How Europe helps innovative
SMEs cooperating together

The second EUROSTARS 2023 call is soon to open on 14 July 2023. This co-fund programme is part of the EUREKA Network, and it is aiming at funding collaboration between at least two innovative SMEs present in one of the 37 countries participating in the programme. The second cut-off date in 2023 is 14 Septembre 2023.

EUROSTARS is part of the European Partnership on Innovative SMEs, co-funded by the European Union through Horizon Europe. This means that the amount of funding your organisation receives when participating in a project is managed by your national funding agency. The national part will decide which organisations and activities can receive funding and its funding amount.

This partnership provides an opportunity to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to develop innovative products, services and processes. It also helps SMEs in gaining access to global markets and creating jobs. The partnership offers financial support for research and development projects that have a high potential for commercial deployment, as well as access to networks of expertise and resources. Through this partnership, EUROSTARS aims to strengthen the competitiveness of European businesses by stimulating innovation across borders.

There are no predetermined technological lines as all technologies have a place, as long as they are innovative. This means that organizations can explore new ideas, regardless of the sector or technology being used.

A typical EUROSTARS project has 3-4 participants from 2-3 countries with common goals, converging in technologies with TRL 5-6. The average project cost is 1.4 M EUR with a duration of 30 months.

Let´s take this project as an EUROSTARS example: a horticultural industry needs to react to the growing demands for food safety, competitiveness, optimization of water use and reducing the environmental impact.  

On the one hand, a Swedish company manufactures and develops high-performance machinery for cleaning, cutting, and packaging of a wide range of food products. On the other hand, a Spanish company implements technology and post-harvest treatment efficiency solutions, in the maintenance of the quality of fresh fruit and vegetables. Both, the Spanish and the Swedish SMEs decide to exploit their synergies to provide the ready-to-eat fruit and vegetable industry with a comprehensive solution. The EUROSTARS programme has helped this cooperation to become a reality.

Together, with the support of research centre for technology and food safety, they form a consortium and develop a project lasting 2 years. The Spanish company will focus on the cleaning, disinfection and its application industrially while the Swedish one will develop a prototype of new washing line. They calculate that the overall average budget of the project is almost half million euros. The EUROSTARS programme helps to co-fund this fruitful collaboration.