FIERCE Financing and Innovation Ecosystems for SMEs to innovate for Raw materials and Circular Economy solutions and using downstream space technologies

Summary

The European Space Programme (EUSpace) holds vast potential to fulfil the EU green and digital (twin) transition, but SMEs’ limited uptake and technological capacity is preventing them from fully unlocking the green and digital transformation. FIERCE aims to address these limitations by mobilising 140 SMEs, start-ups and scale-ups with specialised technical and business advisory to design business solutions and engage in process innovation using downstream space data in areas such as circularity, raw materials, environmental monitoring and corporate sustainability (space-enabled green solutions). We mobilise 2.5 million EUR in financial support providing 70 SMEs with access to market services and key infrastructure to realise their vision through Transformation Projects, supporting ideation, scaling up and commercialization of space-enabled solutions, accelerating SMEs journey to the market. We complement our support for SMEs with 10+ Local Entrepreneurship Initiatives driven by innovation intermediaries and business support networks (DIHs, clusters etc.) aimed creating more SME opportunities for space-enabled green innovation through synergies with regional industrial, research and market actors and infrastructure providers (OITBs). We reach further to key EU-wide networks (EEN, SME Alliance, EARSC) through our Strategic Partnership Network to create synergies and joint activities to navigate SMEs and innovation intermediaries towards exploiting high-impact opportunities for funding, collaboration and knowledge exchange, as well as jointly organized FIERCE investment tracks in the frame of key industry and business events. We deploy the FIERCE digital toolbox to enrich our support with 50+ learning resources, 10+ practical tools and 70+ qualified service providers to create a vibrant dedicated community. Finally, we monitor our performance and impact to design practical replication handbooks to inspire wider application and recommendations for enabling policies.

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