Sme_user_guide_en[1] Defenition. What is an SME? "SME" stands for small and medium-sized enterprises – as defined in EU law: EU recommendation 2003/361 The main factors determining whether a company is an SME are: number of employees and either turnover or balance sheet total. These ceilings apply to the figures for individual firms only. A firm which is part of larger grouping may need to include employee/turnover/balance sheet data from that grouping too.
For the details of how this works, see: What help can SMEs get? There are 2 broad types of potential benefit for a company if it meets the criteria: eligibility for support under many EU business-support programmes targeted specifically at companies of this size: E.g. research funding, competitiveness and innovation funding and similar national support programmes that could otherwise be banned as unfair government support ("state aid" – see block exemption regulation). External study on the implementation of the SME Definition (2012) Executive Summary on Evaluation of the SME Definition. HORIZON 2020. The SME Instrument. Horizon 2020 funds high-potential innovation through a dedicated SME instrument, which offers seamless business innovation support under the section Societal Challenges and the specific part Leadership in Enabling and Industrial Technologies (LEITs). Provided with about € 3 billion in funding over the period 2014-2020, the SME Instrument helps high-potential SMEs to develop groundbreaking innovative ideas for products, services or processes that are ready to face global market competition.
Available to SMEs only, which can however organise a project in the way that best fits their business needs – meaning that subcontracting is not excluded – the new scheme has opened a new highway to innovation through phased, progressive and complimentary support. What support is available? The dedicated SME instrument's supports close-to-market activities, with the aim to give a strong boost to breakthrough innovation. The SME Instrument offers small and medium-sized businesses the following: Outcomes: Innovation in SMEs. The objective of ‘Innovation in SMEs’ is to optimise the Research, Development & Innovation environment for SMEs, including through the establishment and facilitation of a range of support services, with the aim of strengthening the innovation capacity of SMEs and creating value on the market and/or into society, thus underpinning the Europe2020 strategy for smart, inclusive and sustainable growth.
A range of actions contributes to building innovation management capacity for Small and Medium Enterprises. Innovation management capacity is the internal ability of companies to manage innovation processes from the generation of the idea to its profitability on the market. SMEs can find this kind of support via a dedicated SME instrument, which is a novel approach to support SMEs' innovation activities. It attracts more SMEs to Horizon 2020,and helps to increase the economic impact of project results by a company-centric and market-driven approach. Innovation_union_scoreboard. SME Performance Review - Small and medium sized enterprises (SME) - Enterprise and Industry. The SME Performance Review is one of the main tools the European Commission uses to monitor and assess countries' progress in implementing the Small Business Act (SBA) on a yearly basis. With an emphasis on the measures from the SBA Action Plan, the review brings comprehensive information on the performance of SMEs in EU Member States and other 9 partner countries.
It consists of two parts – Annual Report on European SMEs and SBA country fact sheets. Brussels, 26 November 2013 - The European Commission published today the 2012/2013 Annual Report on European SMEs. The Report on European SMEs is prepared on a yearly basis. It provides an overview of the size, structure and importance of SMEs to the European economy and their contribution to growth and jobs, as emphasised in the Small Business Act and Europe 2020 strategy. Comparisons with important partner countries outside the EU and with the large enterprise sector are also included. Annual Report on European SMEs SBA fact sheets 1. 2. 3.