1. 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 Sofia
Michel Vanavermaete
Acting Head of the EUREKA Secretariat

2. 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 EUREKA projects

3. 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

4. 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

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

6. 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

7. What is the EUREKA impact?
Private Funds

8. 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

9. EUREKA three pillars EUREKA individual projects EUREKA Clusters
Eurostars joint Programme

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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. EUREKA Clusters Information technology Communications Energy Water
technologies
Manufacture

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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. Main motivations for participation

20. Size of Eurostars SMEs

21. SMEs Annual Turnover

22. SME’s expected turnover growth

23. EUREKA Wins – Success Stories

24. 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 AMEC
Participating countries > Turkey, The Netherlands, Spain

25. 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

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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

29. 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

30. Information website > www.eurekanetwork.org

31. 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