• Published on 22 Oct 2014
• Calls for Projects

Peer learning initiative and funding for national and regional innovation agencies launched by the EU

EASME, the EU’s Executive Agency for SMEs offers grants under the framework of Horizon 2020 to ‘organisations entrusted with design and delivery of innovation support programmes to SMEs’.

The grants are attributed through calls distributed over 5 cut-off dates in 2014. For the participating national and regional agencies, the objective is to improve the efficiency of services delivered, optimise the internal structure, and find solutions to common challenges, self-assessment and quality management.

Two types of actions are eligible: ‘twinning’ with a €50.000 grant awarded to 3 agencies joining forces and in a project to explore an innovation support challenge, and ‘quality management in innovation agencies’ where a maximum of 5 agencies can receive up to €15.000 in grant funding.

Any entity that is designing or delivering innovation support programmes to SME can participate in peer learning for innovation agency. In case an organisation interested in peer learning is not part of the public administration it should demonstrate that it is entrusted by the administration at national, regional or local level to design and/or deliver support programmes.

Descriptions of methodologies are available on the CORDIS partnering platform.

The activities eligible for funding through this initiative are, in between other, peer reviews, assessments, benchmarking, peer visits, workshops, and the design of new instruments.

More information is available on the EASME website.