CSES

Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) form the backbone of modern economies and new employment creation. CSES staff have undertaken significant work on different aspects of SME promotion and entrepreneurship, including studies on Structural Funds and SME growth, access to finance and risk financing instruments, IPR, business and innovation support services and entrepreneurship training. For further information in respect of CSES’ work in the areas of the Enterprise and SME policy, please contact  Mike Coyne.

Examples of our work in the area of enterprise policy & SME include:

• Feasibility study of Sunrise Valley science park initiative, Lithuania - this new science park aims to foster a culture of entrepreneurship and to support the creation of business start-ups, particularly university spin-offs. CSES provided advice on setting up an entrepreneurship training academy.
• Benchmarking start-up procedures across the European Union – the CSES team examined procedures for new business start-ups in different EU countries, with a view to encouraging shorter lead times in the administrative requirements involved in the set up process. The study was part of the Commission’s BEST Procedure initiative, which sought to simplify the business environment.
• Making IPR Work for SMEs (DG Enterprise) – CSES assisted the IPR Enforcement Expert Group in identifying and analysing good practices in supporting SMEs in the development and enforcement of IPR and in formulating a series of recommendations for policy makers and support agencies.

Some of the work we carried out in the area of access to finance, are also relevant to enterprise policy and SMEs:

• The cyclicality of SME finance – in this study for DG Enterprise, CSES examined the extent to which access to finance for SMEs is dependent on economic and credit cycles. Different types of financial instruments, from informal finance, through to bank loans, risk capital and mezzanine finance were examined.
• SME financing workshops – CSES assisted DG Enterprise in organising a series of workshops in Brussels on access to finance. The intention was to raise awareness about different sources of EU financing which could provide access to finance for high-growth SMEs (e.g. Structural Funds, EIF-backed loan guarantee schemes, etc.).