Driving smart industrial growth through value chain innovation
CHAIN REACTIONS addresses the challenge for industrial regions not benefitting from innovation activities from large leading corporations to increase regional capacity to absorb new knowledge and turn it into competitiveness edge and business value. There is a strong need to help SMEs to overcome capacity shortages for innovation and integration into transnational value chains.
The project aims at empowering regional ecosystems with the knowledge and tools to help businesses overcome those barriers and generate sustained growth through value chain innovation.
CHAIN REACTIONS focuses thereby on modern approaches considering value chains and their complex developments rather than linear technology transfer approaches. The framework of value chain innovation builds on Porter’s 5 forces framework (new entrants, substitutes, customers, suppliers and rivalry) and transversal innovation drivers: key enabling technologies,  resource efficiency, digital transformation and service innovation. The focus is on key sectors: advanced manufacturing , ICT and electronics, energy and environment, health and bioeconomy in accordance with their S3 priorities and will:Develop practical instruments (e.g. maturity models) to measure innovation potential and capacity of businesses for the application of the innovation drivers, as wells as instruments enabling to foster and support value chain innovation processes.Set up triple helix Innovation and Growth Alliances and developing their capacity to support value chain innovation through training and practical implementation.Set up value chain observatories to analyse selected industrial sectors and their value chains, and implement the models and instruments developed (pilot).Foster transnational S3 implementation and the emergence of new transnational value chains by creating transnational open spaces for collaboration in the selected industrial sectors.