On Friday, 5 December 2025, the Croatian Agency for SMEs, Innovation and Investments (HAMAG-BICRO) organized a workshop for business consultants.
The Eurostars Train the Trainers session was held at the Regional Centre for the Development of Entrepreneurial Competencies for South-East Europe (SEECEL) in Zagreb.
The training was intended for business advisors and consulting companies working with small and medium-sized enterprises in the fields of research, development, and innovation, especially on international projects. Throughout the workshop, participants were able to deepen their knowledge of the Eurostars programme and receive guidance for successful applications from Fabian Käser, a Swiss expert with long-standing experience in mentoring entrepreneurs in EU-funded programmes under Horizon Europe.
Eurostars is an international programme that funds R&D projects led by small and medium-sized enterprises. The primary eligibility criterion is an international partnership. To support Croatian innovators in finding partners, the Enterprise Europe Network — whose activities in Croatia were presented at the workshop — provides assistance.
Through international collaboration, Croatian companies can gain direct access to foreign markets, acquire know-how from international partners, and apply best practices gained during project implementation.
Under the umbrella of the Eureka Network, programmes are coordinated by agencies and ministries from 47 member countries. In addition to Eurostars, innovation-support programmes include Network Projects, Clusters, Innowide, Fast Track to EIC Accelerator, and others.
In Croatia, these programmes are implemented by HAMAG-BICRO. Eurostars is part of the European Partnership for Innovative SMEs, co-funded by the European Union through Horizon Europe.
“The purpose of such training is to improve the quality of programme applications. Croatian entrepreneurs could achieve significantly better results—we have exceptional innovators and excellent ideas,” said Sonja Šegvić Smolić, Head of the International Cooperation Department at HAMAG-BICRO. “The Agency aims to encourage solutions emerging from the SME sector, particularly in these highly competitive programmes where the innovative strength of a country can be measured,” she added.
The concept behind train-the-trainers is to equip business advisors who support companies with the competencies and knowledge needed to improve the quality of applications.
With this approach, instead of helping just one company, the impact is broadened—leading to higher overall success rates for applications submitted from Croatia.
The workshop was organized with the support of the Swiss Confederation. Alongside training, a second goal was to strengthen Swiss-Croatian business cooperation. Stela Fišer Marković from the Embassy of the Swiss Confederation presented the Swiss-Croatian Cooperation Programme, through which these activities are financed.
Internationally, Switzerland consistently ranks at the top in innovation performance. According to the European Innovation Scoreboard 2025, Switzerland is the most innovative country in Europe.
Although the workshop was limited to the first twenty registered participants, due to exceptionally high interest from the consulting sector, HAMAG-BICRO will organize an additional workshop in January 2026.
