The European Commission’s evaluation of the Eurostars 2 programme assesses how successfully the instrument supported collaborative research activities of SMEs.
The European Commission (EC) has published an ex-post evaluation of the Eurostars 2 programme that ran from 2014 to 2020, partly funded through Horizon 2020. Eurostars 2 was one of two major programmes focused on SME led research and development under Horizon 2020, alongside the SME instrument. The published analysis is based on a survey of stakeholders regarding the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, coherence, and EU added value of the programme. The report is part of the wider ‘Study on the support to innovation of the EU Research & Innovation Framework programme’ that feeds into the ex-post evaluation of Horizon 2020.
The Eurostars-2 programme was aimed at supporting research and development performing small and medium-sized enterprises (R&D SMEs), funded by participating countries alongside the EU through Horizon 2020. Its successor programme is not much altered in its goals and funding instruments and implemented as part of the European Partnership on Innovative SMEs for the period 2021-2027 co-funded through Horizon Europe. Eurostars targeted SMEs active in research and development to support their transnational research activities in order to contribute to competitiveness, growth and job creation. Consortia seeking to participate must spotlight an innovative SME as the main project participant, but could otherwise include project partners from SMEs, universities and research centres from any of the programme’s participating countries. The programme sought to speed up the development of the technologies and innovations that will underpin tomorrow’s businesses and help innovative European SMEs to grow into world-leading companies.
Eurostars-2 was jointly undertaken by 34 Participating states and Partner countries and the European Union. In the 2014-2020 period, it had a total public budget of €1.14 billion. It was jointly implemented by the Eureka secretariat (ESE), a Europe-centric network of 45 countries on international cooperation in research and development as well as innovation, alongside the funding bodies of the participating countries. The published evaluation of the programme, collecting the input of stakeholders from participating entities and managing national agencies, is broadly positive across all dimensions. The focus of the study was on the relevance of the programme itself, the efficiency of its implementation, the effectiveness of the support in achieving the stated aims, and its added value for the EU.
The programme was relevant in that it addressed one of the key issues of European innovation policy, namely the support of transnational research cooperation of R&D-performing SMEs which are often not supported by national funding authorities. It was seen as providing a low-threshold offer for SMEs to engage in international cooperation in order to further develop their products and services. Of 12’968 participants who were and are part of consortia applying for Eurostars-2 funding in 15 cut-offs, 68% of all participants involved were either R&D-performing SMEs or other SMEs. The stakeholders interviewed for this study perceive the joint implementation of the programme with National Funding Bodies as particularly relevant for inexperienced SMEs that have never participated in transnational or EU funding programmes.
In terms of efficiency, national funding rules have been progressively harmonised and administrative processes have become over time more efficient. The time-to-contract decreased significantly during the implementation phase of the Eurostars-2 programme and reached an average duration of 6.6 months. Nevertheless, significant differences between Participating Countries still exist and could be improved in the implementation of Eurostars 3. Other points could still be improved in the future as well, such as the user-friendliness of the ESE website to avoid misunderstandings among applicants.
As regards its effectiveness, the programme indeed strengthened transnational research cooperation of R&D-performing SMEs with other SMEs or academia. A total of 1’546 projects were selected out of 5’891 project proposals during 15 cut-offs. Participants rated it highly and saw its continuation as a benefit. Additionally, 89% of the beneficiaries either ranked their technological achievement as good or even excellent. In terms of the thematic focuses of the Eurostars-2 projects, there was a strong focus on biological sciences and technologies (35%), followed by electronics, IT and telecoms technologies (22%). The main benefits of the programme participation according to beneficiaries was the opportunity to collaborate with academia, as well as the visibility and reputation it afforded. The access it provided to international markets and its support for scale-up activities were also commonly cited as positive features. 66% of participating SMEs were young and growing, i.e. in the “seed” stage before entering the market, or in the early stages of growth.
As regards the EU added value, the programme combines decentralised and centralised implementation features with the attached pros and cons. As mentioned above, the direct involvement of national funding authorities eased participation for companies that would otherwise see European programmes as too distant and complex to engage with. Overall, around 50% of the participants were newcomers to European-level funding, and around 30% of the participating SMEs had no prior experience in international collaboration. On the other hand, the decentralisation led to the issue of diverging rules at the national level, which was identified as a weakness in the Interim evaluation and persisted throughout Eurostars-2. It was also sometimes flagged as confusing for applicants. However, the EU added value is seen in the incentives it provides. For national authorities, the EU funding contribution of 33% is a relevant incentive to invest in the support programme. For many SMEs, the support programme is an important possibility to go international for the first time and to learn more about other EU markets. Interviewed beneficiaries emphasise that the grant amount offered at the EU level was generally higher than at the national or regional level.
The successor programme under Horizon Europe, Innovative SMEs, has a total estimated budget of €988 million, mostly funded from the participating countries but also including a contribution of €250 million from the Horizon Europe budget. 43 “partner” public funders from 37 countries participate. These include EU member states, but also non-EU countries and countries not associated to the Horizon Europe programme, such as Switzerland, Canada, the Republic of Korea, and South Africa.