Stockholm
Stuttgart
Madrid
Cambridge
SPREADING AN INNOVATIVE
AND ENTREPRENEURIAL
CULTURE IN THE REGION
The importance of Spreading Innovation and Entrepreneurship Culture
The spreading of innovation and entrepreneurship is vital to achieving a world-class, knowledge based
economy. It is important in all industries, in all segments of society, and in all parts of each region. It is a
key force in creating prosperity and is a human activity that, far from being the preserve of a single centre,
has relevance to all who live and work in the wider region around it.
In order to spread an innovative culture, one must not only be concerned with technology and invention,
but also look to the successful development and deployment of knowledge, skills and abilities, looking at:
– the environment in which businesses operate; the attitudes and skills of the people who work in those
businesses; and the regional and local organisations that support them.
Amongst the different areas which contribute to the spreading of an innovative culture, support providers
and policy makers need to address the following:
n
provision of networking for local entrepreneurs
n
improvement of access to flexible workspace
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access to appropriate business facilities such as meeting rooms, hardware and software,
shared use of business equipment, computers
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assist spin-out of businesses from HE/Research institutions and companies
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encouragement and support for active networking and knowledge exchange
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enabling of new start-ups, and entrepreneurs to access appropriate support, including
access to finance
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region wide support for global technology transfer
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mentoring and best practice dissemination
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leveraging in of additional resources
SUPPORTED BY THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, BRUSSELS
Very few individual locations
will have all the component
parts in place. It is essential
to assist communities to build
on what is already there by
making resource available to
supplement existing capability
and access other forms of
innovation support. There
is a need to focus resources
so that measures currently
being employed successfully
compliment each other on a
local basis, and are disseminated
to other areas within a region.
Individual communities
must be connected to each
other across the region to
increase levels of cross-learning/development. It is therefore essential to encourage the networking of
Innovation Centres, local champions, schools and business networks.
Furthermore a study has been carried out to help us share this model. The study covers topics on
how to support transferring such good practices and it also analyses business needs and best practice.
Knowledge transfer and the exchange of ideas between the SPRING partners on such topics will
help strengthen the innovation support within each of the regions.
Sharing a transferable model; Enterprise Hubs
At the heart of this culture will be a fully developed focal point for innovation (the East of England
refers to this as an “Enterprise Hub”) acting to bring together the range of private/public support to
collaborate in supporting new businesses in the early stages of their development. The model is providing
new understandings to public organisations and policy makers in the following:
n
How support for innovation and entrepreneurship is delivered locally – in particular the
complex interplay of aims, objectives and performance measures of the wide range of
support providers from the private, public, and academic communities.
n
How ongoing development of new regional initiatives can support innovation and
entrepreneurship which in a long run help to raise the economic performance of the
region. An example of this in Cambridge has been the development of ”Innovation
Exchange”, a new service to facilitate innovation support and in Stuttgart Region, the
ongoing development of Regional Competence and Innovation Centres.
n
How knowledge of support for innovation and entrepreneurship could be made
available to a wider community. - in particular, understanding the importance of
the appropriateness of differing schemes for differing geographical and economic
communities so that ‘generic’ solutions are not applied inappropriately.
This model and all these different components have been fully shared and exchanged with partners in the
SPRING project in order to develop tangible value-added relationships and outcomes.
Benchlearning and feedback from SPRING partners
Throughout the project to date the ultimate aim between all the partners has been promote interaction
through joint transfer of best practice or exchange of experiences. This will help to build and utilise the
current linkages between network partner organisations. The work will create a model applicable across all
sectors in any region and will therefore be fully transferable.
All the SPRING partners have been examining systems on a regional level (local working group) and, then,
they are discussed on the level of the respective SPRING (and PAXIS) working groups. Henceforth, local
as well as global conditions of excellence are being extracted.
Stockholm and Cambridge have jointly submitted a Region’s of Knowledge proposal to the EC. The objective
of the proposal is to investigate and research models for cluster development and mentoring initiatives that
focus on technology, skills and experience transfer from hi-technology regions (Cambridge and Stockholm)
to Developing Regions (DR) (West Pomerania). At the core of the proposition is building an enterprise hub
whereby the activities of the three regions (plus other stakeholders where appropriate) can be co-ordinated
with the objective of developing a culture of co-operation where best practice and ideas can be exchanged.
Innovation Actors/experts
have been involved at each of
the partner meetings to help
disseminate expert knowledge
and ideas. This in itself fosters
an exchange of ideas and joint
problem solving between all
the partners.
The Enterprise Hub model
is providing a structured
basis for each of the four
participating regions within the
SPRING project. It enables the
regions to identify appropriate
measures for spreading
innovation culture and provides
a framework broad enough to
encompass the disparate needs
of the different regions and
sub-regions. Co-ordinating efforts brings benefits for the regions of excellence by reducing efforts of
single network members and by avoiding duplication of work. The learning, exchanging and transfer of
ideas from all the partners is in itself an invaluable experience that must be continued and built upon.
The SPRING partnership could therefore be termed a collaborative advantage, where creating and
exploiting successful regions is at the top of the agenda — opting out is not an option if innovation is
to be transferred successfully.
Contacts and Information
http://www.cordis.lu/paxis/src/spring.htm
Greater Cambridge
Simon Chater
East of England Development Agency
Station Road, Histon
Cambridge CB4 9LQ
United Kingdom
Phone: +44.1223.713900
Fax: +44.1223.713940
E-mail: [email protected]
Stockholm
Lisa Emanuelsson
Kista Science City AB
Electrum 209
16440 Kista
Sweden
Phone: +46.8.7521300
Fax: +46.8.7516062
E-mail: [email protected]
Madrid
Cheo Machin
Fundación para el Conocimiento madrimasd
(Fm+d)
c/Velázquez, 76
28006 Madrid
Spain
Phone: +34.917816570
Fax: +34.915765052
E-mail: [email protected]
Stuttgart Region
Heike Thumm
Wirtschaftsförderung Region Stuttgart GmbH
Stuttgart Region Economic Development Corp.
Friedrichstraße 10
70174 Stuttgart
Germany
Phone: +49.711.2283519
Fax: +49.711.2283555
E-mail: [email protected]