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The lessons of PAXIS- How Europeon regions are cooperating and supporting innovative start-ups,

The main outcome of the first phase of PAXIS is a body of proven good practice in supporting innovative start-ups, according to an evaluation report of the pilot phase.

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In a knowledge-driven society, any action you start should be articulated around the word ‘learning’," observes Jean-Noël Durvy, head of the European Commission’s Innovation Policy Unit. The final evaluation report(1) of the first phase of PAXIS – the pilot action of excellence on innovative start-ups – identifies several policy lessons to be learned from PAXIS’s four thematic networks, 24 validation projects and two accompanying measures.

Dr Jürgen Fritz, President of the Stuttgart Region.

"We had no experience of thematic networks in the past," Durvy says, "so we have had to learn how to use them. The validation projects were also new. Up until now we have stressed the dissemination and exploitation of results, but in a policy-oriented project the most important thing is to learn policy lessons."

Tomás Botella, project officer responsible for PAXIS, highlights three successes. "First, some start-ups have been created – within projects such as Embryo and Inno-Tender – even though this was not a direct objective of PAXIS.

"The second is the raising of awareness on innovation issues. PAXIS has been a showcase for the regions of excellence, and our conferences in Stockholm(2) and Lyon have been acknowledged as communication successes. It is now very attractive to be a member of the PAXIS network. Next year’s ‘Day of the Entrepreneur’ will be a major awareness action all over Europe and this is something which has been tested in PAXIS."

A third result is the validated learning process. "For me, this sharing of tacit knowledge is a key idea," says Botella. "The exchange of good practice and knowledge(3) is made around the joint execution of activities which add up to a common agreed methodology."

Greater visibility

One of the PAXIS regions of excellence is Stuttgart. "The Award of Excellence for Innovative Regions is of great importance for the visibility of Stuttgart’s innovation policies," comments Dr Jürgen Fritz, President of the Stuttgart Region. "Visibility within the region as well as across Europe has grown remarkably since Stuttgart was granted the award."

Together with Cambridge, Madrid and Stockholm, Stuttgart forms the Spring thematic network. "In Spring we developed a new model on early-stage financing, in close co-operation with the partner regions," says Fritz. "A key success factor was the close co-operation between private risk capital, business angels and the regional universities.

"From our partner regions we have not only acquired specific tools to support university start-up activities, but have learned a new way of operating innovation policies. The method of measuring intellectual capital, for example, will allow us to monitor the innovation system systematically as well as the impact of our innovation policies."

In future, Fritz would like to focus on implementing the pilot activities with the partner regions and bring in more cross-network activities. He would also like to see PAXIS concentrate more on co-operation with regional authorities, as is already being done in Spring.

Another network, Highest the Net, links regions in Finland, France, Italy and Sweden which all have strong information and communications technology (ICT) industries. "The main benefit for the Turin area was to better define our model for supporting new technology-based firms," says Dr Gianni Guerra, a director of I3P, a business incubator run by Turin Polytechnic with the Province of Turin, the Turin Chamber of Commerce and Finpiemonte SpA.
Systematic approach

"We learned from our partner in Helsinki the importance of a systematic approach," Guerra notes. "We acquired methods for encouraging cross-fertilisation between various companies and institutions from Alpes-Maritime, and from Southern Sweden we learned about the ‘triple helix’ concept." The other partners benefited from Turin’s experience in supporting start-ups through the pre-incubation phase and from entrepreneurial training activities in co-operation with the Young Entrepreneurs of the Turin Industrialists’ Association.

"The first phase of Highest defined a global view of our model," Guerra adds. "We will now go into detail on aspects such as education and training, support for the process of internationalisation, scouting activities and start-up funding. We will continue to benchmark and assess our models, which will be enriched by our new partner, the City of Berlin."

While narrower in scope than the thematic networks, validation projects have also established good practice in supporting new businesses. Inno-Tender, for example, validated a simple methodology for creating start-ups in regions of Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal where such mechanisms were lacking. Researchers were encouraged to put forward ideas which were then presented to a judging panel in each region.

"The project led to the setting up of seven new technology-based firms in the different regions," says Mr Enrique Lapresa, managing director of the Economic Development Agency of La Rioja. "Two companies created in La Rioja belong to the ICT sector and a third is related to environmental technologies."

Strengthening relations

As expected, the project will have a continuing impact on the regions involved. "The initiative has been welcomed by entrepreneurs, researchers and society in general," says Lapresa. "We now have a validated method for creating companies, and the government of La Rioja is committed to integrating the project methodology into a set of measures for strengthening the creation of start-ups.

"The collaboration between the partners was decisive for the development of the project. A magnificent relationship has been built up between the regions, and we are already co-operating on future projects and initiatives."

Botella stresses that the first phase was a pilot action. "When you set up a pilot plant it is intended to demonstrate that a process is feasible before you build a larger, commercial plant. And this pilot action is exactly the same. In 18 months the feasibility of PAXIS has been demonstrated and we have launched a longer-term second phase to learn more about policy issues."

Lessons from PAXIS are already being applied in the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6). "In the FP6 networks, we are going to focus on conurbations rather than on the more diffuse concept of economic areas," Botella says. "Entrepreneurship and transferability are major issues and they will be linked more closely to the network activities. We will involve local policy-makers and work to transfer the lessons learned to other European regions – this is a key point. We believe in a bottom-up learning process and a more long-term focus on activities. These are just some of the lessons we have learned and are introducing into FP6."
(1) ‘PAXIS’ – the pilot action of excellence on innovative start-ups: Results and Recommendations’, report by Innovdetect, a PAXIS accompanying measure.

(2) See ‘Europe’s cities – centres of innovation culture’, edition 2/02. http://www.cordis.lu/itt/itt-en/02-2/dossier.htm

(3) See ‘Learning from other regions’, edition 6/02. http://www.cordis.lu/itt/itt-en/02-6/innov02.htm

Contacts

* T. Botella, C. Avarello, P. Tomaszewski,
European Commission
Enterprise DG, Innovation Policy Unit
Tl. +352 4301 37116
Fx. +352 4301 34129
[email protected]
http://www.cordis.lu/paxis/

* H. Thumm, Stuttgart Region Economic Development Corporation
Tl. +49 711 22835 19
Fx. +49 711 22835 55
[email protected]
http://www.region-stuttgart.de/

* G. Guerra, I3P, Turin Polytechnic
Tl. +39 011 564 5162
Fx +39 011 564 5126
[email protected]
http://www.i3p.it/

* E. Esteban, Economic Development Agency of La Rioja (ADER)
Tl. +34 941 291 581
Fx. +34 941 291 595
[email protected]
http://www.ader.es/

http://www.cordis.lu/itt/itt-en/03-1/innov01.htm

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