Priority Area 8 aims to support the competitiveness of enterprises in the Danube Region. Therefore, its main actions consider supporting SMEs development through exchange of knowledge between relevant actors, strengthen capacities for cooperation and trade, high performing training and qualification schemes, competitiveness improvement in rural areas, removing cross border barriers and bottlenecks to people and business, and much more
At the regional level, many efforts have been initiated to bridge the gap between the research and innovation. One of the projects in line with the main actions of this priority area and EUSDR this week story is @madeindanube, a project financed by Danube Transnational Programme. This project came to contribute at strengthening cooperation between innovation actors, including SMEs, working in bio-economy by improving the framework conditions for innovation
The initiative aimed at creating the bridge between research and innovation in this field of activity, considering the rising population and associated demand for renewable biological resources. On a long term, this project contributes to smart and green growth in Europe and in the Danube Region, as Bio-economy is a key element for sustainability.
The solution found by @madeindanube is an innovation ecosystem, which is founded on the strong collaboration among the researchers/scientist, SMEs and Policy makers and supported by the civil society. Only the by entrusted cooperation of all Quadruple Helix actors, the region may become economically and socially stronger, more competitive and of a service to its citizens.
Generally aiming at bringing all actors to collaborate and to further disseminate the best practices and experiences, the project team produced concrete results.
It identified the major needs and the biggest difficulties that are hindering efficient exploitation of the available resources and impede the initiation of successful collaborations in order to influence the Policy making for better overcoming these challenges. This led to a common strategy based on three Local Action Plans developed for the targeted sectors bio-fuels, smart agriculture and forestry whose successful implementation ultimately resulted in the establishment of transnational Cooperation and Partnership Agreements.
It also developed and tested Innovation capacity tools (Technology Offer, Technology Request, Innovation Audits) to offer a comprehensive demonstration of the existing organization’s Innovation capacities. A search engine was also developed for all types of organizations – Danube Transnational Innovation Cooperation e-platform, in order to enable matching of compatible partners and transform their ideas into the concrete projects, products and services.
These instruments facilitated concluding the projects main target: 40 Cooperation Agreements between Academia, SMEs and Public Authorities and 17 Innovation Partnership Agreements between Academia and SMEs, establishing a long-lasting collaboration.
After these instruments were in place, the project contributed to capacity building by organizing thematic Workshops and Training and inclusion of the Policy dialogues, meant for the innovation, technology and knowledge transfer.
The Innovation-driven domain of Bio-economy is of strategic importance for the future of the Danube Area. Only by combined forces of all actors we can make the region more prosperous and of a service to its citizens.
For further details about EUSDR Competitiveness of Enterprises, follow the link: https://www.danube-competitiveness.eu/about-priority-area-8
Photo: @madeindanube project
