Criticalities of two networks

NOVAREGIOactions

Insufficient cooperation and low networking activities between regions and networks

• Insufficient trans-regional cooperation within the Regions directly
  participating to
  NOVAREGIO

NOVAREGIO will enhance the cooperation among regions by:

• Establishing a coordinating body, the Strategic Steering Committee
• Transferring into the involved regions 10 benchmarked policies in the field of Research and Technological Development selected from the experiences made within the regions of both networks.
• Promoting joint actions of RTD policies by taking into account regional differences so to improve the interaction among the regions and the networks’ coordination
• Fostering trans-regional cooperation through networking activities. 3 workshops and 3 seminars will be carried out during the 24 months so to enhance a better concertation and a more efficient cooperation regarding technological development and progress investments

• Low rate of networking activities between Central-East regions and European Peripheral regions

Incentives of Public and Private investment

• Insufficient public expenditure dedicated
  to RTD

NOVAREGIO will increase public and private investment by:

• Analysing the institutional environment, legal and regulatory issues that are impacting RTD investments
• Establishing quantitative and qualitative benchmarks related to regional policy instruments in order to generate trans-regional policy learning
• Bringing public regional authorities and policy makers together through organization of joint CEI-CPMR workshops in order to share experiences and to overcome the lack of knowledge regarding regional data and the funding situation in each region so that greater attention can be paid to the specific needs and economic structures of each region.
• Organising seminars which are dealing with successful setting up and implementation of RTD policies
• Bringing together, through the Steering Committee partners, Regional Development Agencies which are in charge of economic progress and which get more involved in data reporting as well as in funding decisions according to their function
• Initialising a broad-based discussion at regional level with user participation regarding regional investment plans. Such a strategic approach is a pre-condition for ensuring that specific measures are appropriate to the regional socio-economic structure.
• Supporting the coordination of funding strategies in border regions
• Setting up an Online forum for sharing experiences between policy makers and tosupport local authorities in getting prepared for the management of EU Structural Funds
• Generating collaborative decision making about infrastructure investments so to avoid isolated projects targeted just to one region and which lead, because of the incoherence of operations economic, to short-term benefits and bear therefore the risk of nugatory actions.

• Low confidence of the
  private sector in long-term RTD commitments

• Reinforcement of the utilisation of structural funds at regional level increasing the knowledge of the possibilities available for RTD funding in the IST field

Support for the investment in SMEs

• Inefficient links between SMEs and large companies

NOVAREGIO aims at increasing the private sector’s investment activities in the RTD sector so to support the investment in SMEs by:

• Collecting information regarding the SME diffusion in the regions from regional representatives through direct interviews and by submitting a questionnaire to policy makers in order to receive homogenous data.
• Promoting links between SMEs and large companies in order to facilitate SMEs a better access to an environment that enables them to tear down their barrier of innovation
• Giving the possibility to regional involvement through the Steering Committee which consists in the project partners belonging to regions of the CEI and CPMR networks and so to simplify the decision making on a lower regional basis in order to make an investment concentration in dedicated areas easier.
• Supporting the lagging regions within the networks to get the possibility to adopt benchmarked policies of successful innovation into their own production process ideas so thatthey get involved in a competitive environment which will stimulate private investment in RTD linked with more economic growth, additional and better jobs and greater social cohesion.

Stimuli for partnership between Industry and Science

• Inefficient link between Science, University and Industry

NOVAREGIO will bring producers and users of knowledge together by:

• Enhancing the communication and the exchange of best practices and benchmarks among policy makers so to support the link between the regions’ enterprises and science institutions and to ensure the coordination between the regions
• Encouraging public research institutes to direct their research efforts to areas of interest to private firms
• Disseminating the benchmarked policies among the regions in order to spread the benefits also in farther regions and so to coordinate the networks’ activities and the technological development.

Tax incentives or benefits for innovative research

• Need of policies that reinforce the attraction and the development of high-
  tech businesses which is a
  crucial factor for the competitiveness of economies

NOVAREGIO will foster innovative research by:

• Analysing with the help of the Steering Committee the different situations among the regions
• Introducing relevant and effective mechanisms in order to be able to guarantee equal opportunities for all regions and to promote growth
• Integrating into the different priorities of regional plans policies that benefit the RTD sector. The Science and Technology sector is of cross-cultural nature and has considerable potential for strengthening economic and social cohesion by reinforcing regions’ competitiveness
• Disseminating the benchmarked policies into both networks in order to increase the technological potential of the lagging regions
• Helping regions through the establishment of high technologies to retain a larger share of total value added and to attract and develop therefore new business activities. High technologies will breakdown the barriers to location of business outside urban centres and will attract increased investment also in lagging areas.

• Limited tax incentives

Investment in Human Resources

• Insufficient availability of Human Resources in the
  IST field

NOVAREGIO will increase the investment in Human Resources by:

• Characterising and identifying the existing barriers in the regions so that an intensified investment effort in S&T qualified human resources carries a yield
• Promoting the exchange of personnel between partner CEI and CPMR regions in order to facilitate the economic integration of the lagging regions and to assure the maximum advantage of the development of human resources
• Exchanging knowledge through cross-border cooperation in order to increase the knowledge of regional representatives by taking stock of the experiences made by other regional administrators.