Public innovation support actors face a set of barriers in offering their services that lead to a mismatch in support and therefore reduced impact. The H2020 SMEthod project uncovered a set of structural barriers faced by public support organisations across the EU when offering innovation support to SMEs, and developed policy recommendations to tackle them. As COVID-19 emerged during the analysis, its effects were also considered.
Our results confirm a set of 10 structural barriers that hamper innovation support in SMEs. While the majority of the barriers identified relate to the supply side of the support, the most significant barriers relate to the demand side of support1. In order to innovate in a sustainable way and offer optimal support to innovator teams, significant investments will need to be made in capability building.
Download the full report (PDF) here.
