Summary objectives The background 7

5.1STORMING

As described in Figure 3, the storming activity consists of the following three actions:

• 
  Definition of regional topics and priorities
  
• 
  Assessment of good practices
  
• 
  Involvement of key players
  

Information on regional frameworks will be collected in order to define regional topics and priorities and assess regional needs. In particular, quantitative information as well as information on policies and specific initiatives undertaken in the regional framework will be collected on a yearly basis. They will be analysed and will contribute to the definition or re-tuning of project topics and priorities.

In addition, this activity will allow to identify new best practices that were never involved in the process or new initiatives, which are at a very early stage, that may be monitored and subsequently analysed and transferred.

All this activities will be developed involving local key players who will provide inputs and will benefit from the result of the entire process.

5.1.1Regional framework definition

For what concerns quantitative information to be collected, a set of indicators has been defined. The basis of this set of indicators is the European Innovation Scoreboard, the aim being to apply this exercise to the regional level.

Information to be collected regards four different themes:

• 
  Human resources
  
• 
  Knowledge creation
  
• 
  Transmission and application of knowledge
  
• 
  Innovation finance, output and markets.
  

It is to be observed that, at present, for data availability reasons, not all indicators can be monitored at regional level, but they have nevertheless been included as the situation is changing rapidly at this very moment. In fact, the construction of the complete set of indicators for the regional dimension is one of the objectives for the future European Innovation Scoreboard and national statistical offices are now in charge of collecting necessary data both at national and regional levels. Therefore it is expected to be able to collect the lacking data in the near future. In general terms, if data for building one indicator are not available at regional level, an effort will be made to identify the data which are closer to those needed for building that indicator in order to give anyway a general quantitative measure.

In addition to those coming from the European Innovation Scoreboard, other relevant indicators have been set as they provided additional information on regions, in particular:

• 
  General background: area dimension, population, main macro-economic indicators,
  
• 
  Regional research outputs in terms of publications,
  
• 
  Employment in R&D activities in public and private organisations.
  

As for the collection of data, the following basic principles will be applied:

• 
  Data sources: Source of data is particularly important, therefore the following principles will be applied:
  

1. 
   Sources will always be mentioned,
   
2. 
   Official sources will be used,
   
3. 
   If available, same sources will be used for all regions.
   

Therefore, collection of data will follow the following scheme: (1) when available, Eurostat sources will be used, if this is not possible partners will use, in priority order: (2) data from national offices for statistics (ISTAT in Italy, INSEE in France, UK Office for National Statistics in UK), (3) other national sources (e.g. Ministry of Research etc.), (4) regional statistical offices and (5) other regional sources.

• 
  For data comparison, the same years will be used. If this is not possible, different years will be mentioned
  
• 
  Geographic dimension of the data: data will be collected for the four regions of excellence (TechnologieRegion Karlsruhe and Pforzheim, Rhone-Alpes, Emilia-Romagna and Oxfordshire). If this is not possible, data relating to the nearest geographic dimension will be used (e.g. data for Baden Wuttemberg or South East England region).
  

A common list of indicators will be used by all partners (see annex 1). This list may be modified over the project duration according to specific partner interests or needs that may emerge.
In addition to the quantitative indicators, information on policies and specific initiatives undertaken at the regional level will be collected, in particular:

• 
  Demand of innovation (information on local enterprises, presence of clusters etc.)
  
• 
  Policy and legal framework for innovation and enterprise creation at a regional and national level
  
• 
  Regional system of research
  
• 
  Technology transfer centres present in the region
  
• 
  Initiatives to favour the setting-up and development of enterprises especially from the research base and services provided
  

A common framework for structuring this set of information will be defined and used by all partners (See annex 2.

Thanks to this activity a clear picture of the regional situation as far as innovation is concerned will be drafted. On this basis and following the involvement of local players, regional topics and priorities will be defined taking into consideration local characteristics and needs.

5.1.2Selection of good practices

On the basis of the activities carried out according to the first phase of the “storming principle” and related results, good practices will be identified, both practices already considered in the previous project phases and new good practices, meeting the needs and priorities emerged, that have never entered the process before. The methodology and tools for selecting good practices are described in Section 6.3.

5.1.3Involvement of key players

Regional players belonging to the research base, players giving support to innovative enterprises and institutions in the KREO regions should be involved in the network’s activity.

Those players should be:

• 
  organisations that develop or participate in the best practices initiatives exchanged within the network,
  
• 
  potential beneficiaries of selected best practices,
  
• 
  policy makers,
  
• 
  other actors interested in the project topics and activities.
  

Each partner organisation will endeavour to eventually involve all key players that may contribute and benefit from the network activities. Partners will encourage the meeting and exchange between the different regional actors. This will be further facilitated by the exchange of contacts details that has been made possible through the creation and implementation of a database on regional players’ contacts (see deliverables D1.1 Manual of Procedure and D7.3 Actors database).