SME

LEAFLET

Spring 2009

Participation in FP7 Report

Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) are important contributors to the successful implementation of the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7) of the European Commission. SMEs collaborate with universities, research institutes and large enterprises as part of their innovation strategy. This leaflet provides some key figures which illustrate the overall achievements of SMEs two and a half years into FP7. It shows that SMEs are rightfully claiming a share of the benefits offered by FP7 but that there is still potential for further engagement.

This SME Participation Report in FP7 covers the following: • statistical information on the number of SMEs and the funding allocated to them within the Cooperation programme of FP7; • the breakdown of the SME participation and of the funding of SMEs in signed project contracts (‘Grant Agreements’) across the various themes of the Cooperation programme; • SME profiles, in size, type of economic activity, foundation year and responsibility in the project; • statistical information on SMEs in the programme ‘Research for the benefit of SMEs’

For further information, please see http://ec.europa.eu/research/sme-techweb online, or contact [email protected] via e-mail.

FP7 – Cooperation Programme

SMEs in FP7

Applications in eligible proposals (situation on 31 December 2008)

SME(*) applicants versus non-SME applicants Applicants in eligible proposals Country

Total

Germany Italy United Kingdom France Spain Netherlands Greece Belgium Sweden Switzerland Austria Poland Finland Portugal Denmark Romania Hungary Israel

16,483 14,511 13,251 10,452 9,108 5,900 5,307 4,655 4,196 3,657 3,450 2,848 2,690 2,385 2,247 2,050 1,961 1,917

% of SMEs in the total applications 27.9% 27.6% 23.0% 25.5% 31.3% 25.5% 30.5% 33.4% 22.0% 27.9% 35.8% 26.7% 19.6% 32.4% 26.3% 37.0% 37.2% 29.6%

Applicants in eligible proposals Country Norway Czech Rep Ireland Slovenia Turkey Bulgaria Slovakia Cyprus Lithuania Estonia Croatia Serbia Latvia Luxembourg Malta Iceland Rep of Macedonia Albania

Total 1,829 1,589 1,407 1,304 1,213 1,153 679 526 490 482 437 358 290 249 210 203 137 71

% of SMEs in the total applications 27.8% 33.7% 26.6% 38.7% 33.9% 39.1% 35.0% 53.6% 37.4% 43.6% 40.3% 34.6% 38.6% 35.7% 54.3% 34.0% 43.1% 35.2%

(*) SMEs in this graph are applicants ‘self-declared’ as SMEs in the proposal stage (i.e. not yet recognised as SMEs by the European Commission).

Breakdown per theme of the Cooperation programme Table 1. Acronyms and descriptions of the Cooperation programme themes Theme acronym HEALTH KBBE ICT NMP ENERGY ENV TPT SSH SPA SEC GA

Theme description Health Food, agriculture, fisheries and biotechnology Information and communication technologies Nanosciences, nanotechnologies, materials and production technologies Energy Environment (including climate change) Transport (including aeronautics) Socio-economic sciences and the humanities Space Security General activities (other)

Participation in signed project contracts (situation on 1 June 2009)

SME versus non-SME participants, by country A total of 1 513 FP7 project contracts are signed, of which 901 (60%) have at least 1 SME participant. In these 1 513 projects, 16 223 participants are involved, of which 2 482 are SMEs. Participants in the signed contracts Country

Total

Germany United Kingdom France Italy Spain Netherlands Belgium Sweden Switzerland Greece Austria Finland Denmark Poland Portugal Norway Ireland Czech Rep

2528 1851 1694 1598 1044 1011 816 654 572 528 479 406 344 286 262 225 208 206

% of SMEs in the participants 15.8% 13.8% 14.3% 14.0% 14.0% 13.1% 17.3% 12.8% 15.0% 16.7% 19.3% 11.4% 12.0% 10.1% 18.7% 11.7% 19.2% 12.6%

Participants in the signed contracts Total

Country

Hungary Israel Romania Slovenia Bulgaria Turkey Slovakia Estonia Cyprus Lithuania Croatia Serbia Latvia Malta Iceland Luxembourg Rep Macedonia Albania

204 200 158 147 102 87 71 70 47 43 43 35 33 31 30 29 16 5

% of SMEs in the participants 16.2% 13.0% 17.7% 17.0% 6.9% 14.9% 11.3% 20.0% 8.5% 7.0% 7.0% 17.1% 9.1% 9.7% 3.3% 6.9% 0.0% 0.0%

SME participation across the various themes (b) in percentages 90,0%

C

G A

SE

H

SP A

SS

V

TP T

Y

EN

T

P

G ER

EN

M N

ealth H

G

SE

SS

TP

EN

G ER

M

IC

N

KB

EN

H

A

0,0% C

0 H

10,0%

SP A

20,0%

100

T

200

V

30,0%

Y

40,0%

300

P

400

T

50,0%

BE

60,0%

500

ealth

70,0%

600

BE

80,0%

700

IC

for SMEs for non SMEs

KB

(a) in number of projects (signed contracts)

EC Contribution in signed project contracts (until 1 June 2009) The foreseen EC contribution in these projects is EUR 5 443.7 million for all projects, of which EUR 666.6 million is allocated to participating SMEs. This means that the funding share of SME participants amounts to 12.3% (the target established for SMEs in FP7 is 15%). EC contribution for SME participants versus non-SME participants, by country

Country

Foreseen EC Contribution (in million euro)

Germany France United Kingdom Italy Netherlands Spain Belgium Sweden Switzerland Austria Finland Greece Denmark Norway Israel Poland Portugal Ireland Czech Rep

% of the foreseen funding for SMEs

1,014.1 702.9 668.9 496.8 355.3 308.5 253.9 244.5 205.4 165.7 158.0 153.7 125.2 77.4 68.9 65.3 61.6 60.9 39.6

Country

12.2% 10.2% 10.0% 11.4% 10.0% 12.4% 15.5% 11.5% 11.3% 18.6% 7.6% 15.4% 11.7% 11.8% 11.3% 14.4% 17.2% 17.4% 23.7%

Foreseen EC Contribution (in million euro)

Hungary Slovenia Romania Rep of Macedonia Turkey Bulgaria Slovakia Estonia Iceland Cyprus Luxembourg Croatia Albania Serbia Lithuania Latvia Malta Rep Macedonia Albania

% of the foreseen funding for SMEs

34.3 29.9 24.1 16.0 15.2 12.3 11.8 11.7 9.4 8.3 7.5 6.9 5.0 4.9 4.0 3.3 2.8 1.6 0.2

25.7% 16.1% 17.0% 0.0% 19.1% 7.3% 32.2% 21.4% 1.1% 4.8% 9.3% 8.7% 0.0% 16.3% 20.0% 9.1% 14.3% 0.0% 0.0%

EU contribution in signed project contracts per thematic area: amount in million EUR, broken down for SMEs and other participants

percentage of EC contribution towards SMEs, per area for SMEs for non SMEs

2500 25%

2000

20%

1500

15% 1000

10%

500

5%

A G

SE C

SP A

T

SS H

V

TP

Y

EN

T

P

G ER

EN

M

IC

N

BE KB

ealth H

A

C

G

SE

H

T

SP A

SS

V

TP

Y G

EN

T

P

ER

M N

IC

KB

EN

H

BE

0% ealth

0

Participating SMEs breakdown per size The breakdown of SME size in signed project contracts is provided below: • 30% are ‘Micro companies’ (with fewer than 10 employees); • 39% are ‘Small companies’ (from 10 to 49 employees); • 31% are ‘Medium-sized companies’ (from 50 to 249 employees).

SMEs in the Cooperation programme per founding year A large majority of participating SMEs have been in existence for less than 20 years, with the oldest participating SME having been formed in 1825 and the youngest as late as 2007.

40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0%

1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 1829 1839 1849 1859 1869 1879 1889 1899 1909 1919 1929 1939 1949 1959 1969 1979 1989 1999 2009

Role of SMEs in the project A total of 106 FP7 Cooperation projects (7%) are coordinated by an SME. A total of 42% of the participating SMEs are acting as Work Package leaders, which demonstrates their high level of commitment in the research projects.

SMEs per area of economic activity:

Service SME

Breakdown of SMEs per main activity area

47 IC % T

nc y 34 % on su lta C

21 M % an ac d hin m e at ry er , e ia qu ls ip m 19 en O % t th er

SM

E

Breakdown of the 47% Service SMEs into types of services

3 re 2% se ar ch

FP7 – Cooperation Programme

Focus on: SME Profiles

KI-80-09-753-EN-D

Participations in signed project contracts (situation 1 June 2009) SME projects per area 1. Management sciences, information and communication technologies, electronics and electrical industry; 2. Food, agriculture, fisheries and forestry; 3. Biotechnology, genomics, healthcare, medical and biomedical equipments; 4. Energy and transport; 5. Environment; 6. Materials; 7. Processes; 8. Construction.

17% 24% 12% 7% 9% 8% 19% 3%

Capacities – Research for the Benefit of SMEs Participants in signed contract per 1 June 2009 Country

Number of participants

United Kingdom Spain Germany Italy France Norway Netherlands Greece Belgium Poland Sweden Denmark Switzerland Portugal Hungary Czech Rep Ireland

% SMEs

319 259 251 226 130 94 84 70 65 56 53 50 46 45 41 39 38

42.3% 49.4% 44.2% 41.2% 49.2% 45.7% 41.7% 40.0% 27.7% 57.1% 39.6% 52.0% 54.3% 46.7% 39.0% 59.0% 63.2%

Country

Number of participants

Austria Romania Estonia Finland Bulgaria Turkey Lithuania Cyprus Croatia Slovenia Slovakia Malta Latvia Israel Russian Fed Luxembourg Iceland Serbia

30 29 29 28 27 22 18 15 14 12 11 11 10 8 3 3 3 2

Participations per country • For 142 projects, the contracts were signed by 1 June 2009. • A total of 811 SMEs are involved in these projects. • The total EC contribution for these 142 projects is EUR 174.1 million, of which EUR 149.6 million is allocated for participating SMEs.

% SMEs

60.0% 62.1% 62.1% 53.6% 48.1% 68.2% 33.3% 40.0% 28.6% 33.3% 72.7% 45.5% 80.0% 62.5% 66.7% 0.0% 33.3% 50.0%

© European Communities, 2009 - Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged. Images © Shutterstock, 2009

FP7 – Capacities Programme

Research for the Benefit of SMEs