Support for SMEs in the Basque Country

The objective of the Basque Ecodesign Center is to generate knowledge and engage the entire Basque industrial fabric. In this sense, the Basque Ecodesign Center carries out the following activities to add value to SMEs and all other Basque companies:

1. Piloting of innovative ecodesign projects: in each annual Management Plan the companies in the Basque Ecodesign Center establish the projects to be developed, guided by Ihobe and by the results of their individual strategic environmental monitoring reports. The results of these projects make it possible to generate knowledge that is used to prepare guides and tools in order to deploy these fields of knowledge, to deploy projects in SMEs through paid work experience with interns within the framework of the Basque Ecodesign HUB, or to establish lines of work for companies through the annual Orders for grants to companies to make investments in environmental matters.
2. Engagement of the value chain: Some of the innovative ecodesign projects include the participation of part of the value chain, either through information requests or through specific training and support programmes.
3. Development of sectoral strategic environmental monitoring studies: the 9 clusters adhered to the Basque Ecodesign Center represent 963 Basque companies. Sectoral strategic environmental monitoring reports are made regularly in the fields of work of the clusters. These reports make it possible to identify opportunities and drivers of change towards a more circular economy in each of the sectors. The reports are kept private for a period of two years so they can be exploited by the clusters as a competitiveness tool for the Basque Country.

4.Grants for ecodesign projects: a call for grants for ecodesign projects by Basque companies is launched annually through the Basque Ecodesign Center. With an annual budget of approximately €100,000, support is given to companies to carry out analyses, tests and technical developments, including prototypes, that offer the chance to confirm the feasibility of ecodesign proposals for products and services (including new business models), to confirm their completion, and that the environmental performance, from a life cycle point of view, is better than the previous alternative or others on the market. The maximum co-financing per project amounts to €20,000. The fields susceptible of receiving grants are associated with the results of the sectoral monitoring reports and with the results of the innovation project pilot schemes developed by the partner companies.

5. Transfer of knowledge through the Basque Ecodesign Meeting: organised by Ihobe in collaboration with the Basque Ecodesign Center in order to bring to the Basque business fabric the latest trends and good practices in the field of ecodesign and the circular economy. With a target audience focused on SMEs, the Basque Ecodesign Meeting is useful as a learning space and as a way to disseminate the knowledge acquired at the Basque Ecodesign Center and in other programmes managed by Ihobe, as well as a space to getting together and networking.

6. Improved positioning of environmental consultancies: many of the pilot schemes developed with partner companies receive the technical support of environmental consultancies. This enables the consultancies to integrate the knowledge generated and to increase their competitiveness.