- 10 Knowledge exchange events involving 135 people
- 352 people engaged in 11 dissemination events
- 15 media appearances
- 1st Policy Booklet published and widely disseminated
- Second most popular website among 2nd call projects
After busy first six months of the project, Design4Innovation partnership continues its fast pace to the achievement of project goals. Having mapped and analysed the design ecosystems in our partner regions, we summarized the lessons learnt in the first Design4Innovation Policy Booklet. We continued our learning journey with examining our Operational Programmes in detail in order to identify opportunities to include design support mechanisms for SMEs. Then, during the third partnership meeting in Santiago de Compostela, we started identifying the best practice in design and innovation support for SMEs. First, we looked at the financial instruments and the so-called ‘soft support’ will be our focus during the meeting in Valletta.
This knowledge exchange process is further extended in our partner regions. In Galicia, Montserrat Rodriguez from GAIN organised two stakeholder meetings and presented the project at multiple events, including the Furniture Fair in A Estrada, Pontevedra; Conference on Architecture and Design in Santiago de Compostela and even at her Training Session at the European Commission in Brussels. The other partner from Spain, Barcelona Design Centre, is working closely with another Interreg Europe project - Regional Creative Industries Alliance, to share good practices and create synergies among participants involved.
The Marshal’s Office of Silesia Region worked closely with Castle Cieszyn – one of their crucial stakeholder in the region - to prepare the design audit form for SME - a new tool for SME analysis of needs in the field of innovation process concerning design and design thinking. The results of the audits will inform the creation of publicly supported pro-innovative services for SME in Silesia. In Thessaloniki, KEPA has established the Hellenic Design Centre, which is the first design promotion centre in Greece. A study visit to PDR and taking part in the “Greenhouse – Service Design in Public Sector” programme, equipped KEPA staff with knowledge, capacity and confidence to apply design approach both inside KEPA’s organization and in the national public instrument, as an extent. This Semester PDR also hosted Montserrat from GAIN for a study visit. She learnt about the very broad spectrum of design activity that we cover in our research centre and was involved in many project planning and management activities. "I feel really privileged to be part of Design4Innovation. I appreciate all the learning opportunities during our meetings, discussions and study visits", said Monserrat.
Our Maltese partner found synergies with the initiative 'DesignShots' implemented by the Malta Business Bureau and co-hosted an event with them to extend the impact and strengthen the capacity building in design for enterprises. The event involved the participation of experts in design thinking from the University of Malta and from independent certified trainers in the LEGO Serious Play methodology. Though the workshop developed in the context of this full-day event, participants were about to use LEGO Serious Play to assess their approaches towards strategies for SME support. Similarly, in Latvia, the dissemination event “Design + Innovation” with inspirational speakers was a great success. Over 60 professionals – entrepreneurs, scientists, academics and business idea owners, joined the event to listen from Rūdolfs Strēlis from the Ministry of Economics about design thinking and how this approach can be used in business processes. The participants had also a chance to get to know the current design and innovation support offer from LIAA.
The Flemish partner , VLAIO were invited to join a study visit to Denmark in the Clusterix 2.0 project, to share the best practice, not just with regards to the contents of our projects, but also in terms of methodology – ‘How to design an action plan?’. Both projects share common objectives and agreed to continue collaboration. Our project partners found synergies with many other Interreg Europe projects, such as inter alia RCIA, Urban M or Clusterix 2.0, with which we are exchanging experiences and mapping possibilities of collaboration.
We look forward to sharing our lessons at the Experience Fair in Sofia.
