EEN launched NIR-VANA Project to Help SMEs to Innovate with External Partners

The largest information and consultancy network in Europe Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) just launched the pilot phase of its newest online platform NIR-VANA. The project aims to develop online services that will help small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) to innovate together with external partners, often referred to as open or collaborative innovation. Innovation advisors will provide services during the entire innovation process through the online platform where SMEs can collaborate, co-create and co-participate in innovation projects with other SMEs, experts and researchers from all over Europe.

Several innovation support services are currently available – video lessons, each lectured by an expert in the field, videos, articles, publications, practical activities and a self‑evaluation questionnaires. Participants will be both guided and assisted during the process of learning the concepts corresponding to each lesson. After completing each task, the participants can share their solutions in the forums of the platform and the system will allow them to both see the solution that an expert has suggested for each task and share their conclusions with those colleagues that may be active in the forums. The open courses cover the following subjects:

1. Introduction to innovation – covering some basic concepts on innovation such as the different stages of the innovation process as well as the different models of innovation
2. Open/Collaborative innovation – concept and strategies for successfully implementing open/collaborative innovation where organizations can collaborate, co-create and co-participate in innovation projects
3. Connecting with potential partners – this session introduces some strategies and tools to connect with potential partners through the NIR-VANA platform in order to exploit open/collaborative innovation
4. Collaborating with external partners – this session introduces some strategies and tools to start the collaboration with potential partners through the NIR-VANA platform in order to exploit open/collaborative innovation

NIR-VANA targets SMEs, Innovation support advisors and researchers and consequently will develop an online solution based on training that will not only consider new and existing technologies and platforms but also the innovation culture in SMEs and their ICT readiness.

The project is based on the Open Innovation concept – an innovation strategy by which companies go beyond their internal boundaries when designing and developing Innovation projects. Combining internal and external knowledge and skills appropriately, these companies are open to share and integrate/acquire ideas with a number of collaborating stakeholders (consumers, users, employees, other companies, technology centres or research institutions, universities…). Cooperations built in such a collaborative manner not only improve the results of shared projects but also enable a better distribution of risks among those participating.

NIR-VANA project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 681787. For more information please visit the website of the platform – http://nirvana.salleurl.edu/.