European Commission Research & Innovation Initiatives and Programme Opportunities

Return to overview

European Partnership on Innovative SMEs (INNOVSMES)

Snapshot overview

The European Partnership for Innovative SMEs (INNOVSMES) supports small- and medium-sized companies (SMEs) and project partners (such as large companies, universities and research organisations) by funding international collaborative R&D and innovation projects. By participating, organisations can increase their research and innovation (R&I) capacity, their productivity and successfully embed in global value chains and new markets. The partnership is co-funded by the European Union through Horizon Europe.

Under the 2023-2024 work programme, one call for proposals opened in 2023 and is now closed. Additionally, a joint transnational call for proposals to support Eurostars, one of the funding instruments introduced by INNOVSMES in 2021, has been published.

Name

European Partnerships for Innovative SMEs (INNOVSMES)

Institution/ DG/ Agency responsible at EU-level

European Commission’s Directorate General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD)

Work programme

Horizon Europe Work Programme 2023-2024

Programme

INNOVSMES is a partnership under Horizon Europe covering 2021-2027.

Programme budget

The total indicative budget for the duration of INNOVSMES is EUR 250 million.

Call budget

INNOVSMES/Eurostars 2024: The total funding available for the forthcoming call is expected to be over  EUR 90 million

Type of funding

Grant and other funding instruments

Target participants

Innovative SMEs and project partners (large companies, universities, research organisations and other types of organisations)

Programme scope

INNOVSNMES aims to generate knowledge, support the access to and uptake of innovative solutions by SMEs (including to address global challenges), facilitate technological development, demonstration, knowledge and technology transfer, and strengthen deployment and exploitation of innovative solutions.

Participant criteria

Applicants based in the following geographical areas are eligible for funding:

  • European Union Member States
  • Countries associated to Horizon Europe
  • Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs)

Applicants must fulfil the following criteria:

  • The project consortium is led by an innovative SME from a Eurostars country (EU or Associated Countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye, and the United Kingdom; non-EU or non-Associated Countries: Canada, South Korea, Singapore, South Africa and Switzerland)
  • The project consortium is composed of at least two entities that are independent of one another
  • The project consortium is composed of entities from at least two Eurostars countries with at least one organisation coming from an EU or an Horizon Europe Associated Country
  • The budget of the SMEs from the participating countries (excluding any subcontracting) is 50% or more of the total project cost
  • No single participant or country is responsible for more than 70% of the budget of the project
  • The project duration is 36 months or less
  • The project has an exclusive focus on civil applications
Project duration

36 months or less (indicative)

Average time from submission to project kick-off

Unknown

R&D stage

Late stages

Intellectual property

Unknown

Call-specific resources

INNOVSMES/Eurostars 2024: Overview here, Call for proposals here

 

Call Status

INNOVSMES/Eurostars 2024: Open

  • Publication of call: 12 July 2024
  • Deadline for submission: 12 September 2024
Contact details & more information

European Partnerships – overview
Eureka – website

Return to overview

This tool was created by FTI Consulting for GSK and EFPIA.
For all enquiries please contact niro@fticonsulting.com
Privacy policy

This tool was created by FTI Consulting
for GSK and EFPIA.
For all enquiries please contact niro@fticonsulting.com
Privacy policy

What type of funding are you looking for?

  • Grant:
    Grants are direct financial contributions from the European Union budget awarded by way of a donation to third-party beneficiaries (usually non-profit-making organisations) engaged in activities that serve EU policies.
  • Loan:
    Loans are measures of financial support provided on a complementary basis from the budget in order to address specific policy objectives of the European Union. Such instruments are implemented in partnership with public and private institutions such as banks, venture capitalists or angel investors.

What stage of development are you seeking R&I funding for?

  • Basic science: Basic science covers the various exploratory steps even prior to discovery
  • Discovery: Drug discovery aims to find potential disease-altering targets, such as a gene or a protein in humans. Prior to testing candidate compounds for safety
  • Preclinical development: Preclinical development concerns the testing of candidate compounds for safety in specific indications or disease conditions. Introduction of candidate compound in living biological systems (animals)
  • Phase 1 clinical trials: These are the first clinical trials on humans(usually 20-80 volunteers) testing the safety, side effects, best dose, and timing of a new treatment
  • Phase 21/2b clinical trials: This is the follow-up trial with roughly 100 to 500 patients to analyse efficacy and safety
  • Phase 3 clinical trials: These trials usually involve several hundreds to many thousands patients and tests the results of earlier clinical trials on larger populations to generate robust data on safety, efficacy and benefit-risk relationships of the medicine. Comparison to placebo and/or active comparator (best standard treatment)
  • Registration & launch: This concerns post-study, prior to launch, activities related to market launch. That can include, among others, marketing authorisation, regulatory activities, post-study communication or HTA
  • Introduction & delivery: This concerns all post-launch activities

What do you want to develop?

  • Treatment or vaccine:
    Refers to a drug or vaccine
  • Diagnostic or medical device:
    Refers to diagnostics and medical devices
  • Platform:
    Refers to a digital health platform or medical app
  • Knowledge:
    Refers to conducting research to help build our understanding on a topic
  • Standards:
    Refers to creating a benchmark for a specific issue

What type of organisation are you?

  • Small & medium-sized enterprises:
    <250 employees, annual revenue <EUR 50,000,000) or balance sheet < EUR43 million. This applies to individual firms only. If part of larger group, check the User Guide: https://ec.europa.eu/docsroom/documents/42921
  • Large enterprises:
    >250 employees or annual revenue > EUR 50,000,000. Non-profit organisation (non-governmental organisations that are recognised with a non-profit status)
  • Non-profit organisations:
    Non-governmental organisations that are recognised with a non-profit status
  • Academic:
    Linked to a university or equivalent
  • Public:
    Local, regional, federal government representative

What stage of diagnostics development does your research aim to cover?

  • Development:
    Product development
  • Validation:
    Lab and clinical validation
  • Evaluation & Authorisation:
    Regulatory approvals
  • Access:
    Monitoring

What stage of medicine or vaccine development does your research aim to cover?

  • Discovery and development:
    Identification of promising compounds for development and initial experiments to gather information
  • Preclinical research:
    Laboratory and animal testing to answer basic questions about safety
  • Phase 0 (clinical):
    Testing on limited number of subjects at subtherapeutic doses
  • Phase I (clinical):
    Testing on <100 healthy subjects with the disease/condition
  • Phase II (clinical):
    Testing on up to several hundred subjects with the disease/condition
  • Phase III (clinical):
    Testing on 300 to 3,000 volunteers with the disease/condition
  • Preregistration / Phase IV (clinical):
    Testing on several thousand volunteers with the disease/condition
  • Clinical (unspecified):
    Clinical phase unknown
  • Evaluation & Authorisation:
    Activities relating to marketing authorisation
  • Access:
    Monitoring

Where are you based?

  • Africa : Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, Comoros, Congo (Democratic Republic of the), Congo (Republic of the), Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe
  • America (non-US & Canada) : Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela
  • Asia-Pacific : Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, Brunei, Cambodia, China (including special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau), Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kiribati, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Nepal, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, North Korea, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Vietnam
  • Europe (non-EU) : Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iceland, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom
  • European Union (EU) : Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden
  • Middle East : Cyprus, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Yemen
  • United States (US) & Canada : United States, Canada

What type of organisation are you?

  • Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME):
    Staff headcount 50 < and turnover ≤ EUR 10 m or balance sheet total ≤ EUR 10 m (small); Staff headcount 250 < and turnover ≤ EUR 50 m or balance sheet total ≤ EUR 43 m (medium)
  • Large enterprise:
    Staff headcount > 250
  • Non-profit organisation:
    Association, foundation, or equivalent
  • Academic:
    University, research institute, or equivalent
  • Individual:
    Private citizen
  • Public sector:
    Local, regional, federal government representative
  • Other:
    None of the above or uncertain