CAMARA OFICIAL DE COMERCIO INDUSTRIA Y NAVIGACION DE GRAN CANARIA

Their core work

The Gran Canaria Chamber of Commerce is a public business support organization that helps local SMEs access EU innovation funding and improve their innovation management capabilities. Through consecutive Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) projects in the Canary Islands, they act as a bridge between small businesses and EU programmes — guiding companies through instruments like the SME Instrument and EIC Pilot. Their core work is capacity building: training SMEs to identify innovation opportunities and navigate EU funding mechanisms.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In the earlier period (2015-2018), the Chamber focused on basic innovation management and Key Account Management (KAM) services within the EEN framework, primarily supporting SMEs with the SME Instrument. From 2019 onward, they broadened their advisory scope to include newer EU funding instruments — FTI, FET-Open, and the EIC Pilot — reflecting the EU's own shift toward the European Innovation Council. The consistent thread is SME support, but the toolkit and instrument coverage have clearly expanded.

They are tracking the EU's shift from SME Instrument to the broader EIC ecosystem, positioning to support SMEs through the full range of European innovation funding.

How they like to work

Camara Gran Canaria operates exclusively as a participant — never as coordinator — working within the same small EEN consortium across all four projects. With only 3 unique partners in 1 country, this is a tight, stable, locally-focused partnership rather than a broad European network. They are a reliable, long-term consortium member but not a hub for building new international connections.

Very small and locally concentrated network: 3 unique partners, all within a single country (Spain). This reflects their role within a regional EEN consortium in the Canary Islands rather than a broad European collaboration footprint.

What sets them apart

As a Chamber of Commerce in an EU outermost region (Canary Islands), they offer direct access to an island economy's SME ecosystem that is otherwise hard to reach for mainland European partners. Their value lies not in technical research but in on-the-ground business intermediation — they know the local SMEs, their problems, and how to connect them with EU opportunities. For anyone needing a dissemination or exploitation partner in the Canary Islands, they are the natural entry point.

Highlights from their portfolio

• E3Canarias 2019
  Marked the expansion from SME Instrument-only advisory to covering FTI and FET-Open, showing the Chamber's growing scope in EU funding guidance.
• E3Canarias 2020-2021
  Most recent project, pivoting to EIC Pilot support — indicates readiness for the current Horizon Europe EIC framework.