To address this barrier, regional and local authorities can:
Support the internationalisation of SMEs Promote innovative marketing tools Help SMEs to improve their Corporate Social Responsibility
How to address the lack of research capabilities in most firms and in particular SMEs? There is a need for collaborative research, technology transfer and innovation activities between companies and between public and private organisations. To help SMEs achieve this goal, regional and local authorities can support:
Technology transfer from public research organisations to SMEs through the setting up of permanent networks of research organisations and companies or through the creation of start-up companies within academic organisations for the direct exploitation of research results. The hiring of qualified staff
How to overcome weaknesses in networking and cooperation with external partners? Successful innovation is highly dependent on the identification, cultivation and maintenance of good linkages between the different components of the global value-chain, and as ‘open innovation’ becomes more embedded in SME business strategies, this challenge can only but grow. To address this challenge, regional and local authorities can support:
Cluster policies either for their creation or for their development, including internationalisation Creating, facilitating and catalysing business networks Networks of Innovation intermediaries
This report details these various solutions and constitutes a unique inventory of policy options. It positions INTERREG IVC projects at the heart of the policy improvement processes in Europe, situated in between the more theoretical policy design stage and the delivery of mainstream regional policies and programmes aimed at improving and expanding service provision to end users.
INTERREG IVC projects contributed to improving policy learning and sharing through interregional cooperation between regional organisations.
While highlighting the relevance and very high potential of the achievements thus far of the INTERREG IVC projects in this area, the present report also points out that implementing effective learning processes in this (relatively) new area, where there are still very few certain recipes for success, involves challenges that need to be assessed. Strengthening regional practices, in particular requires: Effective benchmarking of existing policies and programmes, as carried out by all INTERREG IVC projects in the identification of relevant regional Good Practices, often including the definition of indicators and success / impact criteria. Using formal programme evaluation / review mechanisms such as peer review or other external review schemes, and in general the adoption of an ‘evaluation culture’ for innovation support; this has been done in several of the INTERREG IVC projects that are covered in this analysis. In addition, the implementation (and adaptation, when required) of external good practices, implies in turn that the following barriers should be addressed: ‘Policy Watch’ systems to identify successful approaches at a global scale and the means disseminating information about them; in INTERREG IVC projects, this is normally
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