189 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from 24 countries have been selected for funding in the latest round of the Horizon2020 SME Instrument.

The funding is provided under Phase 1 of the instrument, which means that each project will receive € 50,000 to finance feasibility studies for new products that can disrupt the market. They can also ask for up to three days of free business coaching.

The 189 SMEs that will receive funds proposed 182 projects in total (multiple SMEs can be involved in one project). The SMEs will receive € 9.1 million in total for this cut-off.

Italian SMEs were particularly successful with 34 companies accepted for funding, followed by firms from Spain (30) and the United Kingdom (18). Most of the projects funded will be in the area of ICT (29), followed by transport and low-carbon energy systems (both 24).

For the third cut-off of the SME Instrument Phase 1 this year, EASME received 1,938 project proposals from 40 countries. Since the launch of the programme on 1 January 2014, 1840 SMEs have been selected under Phase 1 of the SME Instrument.

The next cut-off for Phase 1 is 9 November 2016.