Enterprise Europe Network and INESC TEC announce €9M for Portuguese SMEs working on improving their energy efficiency

In another step to help Portuguese companies grow in the international market, the INESC TEC team working with EEN is promoting a funding opportunity for hundreds of European SMEs seeking support to improve their energy efficiency.

As EEN Sustainability Advisors, the Institute’s EEN team will focus on promoting EENergy’s second call, with clients and partners supporting the application process. “This is an opportunity for SMEs to get support and improve their energy efficiency, in a customised way,” explained Cristina Barbosa.

The EENergy project will distribute €9M through more than 900 grants, for SMEs across Europe to engage in activities, purchases or adoption processes, thus improving their overall energy expenditure by a minimum of 5%. All this over the next two years.

“The members of the EEN team at INESC TEC, acting as Sustainability Advisors, are available to help elaborating the application, designing and monitoring the action plan, and organising the actions”, added Cristina Barbosa.

Moreover, the EEN team at INESC TEC organised a meeting with a representative of the German network of the European consortium. The meeting held at INESC TEC focused on opportunities in the regions of Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg for Portuguese companies.

With the profiles of the consortium and the presentation of German organisations on the agenda, the event was another showcase of the support services for small and medium-sized companies available to the EEN ecosystem.

“We shared several profiles of Portuguese and German SMEs, in order to promote business opportunities and bilateral collaboration between our clients, beneficiaries of EEN-Portugal and EEN Schleswig-Holsteim and Hamburg”, explained Cristina Barbosa, INESC TEC researcher and member of EEN.

Through EEN, INESC TEC supports companies in identifying international business, technology, or research and development partners, improving their innovation processes and defining the most relevant funding mechanisms at European level.

According to Cristina Barbosa, the meeting with Paula Decker (EEN Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg) was “excellent”: “Paula is an EEN advisor who is very committed and motivated to share the opportunities of her region and respective clients.”

This article was first published on 10 January by INESC TEC.