The Horizon 2020 pilot action - European SME Innovation Associate is an innovation capacity building initiative aiming to address the lack of access to skills, knowledge and the incapacity to manage innovation processes among SMEs. The pilot action strives to tackle these barriers for innovation, by supporting SMEs and start-ups in the recruitment of post-doctoral research associates to jointly develop business ideas into concrete innovations. This study evaluates the pilot action and provides recommendations for the further development of the pilot action. It analyses the state of play concerning skills and knowledge for innovation and the related challenges faced by SMEs. Further, it examines the management, design and implementation of the action, along with its impact both on the supporting SMEs and on the researchers’ careers. Evaluation is provided on the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, EU added value, coherency and monitoring of the pilot action. Furthermore, the study presents a list of recommendations with respect to further development of the pilot actio.