The executive summary provides an overview of the role of digital innovation hubs and snapshot of the status of digitalisation in Europe. It summarises the key findings and recommendations of the study.

The study reviews access-to-finance conditions for the digitalisation of SMEs and the role of Digital Innovation Hubs as key enablers in the wider ecosystem. It highlights how the propensity to digitalisation and digital maturity of SMEs is not only affected by financial factors (access to finance) but also by non-financial factors (knowledge and ambition to digitalise). In particular, the study shows the crucial role of digital innovation hubs and the wider eco-system in supporting the digitalisation of SMEs.

The study proposes a comprehensive approach to address the challenges of digitalisation of SMEs. It includes recommendations and potential policy actions to strengthen the ecosystem and ways to improve access to finance condition for digital projects.

The study was carried out by InnovFin Advisory in collaboration with the European Investment Advisory Hub, with the support of Gartner. Published by European Investment Bank, November 2019.

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