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Engage Food – Local development Platforms
Published on 03 July 2018
Denmark
Hovedstaden
This is the good practice's implementation level. It can be national, regional or local.
About this good practice
Central Denmark Region (CDR) has been working successfully in bringing knowledge institutions and companies together to create new innovative products, companies and business models. Not all companies are ready – or interested in this way of working. The basic problem that the Initiative should solve was, therefore, to make sure, that the food cluster engaged ALL and not just the top-tier companies. There was a need to create a platform where SMEs with growth potential but with a more "traditional" take on products and development could get the help they needed regarding their own identified needs – and the needs identified by the consultants. The core of the initiative was a call to conglomerates of public, private and knowledge institutions to develop 2 or more local platforms that would cater to these needs. The call drew the attention of two conglomerates – one to the east and one to the west. The challenges in the two areas were very different, and the ways the two conglomerates decided to address these challenges were reasonable. In the east, the Business region Aarhus teamed up with Food Organization of Denmark and the green museum to create actual initiatives, that cater to the small production companies. In the west, Business Region Mid-West has teamed up with around 10 different initiatives and projects to develop a coherent and sustainable platform to serve the area in the future. The two platforms are working on a very broad canvas of initiatives.
Resources needed
The CDR's budget for initiating the 2 platforms is 1,2 mil.€ over a 3 year period. The total budget is around 4 mil.€. The remainder of the budget (2.8 mil€) comes from the partners on the platforms, mainly municipalities & private funding. The costs are primarily to facilitation of the processes.
Evidence of success
The project as such is not yet evaluated but an earlier version of the project was carried out from 2012-2015 with great results showing that:
- a large number of primary producers started to become processing units as well
- 72% of companies experienced growth in the project period (37% attributed this growth to the project)
- 80% of the participants thought that the project attracted new tourists
- 62 new jobs created
- 5% increase in tourist business tur
- a large number of primary producers started to become processing units as well
- 72% of companies experienced growth in the project period (37% attributed this growth to the project)
- 80% of the participants thought that the project attracted new tourists
- 62 new jobs created
- 5% increase in tourist business tur
Potential for learning or transfer
The operators need to create initiatives, to involve the companies, so they will come again, not to get money but because their business gets something out of it: networking, deals, new products etc. Most of the work done in Engage is done by partners external to CDR. If these partners did not exist we would need to create them – we cannot do it ourselves. The ambition setting, structure of the programme etc. is internal and is easily copied. However, creating the partners in Engage has been a long process reaching back to at least to the beginning of 2007. This particular process largely depends on the context of a specific region. Therefore, the core of this practice can be replicated but the success largely depends on a specific context. However, CDR believes in the benefits of this GP and is sure that they want to do it again.
Further information
Website
Good practice owner
Organisation
Central Denmark Region
Denmark
Hovedstaden
Contact
Policy advisor agrofood