5th interregional learning workshop was held on the 20-22 June 2017 in Győr (Hungary), hosted by Pannon Novum Non-profit Ltd., where two Peer Review workshops for the policy instruments of South Tyrol and West Transdanubia took place.
Targeted policy instrument by West Transdanubia region is the Economic Development and Innovation Operational Programme for Hungary (EDIOP), “Investment Priority 1b Promoting business investment in R&I, developing links and synergies (…)” within the 2nd priority axis: Research, technological development and innovation. Peer Review workshop dealt with the Measure 2.1 “Promotion of intensity of companies’ R&I activities” and its sub-measures in detail:
• Supporting R&D&I activities of enterprises
• Intellectual Property Rights
• Innovation voucher
• Building innovation eco-system – start-ups and spinoffs
• Prototype-, product-, technology- and service development
The main tool for implementing national S3 strategy and R&D+I policy in Hungary including West-Transdanubia region is EDIOP and its Priority Axis 2. There are no regional operational programmes in Hungary between 2014 and 2020. Ministry for National Economy is the Managing Authority of EDIOP and Hungarian Research, Development and Innovation Office is the responsible institution for innovation policy in Hungary.
Representatives from both institutions participated in this interregional workshop as key stakeholders.
As introduction Máté Pecze from the National Research, Development and Innovation Office has given a short introduction to the Hungarian RDI policy, which is strongly organised on national level.
Katalin Barna from the Ministry for National Economy, Managing Authority of EDIOP introduced the reviewed measure and its related services. General objectives of the measure are strengthening the competitiveness and promoting the R&I activities of companies.
During the Peer Review the critical questions of the partners as well as the questions raised by West Transdanubia were addressed and discussed. As a result the region got an important expert assessment and input for further improvements.
Partners acknowledge the high budget as a great opportunity for the regional R&D+I policy and for the creation of considerable impact on the region, also with effective measures on national level.
The partners consider set up of a network between the national and local actors as opportunity for West Transdanubia, in particular in combination with a strong cooperation on the regional level. Better organisation of the calls for the offered services and better training of the potential applicants offer further opportunities and could be interlinked with a smooth transition into the new program period with a mixed funding approach.
Partners see a threat in the remaining too centralised policy approach. Also the lack of budget before the end of the current framework period 2020 is mentioned as a threat, in particular when alternative support services for enterprises are missing.
The next step for West Transdanubia is the elaboration of an action plan according to the Peer Review findings.
Five ideas are in the focus to increase the intensity of companies’ R&I activities and maintain the innovation among the West Transdanubian enterprises in long term perspective:
• Create new services in competence building and training of start-ups/ SMEs
• Monitoring the market success of the project supported by the policy instrument
• Test an open space for prototyping and working with students and teachers
• Finding new customers and increase R&D+I (human) capacities of SMEs
• Development of alternative support services for the enterprises with strong cooperation on the regional level.
