The overall aim is to ensure that Scottish SMEs with international innovation and growth ambitions are empowered by unlocking their full growth potential through better internal innovation management capability. The underpinning objective of this proposal is therefore to pilot the development of a quality and workable Enterprise Europe Network delivery service in Scotland that supports SMEs to increase their innovation management capacity and to innovate successfully and profitably. This requires not only a focused SME targeting strategy, but also qualified staff trained on appropriate tools and methodologies, delivering the right support to the right SMEs, coordinated with other delivery teams with the Enterprise Europe Network Scotland (EES) host organisations. This proposed pilot project will cover the whole of Scotland, through the two innovation focussed partners of the EES consortium: Scottish Enterprise (SE) and Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE). The majority of the activity will be carried out in the Scottish Enterprise region, which accounts for 91% of the population.

The project’s underlying objective is to encourage smart inclusive and sustainable growth in the EU by increasing effective investment in innovation linked to profitable exploitation in international markets. The project’s specific objective is to ensure that Scottish SMEs with international innovation and growth ambitions are empowered by unlocking their full growth potential through better internal innovation management capability and tailored mentoring and coaching. The aim is to support SME’s international competitiveness through the exploitation of new or enhanced products, process or service through improved innovation efficiency.

The project’s underlying objective is to to encourage smart inclusive and sustainable growth in the EU by increasing effective investment in innovation linked to profitable exploitation in international markets. The project’s specific objective is to ensure that Scottish SMEs with international innovation and growth ambitions are empowered by unlocking their full growth potential through better internal innovation management capability and tailored mentoring and coaching. The aim is to support SME’s international competitiveness through the exploitation of new or enhanced products, process or service through improved innovation efficiency. To this end, the project will seek to improve the innovation performance of Scottish SMEs, both for beneficiaries of the EIC and for the wider SME innovation base (through the innovation management capacity building service: EIMC Service). Specific objectives include: • Identification of bottlenecks to the creation of economic impact in companies benefiting from EIC relevant grants and addressing these bottlenecks with the help of capable coaches. • Increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of innovation processes in SMEs with significant innovation activities that could potentially become beneficiaries of European support to research and innovation but would not have effective access to consulting services for innovation management. • Ensure EEN Scotland staff have the competencies to engage professionally with high-end target companies.

The project’s underlying objective is to to encourage smart inclusive and sustainable growth in the EU by increasing effective investment in innovation linked to profitable exploitation in international markets. The project’s specific objective is to ensure that Scottish SMEs with international innovation and growth ambitions are empowered by unlocking their full growth potential through better internal innovation management capability and tailored mentoring and coaching. The aim is to support SME’s international competitiveness through the exploitation of new or enhanced products, process or service through improved innovation efficiency. To this end, the project will seek to improve the innovation performance of Scottish SMEs, both for beneficiaries of the SME Instrument (through the Key Account Management service: KAM Service) and for the wider SME innovation base (through the innovation management capacity building service: EIMC Service). Specific objectives include: • Identification of bottlenecks to the creation of economic impact in companies benefiting from grants by Horizon2020's SME instrument and addressing these bottlenecks with the help of capable coaches. • Increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of innovation processes in SMEs with significant innovation activities that could potentially become beneficiaries of European support to research and innovation but would not have effective access to consulting services for innovation management. • Ensure EEN Scotland staff have the competencies to engage professionally with high-end target companies.

Entrepreneurship is a critical part of the Government's economic development efforts and is a major goal for local and devolved governments. However, the COVID-19 crisis threatens many entrepreneurial firms. Existing research on crisis management and resiliency is oriented towards large multinational firms and gives little guidance to how entrepreneurs can protect their companies and innovate their business models in times of uncertainty. This project will investigate how entrepreneurs across the country are reacting to this crisis. Through interviews with 60+ high-growth commercial and high-impact social entrepreneurs we will identify the immediate strategies entrepreneurs use to limit the damage done to their firms. Repeated interviews over the next 18 months will show how these strategies evolve from damage control to planning how to redeploy their existing resources and create new capabilities to take advantage of new market niches created by the COVID-19 pandemic. These interviews will produce a detailed and nuanced perspective on how entrepreneurs react to crisis and how these reactions change over time. Findings will be rapidly communicated to the entrepreneurial community to share best practices and local and national policymakers to help them craft the most effective policies for aiding the recovery of country's entrepreneurial economy.