How can we stimulate European businesses, knowledge institutes, and relevant partners to join forces to discover new ideas which could lead to innovation? That is the central question in Beyond EDP, a European Interreg project formed by eleven partners from nine countries.

Stimulating crossovers

The entrepreneurial discovery process (EDP) is a process of continual interaction between businesses, knowledge institutes and, preferably, users, which aids the developments of new ideas and discoveries ("entrepreneurial discoveries"); discoveries which, if focused and supported in mutual cohesion, can grow to become a coherent palette of innovations, eventually becoming new economic strengths.

The Beyond EDP project aims to strengthen the entrepreneurial discovery process in Europe, boosting the Regional Innovation smart specialisation strategy (RIS3, in short) adopted by Europe in 2014. Knowledge institutes and businesses need each other for innovation and to turn that innovation into saleable products and practical applications. SMEs can fulfil an important role here. Among SMEs are leaders, developers, early adopters, and followers. Most companies can be classed as followers, meaning that innovation is far from a priority for many entrepreneurs.

Aims of the meeting

The region Saxony-Anhalt and the role of EDP in the governmental processes and for the stakeholders will be introduced. The aims are:

• Collect strategic information for a better understanding of the EDP: Build shared cognitive and operational framework(s) on EDP.
• Discover good practices that can be transferable to other regions.
• Identify the opportunities for improvement in EDP.