KIS-PIMS

KIS-PIMS stands for "Knowledge Intensive Services in the Planning, Installation, Maintenance and Scrap services (PIMS) for renewable energy production systems"

The KIS-PIMS initiative was running from 1 February 2008 until 30 June 2011.

KIS-PIMS was an initiative to enhance cost driven innovation in such services. Launched in February 2008 for three years with the financial support of the European Commission - DG Enterprise and 3 Member States, it was coordinated by TECHNOFI, shouldered by 14 Partners from Austria, France and Finland.

KIS-PIMS aimed at designing and implementing new funding schemes for innovative Service companies, with a focus on SMEs in the above three Member states. It relied on three pillars:

Companies involved in PIMS Services were invited to submit their innovation proposal to Calls published by the innovation and energy Agencies of the 3 countries: NOEST and LEV in Austria, MOTIVA in Finland, OSEO and ADEME in France, together with the “Pôles de compétitivité” CapEnergies, DERBI and TENERRDIS. The Calls were published in early 2009.

Final brochure published

KIS-PIMS has produced a Guide to green innovation vouchers to present the lessons learned from testing vouchers for renewable energy service innovators. It describes the voucher schemes, gives case studies on how the vouchers have been used in different countries, and provides recommendations for future green voucher schemes in Europe.

Please download the brochure here.

Calls for voucher applications (CLOSED)

The calls for applications for vouchers were open in France, Finland and Austria. Service innovators in the renewable energy sector were able tp apply directly at their national innovation / energy agency. 

•  France: http://www.oseo.fr/a_la_une/agenda/appels_a_propositions/appel_a_projets_kis_pims
  
  
• Finland: http://www.tekes.fi/fi/community/Hakuajat/472/Hakuaika/1320?name=Innovaatiopalveluiden+rahoitus+uusiutuvan+energian+yrityksille
  
  

• Austria: http://www.lev.at/projekte/rue/KIS_PIMS_Innovscheck_Einreichung.htm

Innovation support toolbox developed

A number of tools has been developed, adapted or selected to constitute together a comprehensive and complementary set of innovation support instruments. Some of the tools are sector-specific, others are generic. They allow innovation experts to assess the business aspects of the innovation plans of renewable energy service innovators. 

Reports

KIS-PIMS has produced a number of public reports of relevance to both service innovators and innovation professionals.

D1.1: This report aims at sizing the turnover of service activities around renewable energy production to be generated by the planned investments in renewable energy production in France, Finland and Austria from 2006 - 2020.

D1.2: This report provides a comprehensive analysis of all the most important needs directly or indirectly expressed by ventures providing Planning, Installation, Maintenance and Scrapping (PIMS) services for renewable energy production systems.

D1.3: This report provides a critical analysis of research and knowledge centres able to answer the need of knowledge and skills expressed by innovative PIMS companies, with the aim to find new forms of support for these ventures through technology transfer or expert training.

D1.4: This report aims at identifying remaining barriers that SMEs of the renewable energy sector still face when willing to commercialize innovative services. Hence, some recommendations are formulated to improve support schemes targeting innovative SMEs.

D1.5: This report aims at drawing generic principles of the KIS-PIMS project implementation, relying on a benchmarking analysis of ongoing programmes in Europe and in the USA to support innovation in services.

D2.1: This report aims at specifying the commonalities and the country specific features of the KIS-PIMS support scheme to be experimented in Austria, Finland and France.

D2.2: This report details the functional requirements of tools needed to implement appropriately the KIS-PIMS support scheme specified in Deliverable D2.1.

D3.1: This report aims to detail the overall support scheme to be experimented in Austria, Finland and France for the benefit of service SMEs in the renewable energy sector.

D3.2: This report aims at describing the set of instruments & tools and their use, which will allow for an appropriate support to the SMEs of the RE sector in their innovative service projects.

You can download them at the at bottom of this page.

SME acceptance of the new business innovation vouchers

235 SMEs showed interest in the voucher scheme. Yet, many of these interested SMEs did not reach the proposal submission stage: some discovered that their idea was not sound enough. Others were impacted by the financial crisis or by country-specific regulatory evolutions like in France for photovoltaic electricity production. Some proposals turned out to be not eligible because the idea focus was not regarded as service innovation. Overall, SMEs submitted 97 relevant project proposals and 52 project proposals were selected to benefit from an innovation voucher.  The KIS PIMS partners were able to fine tune a voucher grant scheme having similar steps in the participating Member States (Austria, Finland, France): application, selection, external expert choice, delivery of external expertise, report delivery with payment of expert services by the SME, public contribution to such costs.

Project website

The project website is part of the "Europe Innova" portal and can be accessed here:

KIS-PIMS project website: http://www.europe-innova.eu/web/guest/innovation-in-services/kis-innovation-platform/kis-pims/about    

For further information, please contact:

Mr Serge Galant , TECHNOFI, Tel: +33 493 653 444