AGENCIA ANDALUZA DEL CONOCIMIENTO

Their core work

The Andalusian Knowledge Agency is a regional public body under the Junta de Andalucía that manages innovation support services for SMEs in southern Spain, primarily through the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN). They deliver innovation management assessments (Innovation Health Check, SME EMPOWER, SME Instrument support) to help small companies access EU funding and improve their innovation capacity. Beyond SME services, they have contributed to bioeconomy knowledge transfer and National Contact Point coordination for EU social sciences programmes.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In 2014-2016, the agency spread across diverse topics: EEN innovation services, NCP coordination for social sciences, and bioeconomy technology transfer. From 2017 onward, they concentrated almost exclusively on their core EEN mandate — the CESEAND InnoAses series became their dominant activity, with increasingly sophisticated SME support tools (IMPROVE, Innovation Health Check, SME EMPOWER). The side activities in SSH coordination and bioeconomy were not renewed, suggesting a strategic narrowing toward SME innovation management.

Firmly anchored in Enterprise Europe Network SME services — a reliable regional partner for any project needing structured SME outreach and innovation assessment in Andalusia.

How they like to work

Always a participant, never a coordinator — they join consortia led by others and contribute regional implementation capacity. With 41 unique partners across 18 countries, they maintain a broad European network typical of EEN members. Their repeated participation in the same programme series (five CESEAND rounds) shows they are a stable, long-term partner rather than a one-off contributor.

Connected to 41 partners across 18 countries, reflecting their EEN membership which provides built-in access to a pan-European network of innovation intermediaries. Geographic reach spans across the EU but their operational focus remains Andalusia and southern Spain.

What sets them apart

As the official knowledge and innovation agency for Andalusia — Spain's most populous autonomous community — they offer direct access to the region's SME ecosystem and its public innovation infrastructure. For consortium builders, their value lies in regional reach: they can mobilize SMEs, run innovation assessments, and deliver on-the-ground dissemination across southern Spain. They are not a research performer but a proven intermediary between EU programmes and regional businesses.

Highlights from their portfolio

• AGRIFORVALOR
  Their largest project (EUR 159,512) and most thematically distinct — focused on biomass sidestream valorization and bridging the research-innovation divide in agriculture and forestry.
• CESEAND InnoAses5
  The fifth iteration of their flagship EEN programme (2020-2021), demonstrating sustained commitment and accumulated expertise in SME innovation management.
• NET4SOCIETY4
  Four-year transnational NCP network spanning 2015-2019, showing their capacity to operate in pan-European coordination structures beyond their core EEN work.