EPIC has been implemented by a consortium of seven members, representing different sectors and specialties. The project involved the development of a complex educational package to help SMEs increase their innovation capabilities and productivity. The development of entrepreneurial innovation, i.e. improving the competitiveness of entrepreneurs, is a subject area that is relevant in an international context these days. Its results can serve as good practice for other organisations.
EPIC: Training package for SMEs to boost their innovation capacity and productivity
We talked to one of the project's promoters, Nóra Kövesd, about the design, implementation, and follow-up of the programme with respect to the Award of Excellence.
TREBAG Intellectual Property and Project Management Ltd. has long been involved in various projects, including the Eramus+ programme. It was self-evident that they should apply for the Erasmus+ programme with their new idea, without knowing that their idea would be awarded a prize.
When I asked them about the inspiration for the project, they were as enthusiastic and excited sharing their story as if the idea had been born the day we spoke.
"We drew inspiration for the project from our previous activities. We have been engaged in various corporate innovation training materials and preaudits for a long time, involving a wide range of clients. During our work, we noticed that companies are not familiar with the possibilities to consciously manage innovation and integrate it according to standards. We therefore thought that it would be very useful to develop a learning material to help companies to understand and manage their innovation processes in a more complex way." - said Nóra.
Personal connections and experiences are crucial to keeping the enthusiasm alive throughout the project, so I asked Nóra about these too. It's worth noting that the intellectual products they created are designed to meet the user-friendly and attention-grabbing content requirements of our time, involving a high level of gamification. This is an innovative approach for the target group of managers. So it is not surprising that one of Nora's fondest experiences is linked to such a gamified exercise.
Nóra Kövesd: We developed a card game to help innovative thinking. The users really enjoyed it and there were always funny moments when we showed it to them, so it became my personal favourite.
And what was one particular moment that you will always look back on with pleasure?
Nóra Kövesd: One of the best moments was definitely winning the Award of Excellence. It was the first project I coordinated, so I wasn't expecting an award at all. I was very surprised but delighted to be recognised.
Another memorable moment was probably when we tested the project products together for the first time, because then it was clear that we were really going in the right direction and that something was going to come of it. Although we had a lot of work ahead of us, we saw that it could be what we had imagined and that we were working on really useful and utilizable materials. That was reassuring and motivating for further work.
We then turned to the reception of the project
Nóra kövesd: I think the new training package was highly appreciated by the target group. One of the best examples of this is that after the project was completed and I visited a partner on another project, the manager of the company came to me personally to tell me that he had heard news of how much other companies liked these products and how well the project we had developed succeeded.
Besides the target groups, any work on a tender also has an impact on the tender team itself, so obviously it came up in the conversation.
Nóra Kövesd: We learned a lot from the project too. It was great that we could implement it internationally and that everyone added their knowledge, so we got to see other examples. We could learn from other experiences and that made us more flexible, we could use a lot of ideas, and we got closer to our target group.
Have you received help concerning work in an international environment?
Nóra kövesd: If we had any questions, we could turn to Tempus, for which we were very grateful. Especially during the COVID epidemic, there were quite a few questions, but we were able to overcome the obstacles related to this (as well).
Did you manage to implement everything you had in mind during the application process?
Nóra Kövesd: Everything has been implemented and seeing what the end result is, we can say that we have really managed to create a complex training package, and all its elements can be useful for companies. One by one and as a whole.
We ended our discussion with one of the most important questions.
Why would a winning applicant recommend others to dare to start and complete a project of this size?
Nóra Kövesd: The first word that comes to mind is opportunity. Opportunity to grow, opportunity to learn. Opportunity to really get to know foreigners, other cultures, good examples from abroad, and if you combine all that, I think you can end up with some very good things. We hope that our story will inspire others to take the plunge into a project, because the work invested can be instructive and can have experiential and community-building results.
Last modified: 26-08-2024
