Kreo tn2 Karlsruhe, Rhône Alpes, Emilia-Romagna and Oxfordshire Thematic Network for the Support of Innovative Companies
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- Bu səhifədəki naviqasiya:
- Practice name Short description Region
- Regions Thematic areas Karlsruhe Rhone-Alpes
- Involvement of beneficiary companies
- Financial sustainability
- Repeatability
- Public-private partnership
- Sectoral focus
6.3Selected good practicesDuring 2003, a total of 16 practices have been selected and analysed according to the common methodology defined and used by all KREO partners. The practices refer to the four thematic areas related to the thematic workpackages of the project and some of them regard more than one area, as they include several objectives, activities and tools. Here-after the list of practices analysed, with a very short description:
The practices have been mapped as shown with the following table:
In 2004 sixteen practices have been selected and analysed. In particular, a total of eight practices (one German – Nanomat, one English – Diagnox, and six French - Grenoble CNRT, Rhone-Alpes Genopole, MINATEC's Ideas Lab, INERA, MINATEC Pole, Nanobio) on industry-research platforms and joint research structures, representing new tools for promoting innovation, industry-science relations and research spin off creation have been identified and studied. As far as new mechanisms for promoting and supporting research spin off are concerned, five practices have been taken into consideration, four from Emilia-Romagna and one form Oxfordshire. In particular, two examples of incubators have been included (one incubator network – SIPRO, and the incubator of the University of Bologna – Alma Cube), as well as a programme supporting the creation of research spin off (Spinner), a service aiming at facilitating research exploitation and promotion of industry-science relations (Link up) and a project aiming at helping to successfully commercialise research results in the diagnostic sector (Diagnox). In the thematic area of real and virtual networks, five practices have been selected and analysed, in particular Oxford Investment Opportunity Network, one of the oldest and more successful Business Angels Network in Europe; Newcome.de that is the official internet platform for entrepreneurs in Baden-Wüttenberg; Link up for its component of internet based platform providing services to industry and research; Spinner for its component of physical and virtual network providing services to start ups; and Diagnox that is a platform but has to be considered also a virtual network for services delivery. Finally, in the area of learning programmes for entrepreneurs, three practices have been identified and analysed so far, namely: Spinner for its training component, PriManager, being an example of a business game competition aiming at promoting an entrepreneurship culture starting for the high school and Newcome.de for its component € relating to on-line training on setting up a business. According to the common format and methodology, for each practice, general and specific information presenting the experience is provided (detailed fiches of all practices are annexed), and four yardstick giving evidence to some elements relevant for the transfer process have been identified, in order to benchmark the selected practices. More precisely, the four yardsticks are:
Moreover, two other elements have been taken into consideration: they show peculiarities common to most practices giving evidence to aspects related to strategic choices to be made when designing and developing new initiatives and tools:
A final aspect has been considered, namely the time-span of the practice that has been commented in addition to the others. I   nterface All practices except for one (PriManager, the business game competition), favour the development of the relations between research bodies, higher education institutions and enterprises. Most of the practices are intended as interfaces themselves or tools for stimulating and supporting the relations: all the industry-research platforms have been created also with the specific goal of facilitating the dialogue and the collaboration between industry and research bodies; Link-up is a specific tool, with related services and initiatives, aiming at linking the two mentioned worlds; finally, Newcome.de and Nanofair are two specific initiatives aiming at promoting and supporting relations. Alma Cube and SIPRO are two examples of incubators where the relation between the incubated companies and the research organisations exists and is stimulated: Alma Cube is the incubator of Bologna University and has natural relations with it and SIPRO is the reference incubator of Ferrara University, it has also defined a specific agreement with Spinner, that operates in strict relation with the university itself. Both incubators provide networking services to the hosted companies. Involvement of beneficiary companies In more than 75% of the cases, the involvement of beneficiaries is foreseen and is related to different situations: in many cases companies are direct beneficiaries of the services offered (SIPRO, Alma Cube, Spinner, Link up, Nanofair, Newcome.de, OION) and the level of satisfaction is monitored and measured through periodical actions (questionnaires, interviews, etc.); in many cases (industry-research platforms) companies are the beneficiaries of the activities related to the practice and are deeply involved in their implementation and development. Financial sustainability No practice is financially sustainable and financial sustainability is never an objective in the short term. Actually, all practices started as tools for implementing, directly or indirectly, regional innovation policies and according to a precise public commitment to invest on new initiatives aiming at promoting innovation, industry-research collaboration and enterprise creation. All practices benefit from public funds, either totally or partially; more than 75% of the practices can count also on private funds, either in the form of sponsorship, fees paid by beneficiaries or other kind of private contributions. Only two practices (Spinner and Link up) are fully public funded and one (Minatec Pole) mainly public funded. It may be noted that all of them do not foresee any public-private partnership. In general terms, the issue of financial sustainability is connected also to factors such as innovation policies, market failures and public investment on strategic initiatives, therefore financial sustainability may not be a priority, and in some cases it is not, even if the practice is close to be self-sustainable. In other cases, it may be a goal to be reached in the long term, but it may be not, particularly when the public money is intended to intervene where the market is not ready at all or when the stage of development of the practice makes it still not attractive or strong enough (as it needs further developments), to be fully funded by private money.
All practices are considered repeatable in other contexts but with some specifications related to the complexity of the practice, particularly when it foresees a public-private partnership. In these cases background conditions and the presence of some specific elements are necessary for the possible implementation of the practice in a different context. At the same time, wherever the practice itself needs a combination of factors difficult to be organised in a context different from the original one, in any case the overall structure of the practice as well as its methodology is usually easily replicable taking into account the specific local conditions of a certain region or area. Finally, specific tools or part of certain practices may be considered independent from the local context and therefore replicable besides the existence of the same specific conditions of the original area. Public-private partnership This aspect is deemed particularly relevant when considering the main structural characteristics of the practices: 75% of them start from a public-private partnership where different actors share common objectives and put common resources on the starting up and development of new initiatives addressing innovation and entrepreneurship promotion. This aspect regards all the practices defined as industry-science platforms except for one (Minatec) that was originated by a partnership between a national research centre and a polytechnic institute. As for all the others, public entities (public authorities, and/or research centres and/or universities) and private organisations (mainly big enterprises, banks, etc.) were the founders of the platforms. Other three practices have been originated without the direct involvement of private actors, namely Link up, Spinner and SIPRO, even if the private sector is involved either as direct beneficiary or as part of the board of the managing organisations. Sectoral focus More than 50% of the practices have a sectoral focus, showing the importance of the sectoral dimension in the area of facilitating innovative firms creation and all related services and activities. This is far more true if one considers some specific categories of practices where the sectoral focus appears to be a success factor for the promotion of innovation and innovative companies in particular. Actually, all practices falling within the concept of industry-research platforms and joint research structures have a sectoral character, with a concentration on nano-technologies (Nanomat and Minatec Pole), nano-technologies and IT (Grenoble CNRT, Minatech Ideas Lab), biotechnologies (Rhone Alpes Genopole, Nanobio and Diagnox), energy technologies (INERA). In addition, Nanofair - a joint international symposium serving as a tool addressed to representatives from research and industry for technology transfer, innovation and start up promotion€ - has a sectoral focus again on nano-technologies. As for the other seven practices, including incubators, business angels networks, services provision tools and entrepreneurship promotion schemes, they are cross-sectoral. Time span Practices have been classified according to their starting date and divided up into two main groups: those started before and those started after year 2000. Apart from one practice (OION) that started in 1994, and three that started in 1999, all the others (14) started between 2000 and 2003. Actually, also the oldest practice has seen a recent important renew with the launching, in 2003, of two new “sister” networks: the Thames Valley Investment Network (TVIN) and the Solent Investment Opportunity Network (SION). This may represent a limit as we are considering practices that may be not consolidated but in their initial stages. However, on the contrary, the fact that most practices are very recent is a sign of dynamism of the regions and of their capacity to design and implement innovative tools meeting the needs of a changing environment and to provide an answer to the challenge launched with the Lisbon strategy, which KREO and PAXIS aim at contributing to, in so far as their specific scope.
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