AUFTRAGSBERATUNGSZENTRUM BAYERN EV

Their core work

ABZ Bayern is a Bavarian public procurement and innovation advisory center that operates as part of the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN). Their core work is helping SMEs in Bavaria improve their innovation management capacity, access EU funding instruments like the SME Instrument and EIC, and connect with European business partners. They deliver hands-on innovation assessments (IMP³rove, Innovation Health Check) and key account management services to guide SMEs through EU support programs.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

ABZ Bayern's trajectory shows a consistent mission — SME innovation support in Bavaria — but with growing sophistication in methods and scope. Early projects (2015-2018) focused broadly on innovation management and key account management without naming specific diagnostic tools. By 2020-2021, their vocabulary shifted to include structured methodologies like IMP³rove and Innovation Health Check, plus explicit alignment with the EIC, suggesting they matured from general advisory work to systematic, tool-based innovation assessment.

ABZ Bayern is moving toward formalized innovation assessment frameworks (IMP³rove, Innovation Health Check), making them increasingly useful as a regional gateway for SMEs seeking EIC and other competitive EU funding.

How they like to work

ABZ Bayern exclusively participates as a partner, never as coordinator — consistent with their role as a regional EEN node executing a broader European mandate. They work within a small, stable network of 9 partners concentrated in a single country (Germany), suggesting they are part of a fixed national EEN consortium rather than building diverse international partnerships. Working with them means engaging a reliable regional delivery partner, not a project design leader.

ABZ Bayern has collaborated with 9 unique partners, all within Germany. This tight, single-country network reflects their role as a regional EEN node delivering EU-funded services locally rather than building cross-border research consortia.

What sets them apart

ABZ Bayern occupies a specific niche: they are the Bavarian bridge between EU innovation programmes and local SMEs. Unlike research institutes or technology firms, their value is not in generating knowledge but in translating EU opportunities into actionable support for companies that would otherwise not engage with Horizon 2020 or EIC. For consortium builders, they offer direct access to the Bavarian SME ecosystem and proven capacity to recruit and coach companies through EU funding processes.

Highlights from their portfolio

• InnoBavaria_5
  Most recent iteration (2020-2021) and the most methodologically advanced, introducing IMP³rove diagnostics and Innovation Health Check alongside EIC support.
• InnoBavaria_2
  The earliest project (2015-2016), establishing ABZ Bayern's role in the EEN innovation management support chain for Bavarian SMEs.