How to improve RTO performances and access?
This was the main issue on the table of the stakeholders meeting and the Learning workshop held within the INNO INFRA SHARE project in Emilia-Romagna on 9th November and organized by ASTER, the lead partner of this Interreg Europe initiative.
One of the most relevant outcomes was the need to turn the "researcher" mindset into an entrepreneurial one: sustainable (industrial) research is about designing products/services able to meet companies' needs, respect their go-to-market time, and create trustful and heterogeneous networking environments.
The first part of the workshop was dedicated to gather from participants - representatives from the ERDF Regional Managing Authority, of the key RIIs in the Region, such as MUSP, Softech, MIST-ER, Mirandola Technopole, CIRI MAM (information about the Emilia-Romagna RIIs are available on the High Technology Network page on ASTER website) - inputs and comments related to (public) funding measures, governance models and training for talents.
Several questions have been raised - from the certification issue to the necessity of managing the open innovation projects and the interactions with SMEs/ corporates with an "entrepreneurial" and agile mindset. Accountability and reliability are the key pillars for these interactions, and need time and effort to be gained.
Measuring ecosystem impacts is another key aspect, and this issue was at the core of the Learning session "Recent trends and good practices in Supporting Industrial Technology Deployment by means of RII" held by Vincent Duchene. Direct, indirect, induced and catalytic impacts are all aspects that need to be carefully analyzed and may help regional authorities to understand how concretely the ROI of each euro invested in R&D.
Another interesting lesson learned is that, to be successful and re-iterative, open innovation programs need a crystal clear definition of the limits and rules of collaboration between RTOs and companies in terms of co-creation, specialization and co-development of knowledge.
