Internationalisation of innovation in SMEs

The overall objective of this study is to contribute to the development of a policy for fostering the internationalisation of innovation activities of European SMEs. There are three underlying principal policy goals: (1) More competitive SMEs in their traditional markets; (2) More European innovating SMEs benefiting from foreign and in particular third country economies, and (3) Establishment of an EU action plan to facilitate internationalisation of innovation in SMEs. The action plan shall include strategies to address particular challenges posed by Research & Innovation (R&I) cooperation with foreign partners, in particular those from third country economies. The study team will collect and analyse data for presentation at a conference on the topic. This conference will contribute to strengthening the capacity of European SMEs to exploit their untapped innovation potential through internationalisation. The study team will prepare research papers including case studies as well as an analysis of strengths, weaknesses and treats (SWOT analysis) of SMEs’ internationalisation of innovation activities.