STICHTING BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT FRIESLAND

Their core work

Business Development Friesland is a Dutch foundation that provides innovation support services to SMEs in the Northern Netherlands, operating as part of the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN). Their core work involves coaching, mentoring, and guiding small businesses through EU innovation instruments — helping them assess their innovation capacity, access H2020 SME funding, and build key account management practices. They also contributed to developing standardized innovation audit tools for social innovation contexts.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In 2015-2018, the focus was squarely on traditional SME innovation support — coaching, mentoring, and helping businesses navigate the H2020 SME Instrument. From 2019 onward, two shifts are visible: they added more structured approaches like Key Account Management (KAM) and formal innovation auditing, and they branched into social innovation through the DepoSIt project. This suggests a move from hands-on advisory work toward more systematic, evidence-based innovation support methodologies.

They are evolving from informal advisory services toward formalized, evidence-based innovation assessment tools — potentially positioning themselves as experts in measuring and benchmarking SME innovation capacity.

How they like to work

Always a participant, never a coordinator — they operate as a reliable delivery partner within larger support networks rather than leading projects themselves. With only 10 unique partners across 5 projects (mostly recurring EEN consortium members), they are a loyal, stable partner rather than a wide networker. This makes them a dependable regional executor for organizations that need on-the-ground SME engagement in the Northern Netherlands.

They work with a compact network of 10 partners across 6 countries, but most collaboration is concentrated within the recurring EEN Northern Netherlands consortium. Their partnerships are stable and repeat-based rather than diverse.

What sets them apart

Their value is highly specific: they are the go-to SME innovation support organization in Friesland and the broader Northern Netherlands. Unlike consultancies that advise from a distance, they have five years of continuous, on-the-ground experience coaching SMEs through EU innovation programs. For any consortium needing a Dutch regional partner to deliver SME engagement activities, they bring proven EEN experience and established local business networks.

Highlights from their portfolio

• DepoSIt
  Their only non-EEN project, focused on developing a European Innovation Audit tool using randomised control trials — a methodological step up from their usual advisory work.
• H2020 SGA4
  Their most recent EEN grant (EUR 60,092), showing continued trust and involvement in the network through the final H2020 period.