Aid for Innovation Competence and Product Development (InnoAID)

InnoAID project develops innovation and product development activities of SMEs and micro-enterprises and improves the innovation capacity of their staff.

SMEs and micro-enterprises often operate in tight financial value chains without their own product development activities and facilities. At the same time, the deteriorating economic situation has further reduced the resources of the companies, hindering SMEs innovation capabilities and possibilities to adapt their products and services to changing markets. The project aims to improve innovation and product development activities of companies with limited resources and accelerate their renewal by making the University of Oulu's expert and student resources and national and international networks available to companies.

The project will carry out an analysis of the innovation capacity of the participating Northern Ostrobothnia’s SMEs and micro-enterprises and their current state of product development. The results of the analysis are used to design training and coaching content that is tailored to the needs, resources, and business models of SMEs and microenterprises. The project will create and test product development methods and tools which are designed to create radical innovations, i.e. completely new products or services for new markets, and incremental innovations, i.e. small improvements to existing markets for products and services.

The methods and tools are tested in six product development applied trainings of varying intensities. The companies participating in these trainings will be grouped into clusters of companies, which may be, for example, companies aiming at international growth or companies focusing on local recovery and revival. The project will also produce high-quality theme training to accelerate companies’ innovation capacities and product development activities. The project will also produce informative and educational videos online to support innovation and product development. The videos, as well as all of the methods and tools created in the InnoAID project, are collected in an open online material bank. 

The trainings offered during the InnoAID project are free for the participating companies. However, the trainings will be counted as De minimis aid.

The project is coordinated by the Industrial Engineering and Management Research Unit in co-operation with Kerttu Saalasti Institute's Micro-Entrepreneurship Centre MicroENTRE®.