Over the past 10 years, more than 2.6 million businesses globally, including over 238,000 in Italy, have utilised the free, tailored services of the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN), the world's largest support network for SMEs. Established in 2008 by the European Commission, EEN was founded with a key mission in Europe: to help small and medium-sized enterprises innovate, grow, and internationalise. For a decade, EEN has provided comprehensive free assistance to SMEs, ranging from innovation analysis and management and international partner searches to consultancy on technological support, patents, and precise information regarding EU programmes, funding, and tenders. Present in over 60 countries with 3,000 experts, the network operates through more than 600 contact points, 55 of which are in Italy. In our country, the network's representatives, who provide specialist services to businesses across the region, consist of chambers of commerce, business associations (including Confindustria Lombardia), development agencies, research centres, universities, technology parks, and local authorities. ( een-italia.eu/)

EEN provides SMEs and the organisations that collaborate with them with a wide range of free, integrated, and tailored services aimed at increasing their competitiveness and innovation, and leveraging research results. EEN also plays a key role in identifying international partners for commercial, technological, and research agreements through its unique, dedicated database and its dense calendar of B2B events and business missions, which have seen the participation of over 231,000 companies over the decade, resulting in more than 700,000 one-to-one meetings. Furthermore, Italy ranks first in terms of the number of companies participating in B2B events and second for bilateral meetings between operators over these 10 years. During the same period, over 415,000 companies globally received consultancy services on innovation and competitiveness, 21,149 of which were in Italy.

The network also provides support to companies awarded the "SME Instrument" and other business incentives under Horizon 2020. In particular, EEN is responsible for the key account management service, assisting companies that benefit from the SME Instrument in analysing their needs and in selecting and working alongside a coach.

Finally, it is worth noting the EEN network's support for startups and new entrepreneurship. In this regard, the "SCALE UP" programme has recently been launched, which will provide support to startups in the development phase through free training, mentoring, and coaching services.

Significant results have been achieved thanks to Confindustria Lombardia's participation in the Enterprise Europe Network, in collaboration with the Simpler consortium, through the positive outcomes our companies have secured via the SME Instrument, receiving approximately €7.5 million in non-repayable European funding. To read our success stories, click here.