THE PHOENIX INITIATIVE: SUPPORTING KNOWLEDGE ABSORPTION IN TRADITIONAL INDUSTRIAL REGIONS

Transcription

1 THE PHOENIX INITIATIVE: SUPPORTING KNOWLEDGE ABSORPTION IN TRADITIONAL INDUSTRIAL REGIONS 1. WHY SUCH AN INITIATIVE? Almost all regions invest relatively important volumes of money to support the creation of new knowledge though either there are very few opportunities for them to reach their expectations to become a valley of excellence or to transform the results of the knowledge created into products or services introduced in the market. The most advanced European regions recently joined forces in the Vanguard Regions Initiative (cf. www ) in order to mutually support their strengths in research, breakthrough innovation and innovation at frontiers of sectors. They were often the main beneficiaries of FP7 priorities and joint initiatives. The less-developed regions have access to high volumes of Structural Funds and had-hoc H2020 funding is created to reinforce their knowledge infrastructure (ERA chairs) and capacities (spreading excellence and widening participation). Remain the intermediary developed regions which need to find their place on the EU innovation map by doing things differently! During the two or three last decades they have indeed tried to close, without success, their divide with the most dynamic regions and some of the less-developed regions have now a GDP per inhabitant higher than the one they have. Why not for those regions to try an industrial renaissance based on absorption and integration of knowledge in their traditional industries and services? The rise of new manufacturing processes, new materials, KETs and Internet of Things can offer opportunities for an industrial resilience. Such approach would be complementary to the vanguard regions one as those regions will be outsourcing or exporting some of their newly created knowledge. A network of regions believing in this type of economic development could be useful to exchange views and practices and to dialogue with EU representatives. 2. STATE OF PLAY The absorption of knowledge is not an easy task or a free of charge process for any stakeholders. It faces important asymmetries of information between the knowledge creators/holders and the potential knowledge users, especially if the latter are SMEs. Moreover, importing knowledge is not very popular in public administrations as they believe that regional budgets have to be spent inside regional boundaries. Therefore, public authorities should develop an ad-hoc Knowledge Diffusion and Absorption (KD&A) eco-system and design with regional intermediary organisations a comprehensive support system aiming at identifying new useful knowledge for each of their traditional strategic sectors; making local stakeholders aware of the benefits of new knowledge by explaining the usefulness of knowledge absorption or integration for the local economy and enterprises; demonstrating how to use new knowledge in real working conditions for enterprises; organising matching meetings between knowledge holders and regional potential users;

2 putting in place the right type of financial and non-financial support services to define the needs in terms of new knowledge by enterprises and to acquire/transfer that knowledge. In parallel, they could map the local stock of unused knowledge in research centres, universities and enterprises. The key success factors of this initiative are the translation of a research or academic language into an entrepreneurial one as well as a pragmatic response to the identification of knowledge absorption barriers in enterprises. The eco-system requires different types of expertise, funding and training. The critical phase is to demonstrate to local SMEs how the new knowledge will help them enhance their competitive advantages or undertake a diversification process. The work plan will rely on sectorial roadmaps based on the following matrix matching information from the region and from the outside world. Knowledge Knowledge Holders/ suppliers Regional enablers Demonstrators Testing labs First takers of innovation Local potential enterprise for knowledge absorption Market/ client opportunities Technology Human resources Markets Products/Services Process/Solution For each sectorial and KET knowledge, the road map will have to provide information on: - how to access new knowledge at global, national and regional level, - knowledge accessibility path for key stakeholders, - knowledge diffusion process into human capital and skills, - knowledge absorption in the business model of regional enterprises, - names of knowledge holders, - knowledge translation into entrepreneurial language. In the region, stakeholders have to share responsibilities to lead the different above mentioned steps. This requires a transformation of the quadruple helix way of working. Investors have also to be involved in the transformation process in order to ensure that their criteria of due diligence follow the new business models of local enterprises. 3. WHICH REGIONS SHOULD JOIN THIS INITIATIVE? Four types of regions should be interested in taking part in such an initiative: traditional industrial regions in search of an industrial renaissance or engaged in an industrial repositioning based on integrating new technologies in traditional sectors; regions having research centres which are disconnected from the local entrepreneurial ecosystems; regions with ambitions in developing dual-use technologies or in supporting the development of products at the frontier of two sectors; regions in need of introducing new production processes (robots, 3D printing, ), ICT or KETs in traditional sectors.

3 4. INITIATIVE AGENDA Regions will be invited to review the recommendations of the Commission in the field of KETs, industrial sectors and innovation union in order to find out how those recommendations can be applied in their eco-system. The ad-hoc support services to be put in place by the regions should comprise the following three stages: a knowledge validation phase through which new knowledge is assessed on the basis of its potential use by local stakeholders, a readiness scan of the local stakeholders through which the internal innovation and knowledge absorption capabilities are reviewed, a transfer process through which direct and indirect funding supports are given to enterprises to enhance and accelerate the integration of new knowledge into their product and process range. The core business of the resilience initiative will be to help regions define and test a new generation of support services in the field of: developing a coaching methodology to assess the needs and capabilities of SMEs to absorb and integrate new knowledge and KETs in their production process and in their product or service range; developing dedicated intelligence and technology watch in order to detect the most promising market trends at mid- and long-term if new knowledge is applied; putting in place demo centres to show SMEs the usefulness of the new knowledge/ KETs/technologies for their development on the one hand and to help SMEs demonstrate that their newly developed products/services are able to perform in a real working environment or help SMEs find new clients on the other hand; testing new methods to help enterprises find their ways in the path from knowledge disclosure to knowledge application as well as implement in regions new mechanisms to promote the dissemination of new knowledge for the regional stakeholders; developing new vocational training curricula aiming at helping SMEs get the right skilled workforce to absorb and use new knowledge; translating research results in an understandable language for SME managers; organising dissemination events where, for instance, beneficiaries of Marie Curie grants could present knowledge gained from their stay abroad to local enterprises and should be offered short-term placement in SMEs; organising pop up knowledge events in order to allow SMEs to become familiar with the novelties; designing a knowledge "buy in scheme" by which local universities, research and technology centres acquire new knowledge in order to customise it to local enterprises' needs (reverse technology transfer scheme); publishing fact sheets regarding how to use new knowledge available in the local economy; twinning stakeholders of knowledge (Vanguard) regions with stakeholders of the regions in search of exploitable knowledge; developing new ways of detecting useful sleeping IPR and new ways of financing their transfer to local enterprises; drafting and updating a catalogue of new knowledge available ready to be used in traditional industry/service sectors; modelizing a transnational voucher scheme to help SMEs build a business plan to absorb and integrate new knowledge based on a common list of accredited advisors; supporting user-driven knowledge transfer platforms and demonstration centres.

4 5. PREREQUISITES Regions will have to segment their portfolio of enterprises into four categories, i.e. - local champions in local markets - hidden champions - global players - potential fast growing start-ups. Regions will report the results of each initiative undertaken in order to benchmark their performance and continuously improve the way they implement them. Intermediary regional organisations will have to be able to help enterprises take advantage of the answers to the following four questions * : 1. How does new knowledge affect the structure and the boundaries of the industry? 2. How does new knowledge affect the value chain or the way my enterprise remains or not competitive? 3. What types of strategic choices are required to build new competitive advantages by integrating new knowledge in the enterprise? 4. What are the organizational implications of absorbing the new knowledge: design, after sale, marketing, human resources, suppliers, customers, networks and collaboration with knowledge owners and knowledge lovers,? 6. COMMON SWOT ANALYSIS OF REGIONAL INNOVATION ECO-SYSTEM OF TRADITIONAL INDUSTRIAL REGIONS Strenghts Firms in the market RIS³ priorities Traditional know-how EU funding in OP Service industry R&D+I infrastructure Opportunities Niche specialisation Applied R&D and new H2020 programmes New market Upscaling the product range Integration of KET and ICT in existing product/ service/process Human resources Weaknesses Knowledge intelligence Commercialisation of R&D results Weak innovation capacities Decreased competitive advantage Lack of ad-hoc support services and enablers Erosion/obsolescence of product range Threats Global competition Loss of competitive advantage Reduction in the profit reinvestment capacity Reduction in public expenditure Loss of economic rent and nostalgia of the past * Cf. M. Porter & J. Heppelmann; How Smart Connected Products Are Transforming Competition, in Harvard Business Review, November 2014

5 7. POTENTIAL LIST OF REGIONS TO BE INVOLVED IN THE IRTIR INITIATIVE FR Centre ES Murcia AT Niederösterreich Aquitaine Andalucia IT Emilia-Romagna PACA Valencia DK Midjyland FI Jyväskylä NL Oost CZ Brno Kainuu BE IGRETEC Charleroi Ostrava Each region will participate through a consortium of three key stakeholders, i.e. - regional authority - intermediary organisation: RDA, RIA, - technology and knowledge centre. 8. POTENTIAL FUNDING SOURCES FOR JOINT ACTIONS - Interreg B and Interreg Europe - Peer learning (H2020) for innovation agencies - ERA-Net (H2020) or Eranet like through Art. 70 of ERDF - H2020 Clusters for new industrial value chain 9. EU DIALOGUE PARTNERS - Cabinet Commissioner C. Certu M. Landabaso - DG Regio K. Reppel, M. Przeor - DG Research & Innovation D. Corpakis, O. Brunet, P. Droell - DG Enterprise/Internal Market N. Pantalos, G. Murgia - DG Connect V. Pecca - DG Employment E. Dapergola - DG EDUC P. Baur - RIS³ Platform A. Rainoldi, I. Perianez-Forte - Committee of Regions T. Wobben - EESC J. van Iersel - European Parliament L. Van Niesterlooij 10. ACADEMIC AND ADVISORY SUPPORT Phil McCann Eva Dederichs Imp³rove Academy EARTO, TII, RIM Plus 11. WORKING PLAN One conference (Spring) One horizontal review (Fall) Ad-hoc thematic groups One "Knowledge meet the horlder" reverse fair One on line knowledge open source offer portal