The main objectives of this call for proposals is to secure the management of the IMP³rove online platform and related services and to promote their widest possible use by public innovation support providers and private innovation management consultancies. This action should improve the quality of innovation management consulting in Europe and lower the consultancy costs for innovative SMEs, which risks otherwise to be considered as too high for this type of support.

To that end, the beneficiary should put an effective structure in place that will ensure maintenance and further development of the IMP³rove on-line platform and related services on a self sustainable basis. Furthermore, the benficiary should establish a strong network of intermediaries, consultants, financial actors and policy makers willing to promote and practically implement a holistic approach to innovation management based on the tools and services developed and offered by the project.

A desirable outcome of the project would be that the Enterprise Europe Network would use the resulting innovation management tools as an integral part of their services. Other stakeholders, such as financial actors and innovation agencies, should also benefit from these tools, as they should be made publicly available and actively promoted. At the same time, a large number of innovative enterprises should benefit from better services and widely accepted self-assessment tools, providing them with the possibility of benchmarking their innovation management performance.

 Source: Leonardo Piccinetti, Europe for Business