The value of “Co-opetition for SMEs in Europe” and the role of EUREKA’s Eurostars Programme as the preferred platform European Day of the entrepreneur 15 October 2012 - Sofia Michel Vanavermaete Acting Head of the EUREKA Secretariat

What is EUREKA ? EUREKA is a public network supporting R&D-performing businesses More than 25 years of R&D support Established in 1985 by President Mitterrand and Chancellor Kohl Since 1985, over 30 BILLION EURO of public-private investment has been mobilised to support 4 452 EUREKA projects

What is EUREKA ? An intergovernmental network 41 full members – EU 27, the EU and 12 other European countries Albania and Bosnia-Herzegovina NIP ; South Korea and Canada are associate countries Financed using national and regional public and private funding Market oriented Research results must be a marketable product, process or service for civilian use Bottom-up The consortium – usually led by industry - decide on the project aim. There is no thematic restriction

EUREKA members and affiliates EUREKA has 41 full members; two countries with transitional status and South Korea as two associated countries Austria Belgium Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia European Union Finland France FYR Macedonia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Israel Italy Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Monaco Montenegro The Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russian Federation San Marino Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom Transitional status: Albania Bosnia-Herzegovina Associate country: South Korea Canada

Who participates in EUREKA projects? > Private companies represent 68% of participants

What is a EUREKA project? > EUREKA projects are Bottom-up, they reflect market demands > EUREKA projects are Market oriented, their objective is to develop a product, a process or a service

What is the EUREKA impact? Private Funds

SMEs and internationalization SMEs are Europe’s growth engine: More than 99% of all companies being either small or medium-sized 85% of all jobs created over the last years are in SMEs  Benefits of internationalisation*: Internationalised SMEs create more jobs Internationalised SMEs are more innovative Internationalised SMEs are more competitive The EUREKA network can support those SMEs with specific funding instruments ! Source: EC Study on the level of internationalisation of European SMEs, 2009

EUREKA three pillars EUREKA individual projects EUREKA Clusters Eurostars joint Programme

EUREKA Portfolio : Number of projects Start with Individual Projects Introduction of Clusters Introduction of Eurostars Total Number of EUREKA projects: 4 452

Typical EUREKA projects EUREKA Clusters projects EUREKA Individual projects Eurostars projects Average costs per project 20 M€ 1,7 M€ 1,4 M€ Average number of participant 20 4 3 Average project duration (months) 40 33 29 Consortium Leader (as most frequently observed) Large Company SME R&D SME

EUREKA Individual projects Small, shorter-term projects Involve participants from at least two EUREKA member countries Result in a product, process or service with a significant advance in their sector

EUREKA Clusters Medium-term, strategically-significant initiatives Large number of participants, many from Europe’s major companies Develop generic technologies of key importance to European competitiveness

EUREKA Clusters Information technology Communications Energy Water technologies Manufacture

EUREKA Clusters Pre-competitive research projects lead by Europe’s biggest companies

The Eurostars Programme A joint EUREKA-EU funding and support programme for R&D-performing SMEs Small, short-term projects, involving participants from at least two Eurostars participating countries Consortium leader is an R&D-performing SME

Eurostars eligibility criteria Consortium leader must be an R&D-performing SME* Participants from a minimum of two Eurostars participating countries Project duration of less than three years Market introduction is planned within two years of project completion R&D-performing SMEs undertake at least 50% of total R&D cost The consortium must be well-balanced, with no country responsible for more than 75% of project costs * 10% FTE dedicated to R&D or 10% turnover dedicated to R&D 17

The Eurostars Programme An international evaluation based on 3 major criteria: Project consortium quality Technology and innovation of product/process/service Market access and competitiveness National funding schemes support Fast application process (avg 10 months from application to funding support) 3000 projects submitted, 70% of participants are SMEs Eurostars impact on participants : With 1M€ of public funds, 10M€ of additional turnover is expected 18

Main motivations for participation

Size of Eurostars SMEs

SMEs Annual Turnover

SME’s expected turnover growth

EUREKA Wins – Success Stories

SUCCESS STORY Getting it together in the connected home The AMEC project recently won the 2007 ITEA Gold Achievement Award for its outstanding contribution to home technology innovation. Participants from the Netherlands, Spain and Turkey set out to explore how an adaptive, intuitive and ambient ecology of products, content, applications and services could support domestic life in the connected home of the future. EUREKA Cluster project – ITEA 03016 AMEC Participating countries > Turkey, The Netherlands, Spain

SUCCESS STORY Monitoring your car for a safer driving Each year over 40,000 people are killed on Europe’s roads. The partners of MEDEA+ project CARING CARS aim to drive down these chilling statistics with a system comprising in-car sensors and a wireless infrastructure monitoring the vital signs of drivers and sounding an alert if there is a problem linked for example to the driver’s fatigue. EUREKA Cluster project – MEDEA+ CARING CARS Participating countries > Turkey, The Netherlands, Spain

SUCCESS STORY Internet could be 10 times faster than it is Could the Internet just stop working one day? With bandwidth requirement increasing annually as the web becomes an ever larger part of the everyday life, keeping up is a challenge for Internet service providers. A EUREKA telecommunications cluster CELTIC-Plus project is pushing capacity upwards. EUREKA Cluster project – CELTIC 100GET Participating countries > Germany, Finland, France, Spain, Sweden

SUCCESS STORY Special effects in Avatar made possible thanks to European technology A joint UK/German collaboration has helped change film production worldwide, turning a work-intensive craft process into viable technology that adds a high level of realism to special effects. Results of this work have since won technical oscars for many of the researchers involved. EUREKA Individual project – E! 1683 FILM SPECIAL EFFECTS Participating countries > UK, Germany

SUCCESS STORY Biotech start-up brings DNA-sequencing to the medical market What started as a three-person start-up may well be on its way to becoming a multi-million euro success story. The SME FlexGen is attracting the attention of some key investors and demonstrating the added value of the Eurostars funding programme. EUREKA Eurostars project – Eurostars E! 4731 Arrayvolution Participating countries > The Netherlands, Italy

SUCCESS STORY An Innovation Star for Europe The Eurostars ISTAR project may well be an R&D effort that changes the game for the pharmaceutical industry. CrossJect, the company leading the project, plans to double its staff in the next five years. With the support of the Eurostars Programme, it is on way to major success as a pharmaceutical start-up, and has already attracted investors from large-scale investment funds. EUREKA Eurostars project – Eurostars E!4258 ISTAR Participating countries > France, Austria

Information website > www.eurekanetwork.org

Thank you ! For more information, do not hesitate to contact your EUREKA National project Coordinator! Ms. Bogdana Vatashka-Anavi Bulgarian Small And Medium Size Enterprises Promotion Agency National Project Coordinator b.vatashka@sme.government.bg