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As part of the NETIES project, we have conducted a survey of small and medium sized enterprises interested in participating in Sixth Framework funded projects. This survey was carried out in Hungary, in parallel with our colleagues in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

This research was conducted in two parts. The first survey, summarized here, collected information from companies and organizations interested in taking part in an FP6 funded project. The second survey researched those who had previously taken part in a project.

One insight of this survey is that two-thirds of respondents (64%) had little or no knowledge about the FP6 programme, while 56% were interested in receiving information online.

A total of 147 companies took part in this survey, which was carried out in partnership with the Hungarian Association of IT Companies (IVSZ).

The majority of survey respondents were smaller companies with 35% reporting from ten to 50 employees and 31% declared themselves as micro-enterprises with ten or less employees. Just 3% of companies surveyed were large enterprises with more than 250 employees.

The most popular areas of interest were enterprise IT systems (31%), security (30%), Internet access (24%), mobile and wireless (18%) and e-business and teleworking (16%). (Multiple responses were allowed.)

Two-thirds of survey respondents were interested in hearing about current grant opportunities, while one-third wanted information about financial issues related to EU grants. Another 33% indicated an interest in administrative aspects of FP6 participation, while 31% wanted to better understand how to apply for a grant. (Multiple responses were allowed.)

39% of respondents indicated that lack of detailed information was their greatest barrier to taking part in FP6, while 38% confessed to no knowledge at all about the program. Another 37% of respondents indicated they didn’t have the financial means to take part in FP6, while 36% considered the process too bureaucratic. (Multiple responses were allowed.)

A majority of respondents (56%) wanted online information and 32% were interested in partner search assistance while 31% would be welcome assistance in preparing a project proposal. (Multiple responses were allowed.)

How far had survey respondents progress in applying for an FP6 grant? 31% indicated they were waiting for an appropriate call, while 19% indicated they were in the beginning stages of applying. 8% indicated they had located a project consortium while 7% were still searching for one. (Multiple responses were allowed.)

By far, the largest area of interest was information society technologies (43%), followed by nanotechnology (15%) and biotechnology (11%).
Of those who hadn’t yet taken part in FP6, 34% replied that they were too small to take part, 22% opined that it was too bureaucratic, 16% indicated they worked in a field not covered by the program and 15% found the application process too complicated. (Multiple responses were allowed.)