News
RIC Pro-Akademia and new international projects
11-06-2012
InnoMot (Improving Regional Policies promoting and motivating non-technological Innovation in SMEs) has been approved in the 4th call of the INTERREG IVC programme.
InnoMot is leaded by West Sweden, with the participation of Central Denmark, Nord-Pas de Calais, Meath Council, Navarra, Emilia Romagna Valencia, Varna and Lodz.
The challenge of the project is to improve the development and adoption of new business models in SMEs by designing, implementing and managing strategies, policies and tools, whose aims are to improve non-technological innovation, and especially regarding the factors related with the motivation of SMEs’ owners and managers.
Specific objectives will be:
- to define a new approach on SMEs motivation
- to develop and apply a methodology to identify, pack and transfer the better practices found
- to identify a set of good practices
- to define and design tools to motivate the promotion of innovation in SMEs, using the practices found
- to facilitate the creation of platforms involving the different stakeholders to learn more about the deployment of new practices
- to define Regional Implementation Plans
- to improve among the regions the development of materials to push ahead the deployment of new policies' approaches
- to disseminate the policies and results beyond the consortium.
The project started in January 2012, and it will run until December 2014.
Second project is PLUSTEX Policy Learning to Unlock Skills in the TEXtile sector
Textile and Clothing (TandC) is one of the major manufacturing industries of the EU-27 in terms of production volumes, added value and jobs. This sector has been heavily hit by the recent crisis and has steadily lost competitiveness in the last few years. Three main strategies have been adopted by TandC SMEs to remain globally competitive:
1) a cost-oriented approach - relocating production to lower labour cost countries,
2) a productivity-oriented approach based on ICT to develop global sourcing networks,
3) a knowledge-intensive and innovation-oriented approach pursuing market diversification towards high-quality and special textiles products.
The PLUSTEX project aims to foster policies that enhance the knowledge- and innovation-oriented approach and thereby support SMEs of the TandC sector in their need for modernisation, innovation and strategic transformation to adapt to global challenges. It aims to deliver GPs to support the creation of new business models, manufacturing technologies and marketing strategies with a sharper focus on quality, technology, design, sustainability, and user-driven production. The approach of the project is to mobilise public authorities and stakeholders with a strong presence of the TandC sector in their territories to share their best policy solutions that can help restructuring the existing models of productivity and economic development. By collecting, analysing, exchanging and transfering successful good practices, the project will allow the partners to learn from each other and increase the effectiveness of their policies to support the entire value chain of the TandC sector.
According to the partners' policy priorities, the focus of the experience exchange will be on the following six policy areas:
1. support young entrepreneurship and innovative business models in the TandC sector,
2. diversify production towards high-quality, speciality and high-tech textiles and niche products,
3. increase levels of art, design and creativity into market production,
4. support clustering and internationalisation of TandC SMEs,
5. foster eco-innovation and social responsibility in the TandC industry,
6. foster TandC incubation and start-ups.
These themes will be the focus of a series of interregional exchange activities (Policy Learning Cycles) that will allow the partners to capitalise upon their most successful good practices. The project will eventually deliver Implementation Plans defining how the partners’ policy making levels can best integrate the policy lessons into their strategic objectives. These Plans will be formalised as Partnerships for Regional Innovation that will identify the key actors and measures that can durably capitalise upon the project's results within the local/regional policy framework.
1) a cost-oriented approach - relocating production to lower labour cost countries,
2) a productivity-oriented approach based on ICT to develop global sourcing networks,
3) a knowledge-intensive and innovation-oriented approach pursuing market diversification towards high-quality and special textiles products.
The PLUSTEX project aims to foster policies that enhance the knowledge- and innovation-oriented approach and thereby support SMEs of the TandC sector in their need for modernisation, innovation and strategic transformation to adapt to global challenges. It aims to deliver GPs to support the creation of new business models, manufacturing technologies and marketing strategies with a sharper focus on quality, technology, design, sustainability, and user-driven production. The approach of the project is to mobilise public authorities and stakeholders with a strong presence of the TandC sector in their territories to share their best policy solutions that can help restructuring the existing models of productivity and economic development. By collecting, analysing, exchanging and transfering successful good practices, the project will allow the partners to learn from each other and increase the effectiveness of their policies to support the entire value chain of the TandC sector.
According to the partners' policy priorities, the focus of the experience exchange will be on the following six policy areas:
1. support young entrepreneurship and innovative business models in the TandC sector,
2. diversify production towards high-quality, speciality and high-tech textiles and niche products,
3. increase levels of art, design and creativity into market production,
4. support clustering and internationalisation of TandC SMEs,
5. foster eco-innovation and social responsibility in the TandC industry,
6. foster TandC incubation and start-ups.
These themes will be the focus of a series of interregional exchange activities (Policy Learning Cycles) that will allow the partners to capitalise upon their most successful good practices. The project will eventually deliver Implementation Plans defining how the partners’ policy making levels can best integrate the policy lessons into their strategic objectives. These Plans will be formalised as Partnerships for Regional Innovation that will identify the key actors and measures that can durably capitalise upon the project's results within the local/regional policy framework.