CHAMBRE DES METIERS DU GRAND-DUCHE DU LUXEMBOURG

Their core work

The Chamber of Trades (Chambre des Métiers) is Luxembourg's official professional body representing craftspeople, artisans, and small businesses across the skilled trades. In H2020, they served as an intermediary helping SMEs access EU innovation funding through dedicated advisory and key account management services. Their practical role is bridging the gap between small craft and trade businesses and EU funding instruments like Fast Track to Innovation (FTI) and EIC Pilot, translating complex EU programme requirements into actionable guidance for non-research-intensive companies.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their early participation (2015-2018) concentrated narrowly on building innovation management capacity and key account management infrastructure for SMEs — essentially setting up the advisory machinery. From 2019 onward, the scope broadened significantly to include specific H2020 funding instruments (Fast Track to Innovation, Future Emerging Technologies, EIC Pilot), suggesting they moved from general innovation support to targeted EU programme coaching. This evolution reflects a maturing advisory function that grew from generic capacity building into instrument-specific guidance.

Moving toward deeper specialization in specific EU innovation instruments (EIC, FTI), positioning themselves as a hands-on guide for SMEs entering competitive EU funding calls.

How they like to work

Exclusively a participant — they have never coordinated an H2020 project. With only 2 unique consortium partners across all projects and collaboration limited to 1 country, they operate in a very tight, stable partnership rather than broad networking. This suggests a loyal, recurring relationship within the same consortium (likely a national or regional EEN/innovation support network), making them a dependable but narrowly connected partner.

Extremely narrow network: only 2 distinct consortium partners in a single country across all four projects. This points to a dedicated national partnership, likely within Luxembourg's innovation support ecosystem, rather than a broad European network.

What sets them apart

Their value lies in direct access to Luxembourg's craft and trade SME community — businesses that rarely engage with EU research programmes on their own. Unlike universities or research centres, the Chamber of Trades brings a practitioner network of small businesses who are potential end-users of innovation but lack the resources to navigate EU funding independently. For consortium builders needing SME engagement or dissemination reach into the skilled trades sector, this is a ready-made channel.

Highlights from their portfolio

• AISS4SME (2019)
  Broadest scope of all phases, explicitly covering FTI, FET, and EIC Pilot — showing the most mature version of their advisory service.
• AISS4SME (2020-2021)
  Final phase that refined the model toward EIC Pilot, suggesting the advisory service adapted to the EU's evolving SME innovation landscape.