Supporting regional innovation examples and recommendations

1
Supporting regional innovation examples and
recommendations

• Monica Schofield
• Head EU Office TuTech
• euoffice_at_tutech.de
• www.tutech.de

2
Hamburg University of Technology

• Founded in 1978
• Regional development strategy
• Priority given to inter-disciplinary research and
  technology transfer
• 5000 students, ca 90 professors

• TuTech founded in 1992
• Central TT organisation for FHH
• 14 Million turnover, 40 staff

3
Economic activity in Hamburg

• 3.500 foreign companies
• 5.000 companies engaged in international trade
• 20.000 companies with business relations abroad
• Large numbers of trade and business associations,
  business service companies, business oriented
  research institutions
• About 100 consulates

4
Strategic Clusters

• Port, International Trade and Logistics
• IT and Media
• Civil Aviation
• Life Sciences
• Nanotechnology
• China

5
Hamburgs Population Development
Einwohnerin 1000
1964 1. 857 400
1986 1. 571 300
2004 1. 735 000
1.850
1.800
1.750
1.700
1.650
1.600
1.550
1960
1990
1965
1970
1975
2000
1980
1985
1995

Von 1998 bis 2004 Wachstum um 35 000 Einwohner



6
Hamburg as a Metropolitan Region

• 4.25 million inhabitants (Hamburg 1.73 million)
• 19.000 km²
• 128 billion GDP
• Run by 3 Federal States HH, NI, SH 14 counties
• 61 cities, 139 communities with 786 local
  authorities
• Cooperation voluntary and based on consensus

7
Hamburg and the Moravian-Silesian Region the
common ground?

• Dresden!
• A need to reform traditional structures to
  establish a knowledge based economy
• Encouraging new things to happen
• Presenting a different image to the world

8
Examples of projects to support this key themes

• Learning from others and making inter-regional
  connections
• Project Regions of Knowledge pilot Baltic Sea
  Knowledge Region www.bskr.org
• Regarding the region from a global investment
  perspective
• Project FP6 RoK LOCOMOTIVE www.locomotive-proje
  ct.org
• Inter-linking of facilitating organisations
• Project FP6 INN7 DIFUSE www.difuse-project.org

9
Partnerships for economic success
Infra-structure Regional attractiveness Public
services Creating the right environment
New knowledge, ideas Educational
opportunities International networks
Public administration
Research
Private enterprise
Realisation of innovation Wealth and employment
creation New competencies
How to develop and manage such a partnership?
10
Baltic Sea Knowledge Region (2004-2006)
Trans-national inter-connection of
regional clustering activities in Hamburg,
Helsinki, Öresund

• improve outreach of regionally based clusters and
  their achievements
• improve access to early stage finance
• establish an improved dialogue between actors
  responsible for innovation in the region
• expand the membership to other Baltic Sea
  metropolitan regions

www.bskr.org
11
Øresund Science Region
12
BSKR some lessons learned for inter-regional
collaboration

• Need to ensure incentives to collaborate are
  stronger than competing interests?
• Where are the incentives in practice? What brings
  people together?
• Willingness to offer mutual assistance and sign
  posting
• no wrong door?
• Correspondence of roles of partnering
  organisations
• Parity of experience (or recognition of mentor
  role)
• Clearly focussed goals
• specific actions. Moving beyond networking
• Strong commitment from above and personal
  interest of participants
• Motives must go beyond just doing a job, or
  seeking EU funding
• Adequate resources people dedicated full time
• A long term perspective building true
  relationships takes time!

13
LocoMotive

• Dissemination of knowledge concerning current RD
  localisation motives of large regionally
  important private sector organisations
• FP6 Regions of Knowledge
• 1.1.2006 -30.9.2007

Where/why are big companies expanding their RD
and what can we do to make it happen here?
Hamburg Toulouse Oxford Öresund
Helsinki Prague Budapest Rotterdam
www.locomotive-project.org
14
LOCOMOTIVE some of the issues

• How strong is the commitment to RD in the region
  (risk of losing a facility)
• How could universities/TT offices improve
  services to industry?
• Are there differences between foreign and
  domestic companies?
• What makes the region attractive for RD
  location?
• Do regional policies have any impact at all?

15
Facets of LOCOMOTIVE
Tactical relationship building
Comparison with latest research findings
Networking and mutual support between partners
Position statements from RD managers the mood
of industry
Influencing policies of companies and regional
actors
16
LOCOMOTIVE Report

• Localisation Motives for Research and Development
  Investment of Multinational Enterprises
• European Trends and Situation in the New Member
  States
• Vladislav Cadil, Zdenek Kucera, Mazour Pazour et
  al.
• Technology Centre AS CR
• ISBN 80-86794-21-0

17
Global Location of RDKey Decision Factors
(Source EIRMA)

• Potential for market growth
• Environments that foster development of a
  high-quality work force
• Opportunities for productive collaboration
  between corporations and universities
• Sources Thursby and Thursby (2006)European
  Commission (2006)

18
DIFUSE

• Driving innovation from universities into science
  based enterprises
• FP6 INN7
• 1.7.2006 -30.6.2008

The development of models for close (integrated)
trans-national cooperation between university
knowledge transfer support functions set up to
facilitate industrial and commercial exploitation
of university research results
Partners are from the European Consortium of
Innovative Universities ECIU www.eciu.org
www.difuse-project.org
19
Advice to pass on

• Put yourself on the European map
• Get people to come here and see what is going on
• Build on key people, not just the aspirations of
  politicians
• Avoid me too clusters. Foster local talent,
  whatever it is in
• Make use of your universities as knowledge hubs
  that can provide international links
• Assist with external relations
• Support a strong body of networkers able to
  link the triple helix
• Fund these people properly and on a long term
  basis!
• Use EU project opportunities wisely
• Dont just focus on the money!
• Where possible sse small focussed partnerships
  for projects with specific goals

20
My conclusions

• We need much greater inter-connectivity within
  our regions
• Strengthen regional facilitators
• Reduce fragmentation of initiatives
• We need much stronger connectivity between
  regions in Europe
• We must ensure all regions of Europe are
  welcoming to talent from outside.

It is not your region or my region it is
the attractiveness of Europe as a whole that
allows us to prosper
21
In a global economy it is the personal
relationships that count
THANK YOU FOR INVITING ME