Europe INNOVA - Partnerships for better innovation support

Europe INNOVA general information and publications will be available at:

http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/innovation/support/europe-innova/index_en.htm

On 5 and 6 of February 2013, the Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry is organising a workshop in Belfast in collaboration with Invest Northern Ireland.  The workshop will discuss how large-scale demonstrators can unlock the transformative power of service innovation to facilitate entrepreneurship and strengthen existing and emerging industries. The concept of large-scale demonstrator is the cornerstone of a new systemic approach launched by the European Commission as explained by the recently published Smart Guide to Service Innovation, aimed at fostering economic growth by addressing a specific problem or societal challenge through service innovation.

This systemic, needs-driven approach to policy making is based on the assumption that the transformative power of service innovation is a key element for supporting the restructuring of existing industries and the creation of new industrial structures in global value chains. The success of this approach, aimed at creating the framework conditions for enterprises to flourish, depends on the engagement of all the relevant local and regional stakeholders in setting and implementing an agenda for structural change towards service-driven economies.

The Directorate-General Enterprise and Industry of the European Commission has selected fifteen large-scale demonstrators in several fields, from mobile services to creative industries. The workshop will be the first opportunity for the representatives of the selected large-scale demonstrators to discuss together with the representatives of the European Service Innovation Centre and other relevant stakeholders how to better implement the demonstrator approach.

The workshop aims to:

·        discuss existing problems and challenges that can be addressed through service innovation and common objectives amongst the regions;

·        share experience on how to best overcome potential obstacles that prevent regions taking full advantage of service innovations;

·        engage local and regional stakeholders in setting an agenda for structural change towards service-driven economies; and

·        exchange expectations and preferences for the timing of delivery of the support services from the European Service Innovation Centre.

In addition to the participation of the representatives of the selected large-scale demonstrators, policy makers and experts, the workshop will be open for participation for 15-20 additional persons. The selection of these participants will be done on the basis of the registration date, ensuring to the greatest extent possible a balanced geographical distribution. The workshop will be held in English.

Registration form

Draft programme

On 12 December, the Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry organised a workshop in Brussels in cooperation with the Competiveness Agency for Catalonia (ACC1Ó) and the Entreprise Rhône-Alpes International Agency (ERAI) to reflect on and discuss how international cluster cooperation could be further developed at EU level to provide SMEs in Europe with more effective support for internationalisation.

Only 13% of European SMEs are active beyond the EU with high variations between the Member States. In order to increase SMEs internationalisation share, clusters can play a role at the European level to support them in becoming more open and more competitive in global markets.

In her welcome address, the Director for SMEs and Entrepreurship, Joanna Drake said that clusters act as specialised intermediaries for SMEs establishing bridges with strategic partners and maintaining them overtime. What clusters do regionally and nationally, they increasingly do also transnationally. Cluster cooperation in Europe could contribute to the recovery of European regions currently facing major economic difficulties, and could also provide package solutions offering technologies and expertise developed in Europe to assist emerging economies in their efforts to make their industries more sustainable. "We should not only consider this new form of cooperation at the European level, but also at the international level. There is a lot of scope for leveraging international cluster cooperation for the benefit of all clusters in Europe and therefore also for their SMEs. The main challenge is to demonstrate that cluster organisations can deliver concrete results and move from networking to true cooperation across borders."

During the workshop, experts, policy makers and practitioners from throughout Europe reviewed and discussed six European Cluster Consortia projects (http://www.clustercollaboration.eu/international-projects), which are already developing joint international strategies in different sectors including cleantech, life-sciences, renewables, sports industries, and advanced textiles, for the benefit of their SMEs. The new concept of Strategic Cluster Partnerships was presented, which builds upon existing networks of clusters in Europe and will be implemented under the upcoming COSME programme for 2014-2020. These Partnerships would lead international cluster collaboration in the field of emerging industries, and ultimately European Cluster Export Consortia would be established as the transnational alliances to access markets beyond the Europe.

In his closing remarks, the Director for Enterprise Competitiveness, Industry and Growth policies, Didier Herbert emphasized that the European Commission supports cross-border cooperation between clusters and networks, which allows SMEs to grow and innovate through collaboration, strategic business cooperation, and networks. The Commission has already presented this initiative in the Communication "Small Business - Big World". Vice-President of the European Commission Antonio Tajani and Director General Daniel Calleja have led a series of growth missions to third countries accompanied by companies, including SMEs, and representatives of business organisations in order to improve business opportunities and thus create growth and jobs. Mr Herbert indicated that the workshop would help to shape a strategic roadmap for implementation of international cluster cooperation in support of SMEs internationalisation under the forthcoming COSME programme. Given the current economic context, European SMEs need a strong signal from the European level with a positive focus on growth opportunities.

For the programme and the PPT presentations, please click here 

For the list of participants, please click here

Some pictures are available here 

For the final input paper from Dr Zombori on the online survey, please click here