Since April 2016, S3Chem partners from the chemical partner regions have been sharing experiences and good practices on the implementation of the Regional Innovation Strategies (RIS).
The seven partner regions identified 15 good practices used to change the strategic direction of Regional Innovation Strategies, focusing on chemical issues and related funding instruments to improve the policies for the promotion of innovation. Saxony-Anhalt, for example, introduced the "Technology Roadmap for the Leading Market Chemistry and Bioeconomy", which supported the development of concrete innovation projects by companies and research institutes. The Limburg region identified the "Brightlands Chemelot Campus Ecosystem" as a good practice that represents a unique ecosystem for open innovation in performance, bio-based and biomedical materials, and processes that enable research and development. The Lombardy region established an "Open Innovation Platform", which is a collaborative instrument for implementing a new policy model for the regional innovation governance system.
For more information on good practices of the S3Chem project, please use the following link.
The good practices shared during the project’s first phase have also played an important role in improving the RIS. With the help of stakeholder meetings and discussions with representatives of clusters and academia from the bioeconomy and green chemistry sector, the partner from Lombardy region succeeded in influencing the revision of the work programmes, which defines the application themes of the Lombard RIS3. During the revision of the work programmes, particular attention is paid to bioeconomy, recognised as a great opportunity for jobs and growth of the regional territory, and to its transversal nature dealing with issues belonging to other specialisation areas such as: mobility, agrofood and advanced manufacturing. The project partners in Saxony-Anhalt have succeeded in improving the funding directive R&D. The ‘R&D Directive’ was updated in the course of 2017, taking into account the discussed strength and weaknesses as well as experiences of other S3Chem partners. The new funding conditions have been implemented since 2018 onwards and are designed to improve access to the directive. The improvements include the introduction of a flat rate for administration (15% from staff costs); an increase of the maximum funding rate for single beneficiaries as well as the funding of pilot projects. Thanks to the interregional exchange, and in particular to the lessons learnt on how to elaborate technological roadmaps resulting from the site visit to the Brightlands Chemelot Campus in Limburg in September 2016, Asturias elaborated a similar roadmap to identify regional value chains of sustainable materials. In addition to that, following the Catalan approach on industrial symbiosis, that Asturias got to know in depth thanks to inviting a Catalan expert to a local event. The partner region/Asturias established a network of 15 public-private pilot-plants following different pathways involving seven leading companies and three public entities. Both instruments will support the future launching of call for proposals aimed at industrial symbiosis projects.
S3Chem partners were able to establish a dynamic collaboration with numerous regional stakeholders from the chemical and bioeconomy sector in the development of the action plans. From the very beginning, all partners engaged regional stakeholders in the analysis and synthesis of the thematic work of the project. They have been also involved in the regional stakeholder meetings (RISG) and site visits to the different regions in order to share useful experiences.
Interesting site visits to important research institutions paved the way for new collaborations among different stakeholders. As a direct result of the S3Chem project, the Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems IMWS in Germany and the Brightlands Materials Center BMC in the Netherlands are working together to optimize 3D printing processes.
Based on mutual learning, and through many discussions with stakeholders and project partners, S3Chem partners will now readjust their focus on innovation promotion instruments in the upcoming two years. For this purpose, each partner region has successfully developed its own action plan which are now being put into practice.
The action plans are available for download here.
In the final brochure of the 1st project phase, you can find more information on project activities and achievements. The brochure can be downloaded here.
