INVESTITIONSBANK SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN

Their core work

Investitionsbank Schleswig-Holstein is a regional public development bank that serves as an Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) contact point for the Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein region in northern Germany. Their core H2020 activity is delivering innovation management capacity-building services to SMEs, including key account management and guidance on the SME Instrument. They help small businesses access EU funding and improve their innovation processes through structured advisory services.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their focus has remained remarkably stable across the entire 2014-2021 period — all five projects are successive iterations of the same INNOKAM initiative. The only notable shift is a subtle move from "innovation management capacity building" in the early period (2014-2016) to the shorter "innovation management capacity" in later projects (2017-2021), and the addition of energy sector tagging from 2017 onward. This suggests a broadening of their SME advisory services toward energy-sector companies in the later period, though the core mission remained unchanged.

They are a steady-state EEN operator with growing energy-sector engagement — expect continued SME advisory work rather than thematic pivots.

How they like to work

They exclusively coordinate their projects, never joining as a participant — all five projects were led by them. Their consortium is extremely small and stable, with only 3 unique partners all within Germany. This is a tightly scoped regional operation, not a broad European networking organization. Working with them means engaging a reliable but locally focused partner with deep regional SME knowledge.

Very small and domestically focused network: only 3 unique partners, all within Germany. This reflects their role as a regional EEN node serving the Hamburg/Schleswig-Holstein area rather than a pan-European collaborator.

What sets them apart

As a public development bank running EEN services, they sit at a unique intersection of finance and innovation advisory — they understand both the funding landscape and the practical needs of SMEs. Their value for consortium builders is access to the northern German SME ecosystem, particularly companies in the Hamburg/Schleswig-Holstein region that may not be visible through academic or research networks. They are a gateway to regional industry, not a research or technology partner.

Highlights from their portfolio

• INNOKAM 2020-21
  Largest single grant (EUR 53,488) and the most recent iteration, representing the mature form of their SME advisory service model.
• INNOKAM
  The original 2014 project (EUR 2,700) that launched the series — demonstrates long-term institutional commitment to the same mission over seven years.