•Public funding impact is maximized if awarded to firms aligned with EU OI strategy.•Divergence of SME Instrument scope and results creates budget allocation inefficacies.•DeMarkers: complex indicators operationalizing firms’ engagement in OI dimensions.•EU budget is awarded to SMEs less engaged in OI than SMEs not receiving funding.•Introducing the DeMarkersas SME evaluation criteria in a more OI-informed policy. This exploratory study proposes an original methodology to operationalize and signal SMEs’ engagement in challenging dimensions of implementing Open Innovation. We verify whether the European SME Instrument is achieving its goal of providing public funds to the best SMEs in Europe, the ‘EU Innovation Champions’. We test our methodology on a sample of SMEs operating in the digital sector. We found that the SMEs awarded the grants are less engaged in the challenging dimensions of Open Innovation than companies that did not receive any funding. This is contrary to the intended goals of the grants. We provide policy and methodological implications relevant for the design of better OI-informed policy and the more effective evaluation of companies participating in the SME Instrument.