REGional standardised Interfaces for a better integration of regional SMEs in the European Economy
Since competitiveness in most industries is now determined on a global scale, companies need to continuously develop their products and production processes to stay ahead of the game. However, innovation and development processes are becoming more and more complex, calling for resources and competences often beyond the reach of an individual company, especially if that company is small. Cooperation with other companies and also with research institutions within regional clusters is, therefore, key for small and medium-sized companies to stay innovative and competitive in today's industrial markets. From the side of the local and regional organisations this raises the need for proactive consultancy and a supervisory role to encourage building of trust and inter-firm collaboration. Objectives The overall objective of REGINS is to stimulate know-how-transfer on cluster management, regional innovation and SME support policies between the partners, laying the foundation for a long-term and strategic co-operation. Sub-objectives of the whole Regional Framework Operation are: (1) fostering public-private-partnership; (2) stimulating the experience of exchange and know-how-transfer on specific themes; (3) establishing Regional Network Offices to support networking between partners in the region; (4) assessing the state of the art with regard to cluster management in the participating regions; (5) enabling standardised interfaces to numerous SMEs via existing regional networks within the participating regions. Results REGINS provides a comparative overview of the partner regions' cluster-management policies and instruments as well as their effectiveness. A mentoring scheme supports the integration of results into regional support policies and networking instruments. Common networking activities and structures (standardised interfaces) enable interregional cooperation of cluster management structures leading to a reduction of project initiation and transaction costs, a shortening of reaction times and improved matching of project content with SME-targets. Sub-projects within the selected thematic priorities automotive, biotechnology and logistics develop know-how that will help regional businesses to exploit growth opportunities. Subprojects selected so far focus, among others, on exploring future technologies for the automotive sector, promoting spin-offs in the biotech sector, transferring the concept of Logistics Competence Centres and scientific research to support innovation and new product development in the three target sectors