MoWiN best practice to be implemented in Lubelskie Region
Once all the online interregional study visits had been completed, the team from Lubelskie carried out long internal discussions and analysis as well as surveyed other colleagues from the regional administration to select the practice that could be transferred to the Lubelskie Region. Finally, it was jointly decided that the best programme to be imported into the region would be the practice presented by the Regional Management Northern Hesse from Germany, the MoWiN Innovation Lab. The core goal of this initiative is to identify cooperative R&D projects through the targeted networking of companies and universities in order to increase R&D activities. SMEs from the region can present their own innovations and receive in-depth advice from a technical, user and business-oriented perspective as part of a workshop and then the ideas are presented to an interdisciplinary panel of experts (advisory committee made up of universities and business development agencies), who are selected in advance in a way that is technically appropriate to the innovation idea. The panel of experts will assess the innovation idea and makes strategic recommendations and opportunities for further development. The programme finally implemented in the Lubelskie Region will be slightly modified - with some elements taken from the Lubelskie regional initiative “Technological pilot” the aim of which is to provide support for SMEs, by involving experts to assist companies in increasing their competitiveness in various aspects and solving their problems.
At present, the Lubelskie SCALE Up team, together with a university expert, is in the process of drafting the Action Plan. The document is to be finalised in July. Simultaneously, discussions are ongoing with representatives of regional universities to encourage them to involve the experts working there to take part in the programme and support entrepreneurs in the region. After the final Action Plan gets internal approval by the Board of Lubelskie, a one-day dissemination event in Lublin will be organised to present the document and inform the public (among others are companies, universities, business and local development institutions) about launching the practice. Additionally, letters of intent will be signed with higher education institutions and the programme will start in autumn.
Also in autumn, as part of activities planned within the SCALE UP project, the Lubelskie team is planning to organise its next Regional Stakeholders Group meeting and a workshop concerning the improvement of the culture of cooperation between science, technology, innovations and industrial companies. The participants of the meeting will have a chance to listen to an expert or experts who will tackle the above-mentioned issue during the meeting. If the pandemic situation allows, it is planned to organise the event in a traditional form, not online.
