Introduction of InnoBridge approach with evolution model and Peer Review Concept
InnoBridge is an INTERREG Europe project aiming to bridge the innovation gap through converting R&D results into commercial success in a more effective and efficient way. It fosters collaboration of 8 European regions for improving their innovation delivery policies, in particular Structural Funds programmes for Growth and Jobs, within a time horizon of up to year 2021 (http://www.interregeurope.eu/innobridge).
InnoBridge addresses common needs and challenges in the partner regions related to the insufficient exploitation of R&D results by local businesses, often due to lack of access to public R&D outcomes, disruptions in the knowledge transfer flows, reactivity instead of pro-activity of SMEs in the commercialisation process, etc.
In this context InnoBridge aims to strengthen the Innovation Bridge between SMEs and their innovation activities on one hand and Universities and R&D organisations as valuable knowledge providers on another. The bridging process steps upon the very recent analyses of the support chain for R&D commercialisation in terms of the Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) – the model “Evolution of activities and technology readiness” formulated in the guide “Innovation – How to convert research into commercial success story? Part 3: Innovation Management for Practitioners” (published 2013, by European Commission, DG for Research and Innovation – Industrial Technologies,).
The Evolution model provides a matrix of 8 key activities for a successful innovation cycle and 9 Technology Readiness Levels as indicators for maturity of a technology towards its market introduction. The matrix is a valuable decision-making tool for many actors in the innovation eco-system starting by policy-makers for designing more customised innovation support instruments, universities and R&D organisations for focusing research priorities in more applied and collaborative way, and SMEs by providing them with parallels between the commercialisation process and their business dynamics.
The Evolution model is an important part of the InnoBridge Peer Review workshops – interactive events attended by all partners and key regional stakeholders for comprehensive experiences exchange about the current situation of exploitation of R&D results in their regions. The Model helps visualising areas for improvement of the policy implementation as well as sets directions for Action Plans and Good Practices exchange within the intensive InnoBridge interregional learning process.
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