JOSEFIN identifies key areas of intervention for providing targeted and individualised support to SMEs on their way to international markets. As nowadays, commercial banks are reluctant to provide access to finance for SMEs, the support of JOSEFIN consists of stimulation of direct transnational co-operation, as well as of provision of improved access to finance to innovate and to exploit innovative products and services.

Priority: 1. Fostering innovations

For this, the key actors of the innovation process, namely Incubators, Technology Transfer Centres, as well as Public Development Banks will jointly take up and adjust or develop concrete tools and instruments to be used in Germany, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Sweden, Norway and Russia.
The JOSEFIN partners will identify a roadmap toward SMEs international activities as a highly individualised process in which generalised and standard instruments will be factors of limited impact. More concrete, JOSEFIN identifies two key-needs of SMEs support for assisting them in the process of bridging the significant development gaps. The first instrument will offer a highly focused and individual coaching of SMEs in preparation of cooperative, transnational innovation projects and will fulfil the role of a useful tool for preparation of the application for their funding. In this field, JOSEFIN mainly will take up, adapt and apply the achievements of previous BSR projects.
The second instrument, a new transnational guarantee fund, will advance existing regional financial support instruments for SMEs. Actors of the financial sector will use the new and innovative transnational guarantee fund of JOSEFIN to lower barriers in access to finance for SMEs.
The JOSEFIN transnational guarantee fund will be backed by a counter guarantee of the European Investment Fund (EIF), and will provide a new and innovative risk sharing facility in the BSR.
The combination of individual coaching for SMEs and the transnational guarantee fund offered by the JOSEFIN partnership will significantly reduce the risk for both sides, banks and companies.
Access to finance for innovation projects carried out in transnational partnership of SMEs and/or scientific institutions will be improved by the JOSEFIN fund and will unlock investments of SMEs in innovative products and services and support them on their way to business internationalisation and sustainable growth.