Design Customized Support for Innovative SMEs – DCS-iSMEs

The aim of this specific project is to set up a brand-new innovation support service that will enable SMEs to further develop their operations by enhancing the use of Design. The project is going to make use of previously developed design tools and capitalize past experience of KEPA in both Entrepreneurship and Innovation Support, in order to set up a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT)-led pilot, that will lead to a feasibility study for the brand-new SME innovation support scheme.

The overall objective of the project “Design Customized Support for Innovative SMEs” with the Acronym “DCS-iSMEs”, is to make use of previously developed design tools and capitalize past experience of KEPA in both Entrepreneurship and Innovation Support, in order to set up a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT)-led pilot, that will lead to a feasibility study for the brand-new SME innovation support scheme.

KEPA, having been responsible for the implementation of the NSRF programmes in the Regions of Central and Western Macedonia during the last 25 years, has observed that many of these investments do not have the expected ROI. KEPA, being in contact with SMEs and beneficiaries in a daily basis, has also received the feedback that what is missing is an “after-sales service” approach, as many of the beneficiaries, do not take up further actions to ensure their investments, the day after exiting the financial support programme. Moreover, during the last 7 years, KEPA has been actively promoting “design-thinking” methodology in order to enhance SMEs’ sustainability, competitiveness, and innovativeness, by taking part in many projects and building its capacity. KEPA has also recently established a new initiative regarding the promotion of design– the Hellenic Design Centre. This initiative is the culmination of KEPA’s efforts to enhance “design-thinking” methodology in the economy in Greece.

The aim of this specific project is to set up a brand-new innovation support service –a service that will enable on the one hand the SMEs to further develop their operations by enhancing Design and on the other the economy to make a profit out of its investments on SMEs. The output of the project will be a feasibility – “proof of concept” regarding the proposed solution to the innovation support gap identified.

The process, the methodology, the lessons learned and the evaluation report will be available to any interested innovation agency, concerned with designing and/ or implementing innovation programmes for SMEs, in order to develop similar “enterprise-friendly support schemes”.

Specific objectives of the project are the following:

  • Creation of the delivery team (5 people from KEPA), that will set up the innovation support scheme pilot and will participate actively in the provision and the monitoring of the new service, by using the RCT methodology. The delivery team, further to the learning-by-doing concept, will also receive training and support from the EC in regards to the RCT concept, as foreseen in its Work Programme 2018-2020 (Other action 7: 'Support to design and running of randomized controlled trials under INNOSUP-06-2018')
  • Develop a set of indicators that will be applied in both Treatment and Comparison groups, in order to identify and report the innovation support scheme intervention success rate.
  • Set up of a call for SMEs. KEPA will publish a call for SMEs that have previously implemented a project, funded by the programmes that KEPA manages as Intermediate Managing Authority of the Ministry of Economy and Development. Through the call, KEPA will invite interested SMEs and will create a group of 5 -randomly selected- SMEs, that will receive the new service -the Treatment group-.
  • Set up a selection process in order to form the Comparison Group. A pool of SMEs that have the same characteristics with the 5 selected for the Treatment Group, will be created. From the total of those SMEs, 5 will be randomly selected and it will be checked that they present an identical group to the Treatment one.
  • Capitalization of the DesignShots project outputs and tool created. KEPA will make use of the DesignShots project (funded under H2020-INNOSUP-2016-2017) outcomes. “Design Shots” is a 1-hour company diagnosis-consulting, regarding the Design needs of the company and have been developed and tested during the project, which was led by KEPA.
  • Development of a feasibility study - proof of concept, that will show the process and the methodology used (RCT), the indicators that were set, and the evaluation report of the service provided (in e.g. satisfaction rate of participants, intervention rates, innovation readiness, etc).
For any information regarding "Design Customized Support for Innovative SMEs – DCS-iSMEs" project, interested parties can contact KEPA's European Projects Department (Tel 0030 2310413285, info@e-kepa.gr) or submit their question via the special submission form, by clicking here.
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