Following its launch in 2014, the instrument quickly became very popular among European SMEs, and the Commission has been flooded with applications. Sadly, success rates are low, ranging from 6 to 10 per cent

Mounds of paperwork and regulation are blocking the route to capital markets for small companies. It’s time for reforms to change this, says Rainer Riess, head of the Federation for European Securities

European Commission makes a fresh attempt to increase the flow of investment for innovative SMEs, by tapping sources outside banks. The ultimate aim is to make public markets the main source of corporate funding

A total of 277 SMEs will get funding to help get promising commercial ideas up and running. Companies from Spain, Italy, the UK, the Netherlands and France did well, but the success rate is low overall

Europe’s SMEs are starved of cash. Crowdfunding represents a potential way to overcome some of the fragmentation of Europe’s capital markets and improve access to financing for start-ups, says Karen Wilson of the policy thinktank Bruegel

As the first calls are launched, Science|Business examines the Horizon 2020 draft programmes. Here’s the agenda for Innovation in SMEs

For years the US government used public sector procurement to drive innovation. Now new EU rules will “end the dictatorship of the lowest price” allowing innovation to count in assessing bids. And simplified bidding will make it easier for SMEs to compete

Improved access to finance and markets, better support services and less red tape will allow SMEs to generate an extra €1.1B per annum of EU GDP

Experts say public procurement of innovation will help spur more start-ups. But a ‘bottom-up’ approach to designing EU programmes is also vital.

Europe needs its SMEs to drag it out of economic crisis, but most are operating below their 2008 levels. Now the Commission is promising to get them growing with “the most ambitious action plan to boost entrepreneurship Europe has ever seen”