The SME definition in Horizon Europe is given by the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs. Note that this definition is also valid for Horizon 2020. It should be less than 250 employees and less than 50M€ of turnover/less than 43M€ of balance sheet total.
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) represent 99% of all businesses in the EU. The definition of an SME is important for access to finance and EU support programmes targeted specifically at these enterprises. For details about SME definition, consult the EU recommendation 2003/361.
The two main factors determining whether an enterprise is an SME are:
- staff headcount
- turnover or balance sheet total
These ceilings apply to the figures for individual firms only. A firm that is part of a larger group may need to include staff headcount/turnover/balance sheet data from that group too.
Further details include:
- The revised user guide to the SME definition (2020)
- Declaring your enterprise to be an SME (the form is available in all languages as an annex in the revised user guide)
- The SME self-assessment tool which you can use to determine whether your organisation qualifies as a small and medium-sized enterprise
Source and more information: EC website
