a different example is furnished by the eastern macedonia and thrace institute of technology greece which initiated a research collaboration with the european organisation for nuclear research cern the aim is to create a business incubator to diffuse cern s existing technologies to the region s private sector the main purpose of innovation vouchers is to build linkages between smes and public research institutions which will i stimulate knowledge transfer directly between public research and business and ii act as a catalyst for the formation of longerterm more indepth relationships oecd d voucher programmes have been implemented in many countries including germany hungary ireland the netherlands and the united kingdom while the outcomes of collaborations also vary there are many examples of successful collaborations that have led to the introduction of new or improved products services or processes by smes