Enterprise Europe Network Access to Finance Training Recap
On 18 and 19 November, the European Commission organised a training session for cluster organisations on EU Funding Programmes and Financial Instruments. The first day included presentations on key EU funding opportunities such as Horizon Europe, the European Innovation Council and the PARSEC Accelerator. The key goal was to inform clusters of how EU funding can support them with their innovative ideas and projects. For example, Horizon Europe aims to create “synergies” to trigger innovation support through programmes such as Invest EU. The presentation also showed that Horizon 2020 was a successful tool for SMEs. The second day was moderated by Marek Przeor and Georg Raab from the European Commission’s DG GROW. The session summarised EU funding available for clusters and SMEs, including the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund, the Enterprise Europe Network access to finance for SMEs and the Just Transition Fund. The key findings from the 2-day training included:
- The huge potential in the 2021-27 period for SMEs to benefit from EU based resources to fund their investment needs
- Shared management programmes are relevant for micro-companies and SMEs since they can be more easily accessed
- Digital and green transition are the main priorities
- Green investments and sustainability are becoming crucial
- Access to finance remains a strategic issue for SMEs and can be difficult to achieve properly
- Creating eco-systems for innovation is possible by interacting with all relevant stakeholders
You can find all presentations from the training attached at the bottom of this page. You can access the recordings here.
