The territory Västra Götaland in western Sweden has a population of 1.6 million and embraces 49 municipalities. For the last few years, the region has held a leading position as one of the most innovative regions in the EU with an average enterprise spending on RTD (Research and Technology Development) in relation to the Gross Regional Product (GRP) well above the OECD average.
Business spending on RTD as a percentage of GRP, EU top ten 2007 (click image for larger version)
According to Helena L Nilsson, Head of the Department of RTD at Region Västra Götaland, this result is due to several factors, including strong and open partnerships between businesses, universities and research institutes, funding bodies, and civil society. And not to mention that western Sweden is a region with several successful centres of excellence that attract both ‘brains and businesses’. Internationally renowned universities such as Chalmers University of Technology and Gothenburg University are also important hubs in the innovation system.
A platform for the region’s actions and initiatives is the cohesive development strategy, called ‘Vision Västra Götaland’, which has been produced in close cooperation with municipalities, businesses, universities and public bodies. One of the cornerstones in Vision Västra Götaland is the RTD and innovation strategy, which has its focus on the three interacting areas: entrepreneurship and new businesses, innovative SMEs and dynamic clusters. A basis for the strategy is to develop alliances and partnerships in Europe and to participate in teamwork on the global arena.
“Today we can see that this is not just words. We take part in a multitude of fruitful and interesting projects within the European research and innovation area. One example is the ERA-NET CROSSTE NET with 17 research funding agencies cooperating with the aim to make more and smarter funding available to European technical textile research. Sustainable transports, biomedicine and the maritime area are other examples where European cooperation is developed,” says Nilsson.
Clusters and smart specialization
Participation in CROSSTEXNET is an example of how Region Västra Götaland manages to tie its key business sectors and areas of expertise to EU programmes and smart partnerships. The regional RTD strategy is realized through specific research areas with internationally competitive programmes that are based on partnerships between industry, research institutions and public bodies. The main focus is on the following areas:
- Sustainable transports;
- Biomedicine and health;
- Energy-efficiency and environmental technology;
- Enabling technologies, eg. New materials and ICT.
Behind these clusters we find a supporting infrastructure of centres of excellence, innovation platforms, cross-disciplinary networks, etc. Many of these are recognized as European Centres of Excellence, such as Lindholmen Science Park in the areas of active safety, and biomaterials through the joint project BIOMATCELL
“This way of smart specialization is something we probably will see more of in the future,” emphasizes Helena L Nilsson.
Supporting the innovation potential of SMEs
As stated earlier, industry invests heavily in RTD in Västra Götaland. However, it is the larger companies within the areas of automotive, pharmaceuticals and ICT that account for the larger part of these figures. Smaller companies in the region, on the contrary, do not invest much in RTD.
“One main focus for us is to create easy access to research networks for SMEs. During the last year we have developed a new type of RTD and innovation vouchers for SMEs. We have just ended the second call, with good results,” explains Nilsson.
When developing this new programme, the region was inspired by an initiative at the Swedish national organization VINNOVAs as well as the innovation programme for SMEs in the Netherlands.
It is important for us to learn from different supportive measures and successful initiatives all over Europe when developing new programmes.
One example is ‘Industrial Dynamics’ that started off as an INTERREG Project and received the Assembly of European Regions’ Innovation Award in 2009 (www.vgregion.se/industrialdynamics). The mission of Industrial Dynamics is to support SMEs in the following areas:
- Find the right paths within the EU instruments and initiatives;
- Technology development;
- Business and market development;
- Access to the combined expertise of 12 prominent expert organizations ranging from universities to research institutes and industrial development organizations.
Bringing innovation and cooperation to the next level
Being a region with both a high GRP and high levels of RTD spending is not enough today, with an increasing global competition and environmental challenges at the doorstep.
“We clearly see that we need to find better cross-boarder and cross-disciplinary ways of addressing these challenges, and we are constantly looking for news ways to cooperate on the European arena,” says Nilsson.
One specific area that Region Västra Götaland wants to stress in the near future is synergies between regional, national and European strategies and instruments.
“In the forthcoming Innovation Plan – the flagship of the Innovation Union and its partnerships, within the framework of EU2020 – there has to be much smarter alignment and coordination than before. For example, we need to find more effective and efficient ways of using the financing instruments,” Nilsson emphasizes.
A clear regional strategy with priorities and actions is the backbone for Region Västra Götaland. Based on the priorities in the strategy, we can combine instruments such as structural funds, EU research programmes and regional and national RTD programmes to build smart clusters that can address the grand challenges on a European level.
Leadership is another key area that is important.
“Innovation governance is about stimulating an ‘ecosystem’ that promotes risk taking and entrepreneurship. At the same time, there is a need to build partnerships and alliances that create critical mass and strong innovation hubs,” Nilsson summarizes.
Regions that can build these capacities and handle complexity will be the innovation success stories of the future.
A regional network of open innovation platforms
The science parks in Västra Götaland have developed into an important infrastructure to implement the Research and Innovation strategy and play a new role compared to the traditional concept of parks. The parks are open platforms for the development of dynamic clusters as well providing innovation support to new and existing SMEs. One important success factor is that partnerships of businesses, universities, institutes and public bodies set their agenda jointly and participate in the implementation of actions and initiatives. Test Site Sweden (TSS), coordinated by Lindholmen Science Park in Gothenburg, is one of these national programmes. TSS focuses on joint test and demonstration initiatives in safety, sustainable transport and Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS).
The OECD Territorial Review of Sweden has acknowledged the model of interactive open innovation platforms in their Territorial Review of Sweden: ‘These platforms place Västra Götaland on the European research map as a region that is innovative, entrepreneurial and ‘thinks outside the box’.’
|