Lack of innovation management capacity is recognised as an important barrier to creating economic impact (competitiveness, growth and jobs) from innovation activities in SMEs. Horizon 2020’s SME-instrument foresees offering mentoring and coaching services to beneficiaries to address the need of SMEs of consulting service offers enhancing the innovation management capacity. Moreover, in a survey undertaken in 2011 for DG Enterprise and Industry, SME´s and SME support organisations considered the inability to manage innovation processes efficiently and effectively as the second most important barrier to SME innovation (after 'lack of financial resources').The two partners of the consortium for the present project, IVACE and INFO MURCIA have both more than 20 years’ experience in providing services of Enhancing innovation capacity to SMEs in their regions. More recently as members of EEN-SEIMED Network they have both been leading in their Region the provision of services in order to help small business to make the most of the European marketplace. Specifically services provided are supporting: • Technology transfer • Access to finance • Advice on EU law and standards • Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) • Research funding • Going international The Enterprise Europe Network SEIMED is therefore a suitable structure to introduce services “Enhancing the innovation management capacity of SMEs” and make available to SMEs higher quality innovation support services where these are absent or unaffordable on local markets.

Innovation support by the Enterprise Europe Network - SEIMED to enhance the innovation management capacity of SMEs & services as key account managers for the SME Instrument beneficiaries in the regions of Comunidad Valenciana y Murcia. In order to enhance SME innovation management capacity, we will support SME´s to implement truly effective processes in order to become more competitive and have a pro-active attitude towards the changing business environment. The traditional approach to innovation is insufficient to make a qualitative leap in competitiveness and facilitate the renewal of the company. Our purpose within this programme is to accompany the enterprise in the process of diagnostic audit, definition of an action plan and the implementation of an innovation management system. It is necessary to create a system that could continuously generate innovation and not only erratic and sporadic progress. This service will be implemented as a comprehensive seven-day service packages following the processes and guidelines that are laid down for this purpose. It will be delivered by suitably qualified senior innovation experts and be linked to the other support services of the Enterprise Europe Network SEIMED.

The project aims to establish services enhancing the innovation management capacity (EIMC) of SME's of the Enterprise Europe Network. Lack of innovation management capacity is recognised as an important barrier to creating economic impact (competitiveness, growth and jobs) from innovation activities in SMEs. Horizon 2020’s SME-instrument foresees offering mentoring and coaching services to beneficiaries to address the need of SMEs of consulting service offers enhancing the innovation management capacity. Moreover, in a survey undertaken in 2011 for DG Enterprise and Industry, SME´s and SME support organisations considered the inability to manage innovation processes efficiently and effectively as the second most important barrier to SME innovation (after 'lack of financial resources').The two partners of the consortium for the present project, IVACE and INFO MURCIA have both more than 20 years’ experience in providing services of Enhancing innovation capacity to SMEs in their regions. More recently as members of EEN-SEIMED Network they have both been leading in their Region the provision of services in order to help small business to make the most of the European marketplace. Specifically services provided are supporting: • Technology transfer • Access to finance • Advice on EU law and standards • Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) • Research funding • Going international The Enterprise Europe Network SEIMED is therefore a suitable structure to introduce services “Enhancing the innovation management capacity of SMEs” and make available to SMEs higher quality innovation support services where these are absent or unaffordable on local markets.

Innovation support by the Enterprise Europe Network - SEIMED to enhance the innovation management capacity of SMEs & services as key account managers for the SME Instrument beneficiaries in the regions of Comunidad Valenciana y Murcia. In order to enhance SME innovation management capacity, we will support SME´s to implement truly effective processes in order to become more competitive and have a pro-active attitude towards the changing business environment. The traditional approach to innovation is insufficient to make a qualitative leap in competitiveness and facilitate the renewal of the company. Our purpose within this programme is to accompany the enterprise in the process of diagnostic audit, definition of an action plan and the implementation of an innovation management system. It is necessary to create a system that could continuously generate innovation and not only erratic and sporadic progress. This service will be implemented as comprehensive seven-day service packages following the processes and guidelines that are laid down for this purpose. It will be delivered by suitably qualified senior innovation experts and be linked to the other support services of the Enterprise Europe Network SEIMED.

The main objectives of the REMEB project are the implementation and validation of a low-cost ceramic membrane bioreactor (MBR) in a Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP), the study of the impact and replication of the technology for the reuse of the water in regions with water scarcity and the industrial sector, and finally, the definition of a proper business plan to start the commercialization of the technology, once the project will be finished. The low cost recycled ceramic membranes of the project are based on residues obtained in agricultural and industrial processes (sub-products), such as olive oil solid wastes, marble working wastes and chamotte from fired scrap, in addition to the typical raw materials used in the ceramic tile industry. The project aims to achieve several specific objectives: valorization of wastes from different agricultural or industrial processes, manufacturing of an innovative product using recycled materials, validation of a new MBR with a lower initial and running costs by using low cost ceramic membranes and comparison between REMEB MBR and the MBR in operation in the WWTP selected for the validation. Replication of both, manufacturing and validation tasks, is assured by repeating the processes in the facilities of some participants. Manufacturing membrane replicability will be performed in Turkey and Italy. The replication study of the MBR implementation in the urban and industrial wastewater sector will be performed in Colombia and nearby countries, Cyprus and nearby countries and Europe. Furthermore, evaluation of the environmental impact of product and process will be carried out by the method of LCA. Finally, a marketing and dissemination plan of the technology will be done by the entire consortium. It is expected that this technology would be implemented massively, principally due to the low cost of REMEB MBR (3.5 times lower than a MBR of organic membranes and 2.5 times lower than a ceramic MBR).