The primary aim of the report is to monitor the EU-contribution granted to SMEs in FP7 projects. This report examines the SME participation in the Seventh Framework Programme up to 1 October 2010.

Within the Cooperation Programme as a whole, 15% of the total budget should go to SMEs.
So far, 14.5% of the budget has been granted to SMEs.
In order to reach the 15% target, from now until the end of FP7 in 2013, on average 15.3% of the budget should go to SMEs.

Specific key figures for the ten Thematic Priorities of the Cooperation Programme:

• 3 000 Grant Agreements for research projects within the FP7-Cooperation programme are signed
• 33 000 participations, out of which 5 500 SMEs (16.7%)
• €10 477 million EU contribution to the projects, 1 544 million for SMEs
• Size of average consortium: 11 partners, including 1.8 SMEs

Overall:

• €6 billion is the expected EU-contribution for SMEs in FP7 (overall: "Cooperation", "Capacities" and "People")
• At least 20 000 SMEs will benefit from FP7

The report highlights the SME participation per theme and per country for the Cooperation Programme, and the SME participation in the Capacities and the People Programmes. It also includes a regional analysis of the SME participation per region.

For the first time, the report includes a comprehensive analysis of the activity sectors represented in the Themes. All activity sectors are represented in all Themes. For instance, ICT companies play an important role in Themes such as TPT, NMP and SEC, as well as in the ICT Theme itself.

Executive summary  85 KB Full report  3.5 MB