with 4 SMEs 2.602 proposals were eligible and evaluated (doublets, withdrawals, some incorrect templates or incomplete proposals)

This is not oversubscription, but shows that the scheme was accepted and that the simplification attempts (10 pages, single company application) bears fruit.

Applicants did not use the advantage of the continuous call and evaluation and did only submit very shortly before the cut-off date (85% arrived within 48 h before cut-off)

Therefore evaluation took longer than initially planned (15 July instead of 30 June), leaving just 8 summer weeks for grant preparation.

This & IT difficulties to send fast feedback to applicants before the cut-off dates might call for more cut-offs per year (e.g. every two months)

Budget The Work Programme foresees the following budget distribution: 10% of the budget for Phase 1 and 88% for Phase 2. The remaining 2% are used for evaluators, the business coaching scheme and potential Phase 3 activities (in later years). The budgets are evenly distributed between the cut-off dates.

Companies to be funded Out of the 2602 applications 317 (12%) are evaluated above threshold (13 points overall). Based on the positively evaluated applications per topic 155 companies will be funded (6%). 49% of applications above threshold will be funded every second "good" proposal is funded

Total nber Experts Share

Business general 49 9,4%

Business development 118 22,6%

Business incubation 20 3,8%

Commercial / Marketing 15 2,9%

Entrepreneurship / Start-up 92 17,7%

Finance 25 4,8%

Gender issues 1 0,2%

Innovation advice/management 146 28,0%

Legal expertise / IPR 15 2,9%

Other 9 1,7%

Risk finance (Business Angel Investor / Venture Capital) 31 6,0%

Total 521 100,0%

Evaluators

34% were women. 12% came from universities and research institutes and 88% were from private commercial firms.

only countries with submissions are shown

The 5 highest "country success rates" are: Ireland: 20% Austria: 15% United Kingdom: 11% Israel: 10% Spain: 9%

First lessons learned

Unsuccessful proposals were

• too much project focussed, not enough business opportunity oriented

• Description of company not convincing (why would this company succeed and not the competitor)

• No information on competing solutions

• Innovation content too low; product exists already on the market (just incremental improvement)

• Just ideas, no proof of existing commercialisation concept (TRL far too low)

• Just trying ones luck

Company size all topics

UP TO 5 EMPLOYEES

49%

6 TO 10 EMPLOYEES

18%

11 TO 50 EMPLOYEES

22%

MORE THAN 50 EMPLOYEES

9%

UNKNOWN 2%

Staff in Applicant SMEs(All topics)

UP TO 5 EMPLOYEES

33%

6 TO 10 EMPLOYEES

23%

11 TO 50 EMPLOYEES

30%

MORE THAN 50 EMPLOYEES

13%

UNKNOWN 1%

Staff in Funded SMEs(All topics)

Company age all topics

UP TO 3 YEARS 39%

4 TO 10 YEARS 32%

MORE THAN 11 YEARS 28%

UNKNOWN 1%

Years trading of Applicant SMEs

UP TO 3 YEARS 30%

4 TO 10 YEARS 40%

MORE THAN 11 YEARS 30%

UNKNOWN 0%

Years Trading of Funded SMEs

Cut-off dates for 2014/2015

Thank you!

For more information go to:

http://ec.europa.eu/easme/sme/

@H2020SME

Inquiries at EASME-SME-HELPDESK@ec.europa.eu

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