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The IMPROVE project (Improving Structural Funds for better delivery of R&D&i policies), brings together partners from 8 regions with different background in terms of geographic area, economic development, innovation performance, more or less centralised administration system and responsibility for the management of the addressed policies, with the aim of improving the effectiveness of Structural Funds Programmes dedicated to build up R&D&I policies and support the implementation of Smart Specialisation Strategies.

IMPROVE is designed to foster the exchange of practices, experiences and knowledge and increase the capacities of partners and stakeholders involved, taking into consideration their profiles and regional interests. To this end it will address common challenges with regards to:

1) Framework, policy mix and instruments for the delivery of R&D&I policies and the implementation of smart specialisation strategies,
2) coordination with other Funds managed at regional/national/European level,
3) transnational coordination,
4) governance and,
5) monitoring and evaluation.

The project will improve 8 policy instruments and ensure its long-term impact involving the managing authorities in the interregional learning process, both as partners and stakeholders.

The following eight partners are involved in its implementation:

1. Foundation FUNDECYT Science and Technology Park of Extremadura, Spain
2. DEV'UP Centre-Val de Loire, France
3. Regional Agency for Technology and Innovation, Italy
4. Municipality of Gabrovo, Bulgaria
5. North-West Regional Development Agency, Romania
6. Tartu Science Park Foundation, Estonia
7. Regional Council of Lapland, Finland
8. Regional Coordination and Development Commission of Centro, Portugal

The digital transformation of EU business and society presents enormous growth potential for Europe. It is estimated that digital technologies, such as Big Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence or the Internet of Things, have the potential to add 1.5 million jobs to the EU's digital economy, and that SMEs can grow two to three times faster when they integrate digital technologies into their business models. Nevertheless, on the one hand, SMEs are not currently taking full advantage of these advanced technologies because they usually lack orientation, know-how and hands-on solutions in line with their current business, and on the other hand, digitalisation services in too many occasions do not take into account the rapid changing innovation ecosystem and the emerging of new technologies.

The objective of DigiJourney is to enable the participating innovation agencies to exchange knowledge, know-how, and good practices on advanced methodologies and tools for digitalisation assessment to SMEs and customised support services. In particular, based on the Twinning+ methodology, the project aims to cover peer learning activities for three digitalisation approaches and the design of a digitalisation journey for SMEs, which will facilitate all innovation agencies to improve their digitalisation support services adapted to their specific national/regional contexts, and will allow SMEs to get the right digital tools to gain competitiveness. This peer-learning and peer-review scheme has been developed based on each partner's identified competences in advanced digitalisation services for SMEs.

DigiJourney will therefore contribute to the specific challenge of increasing SMEs support programmes and the satisfaction of them with the support provided, through a joint learning effort of the three participating partners and the elaboration of a suitable Design Options Paper that will be shared with other EU innovation agencies and networks, and with national and EU policy-makers.

The objective of Scale-ups Ready is to enable the participating innovation agencies to exchange knowledge, knowhow, and good practices on advanced methodologies and tools for scale-ups assessment (including SMEs with highgrowth potential) and customised support services, in order to develop better approaches for client intake and support of scale-ups.

Based on the Twinning + methodology, the project aims to cover peer-learning and peer-review activities for three kinds of services through specific assessment instruments that when combined offer in-depth analysis of the needs of scale-ups, in order to provide them with tailored support:
1) An advanced IP valuation scheme, IPscore® 2.2 (FORTH),
2) An advanced business innovation roadmap tool, smE-MPOWER 'Business innovation roadmap tool' (LIC),
3) An advanced Innovation Health Check assessment tool (FUNDECYT-PCTEX).

This peer-learning and peer-review scheme has been developed based on each partner's identified competences and gaps in advanced services for scale-ups. The result will bring in new added-value service offerings to participating organisations, will lead to better approaches and the adaptation of tools to the specific national/regional contexts.

The Design Options Paper will be shared with other EU innovation agencies and networks, and with national and EU policy-makers.

The Scale-ups Ready project brings together European partners from three different countries: Greece, Lithuania and Spain, who provide support services to SMEs. The project partners are:

• FORTH – FOUNDATION FOR RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY HELLAS - Coordinator, Greece - www.praxinetwork.gr   
• LIC – VIESOJI ISTAIGA LIETUVOS INOVACIJU CENTRAS - Partner, Lithuania - www.lic.lt
• FUNDECYT PCTEX – FUNDACION FUNDECYT PARQUE CIENTIFICO Y TECNOLOGICO DE EXTREMADURA - Partner, Spain - www.fundecyt-pctex.es.

GREENIN is a peer learning project, financed by the European Union`s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, led by FUNDECYT-PCTEX and implemented in collaboration with European innovation support institutions in Portugal and Hungary. It aims at developing and sharing an effective mechanism for reviewing and identifying the state of the art of policies, methodologies, experiences and good practices on Green Public Procurement for Innovation (GPPI), to implement effective GPPI initiatives in European territories.

GREENIN objective
GREENIN project aim is to set up a desired scenario in green public procurement for innovation (GPPI) , aligned with smart specialisation strategies, to increase knowledge exchange with policy makers and interested stakeholders, favouring SMEs participation. The GREENIN project intends to open a dialogue on how GPPI efforts and impact can be reinforced through a joint learning process of the three partners and to elaborate a suitable Design Options Paper (GREENIN DOP), creating a desired scenario for all those involved and interested in the policy topic in the future.

Activities
The methodology of the project will consist of:

1. Identification, analysis and selection of policies, methodologies, experiences and good practices on GPPI
2. Guided discussions and work sessions with Local Working Groups to identify common applicable approaches for GPPI
3. Joint drafting of the GREENIN DOP for the definition of a desired scenario for GPPI
4. Regional pilot applications to facilitate dialogue and networking activities between procurers and SMEs

Duration
12 months: from September 2018 to September 2019

Partnership
The GREENIN project brings together European partners from three different countries: Spain, Portugal and Hungary working in territorial cooperation and smart specialisation strategies (RIS3), where green sector is present. The GREENIN project partners are:

• FUNDECYT PCTEX - FUNDACION FUNDECYT PARQUE CIENTIFICO Y TECNOLOGICO DE EXTREMADURA (Foundation FUNDECYT Science and Technological Park of Extremadura), Lead Patner, Spain - www.fundecyt-pctex.es.
  FUNDECYT PCTEX is a non-profit organisation that aims to contributing to the social and economic exploitation of science and technology in the Extremadura region. It supports and promotes scientific and technological development and a better use of research and innovation outcomes. FUNDECYT-PCTEX hosts more than 80 innovative companies in its facilities and supports regional entrepreneurs and SMEs.
• LNEG - Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia (National Laboratory of Energy and Geology), Partner, Portugal - www.lneg.pt
  LNEG is the Portuguese organization of research, demonstration and technological development, responsible of the technology and R&D results integration in the business world. As an institution of the Ministry of Economy, it works as a consultant for public policy on energy, geology, environment, sustainability, standardization, quality and certification.
• IFKA - Iparfejlesztesi Kozhasznu Nonprofit Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag (Public Benefit Non-Profit Ltd. for the Development of Industry), Partner, Hungary - www.ifka.hu
  IFKA is a state-appointed innovation management and technology-transfer institute and promotes knowledge transfer to industrial actors, collaborating through tenders and international cooperation projects in the development of science and technology-driven sectoral strategies in Hungary.

• DEV UP Centre-Val de Loire (Francia)
• Fundación Universidades y Enseñanzas Superiores de Castilla y León –FUESCyL– (España)
• Regional Development Agency Centru –RDA Centru– (Rumanía)
• Fundación FUNDECYT Parque Científico y Tecnológico de Extremadura –FUNDECYT-PCTEX– (España)
• Lodzkie Region (Polonia)
• Northern Netherlands Provinces Alliance (Holanda)
• Region Östergötland (Suecia)
• Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg (Alemania)
• Umbria Region (Italia)
• EURADA European Association of Development Agencies (Bélgica)
• Regional Council Bourgogne-Franche-Comté (Francia)

All the regions in the consortium, and also those across Europe, are characterised by an economic fabric which needs to strengthen its absorption capacity of knowledge to innovate. Beyond global value chains identified by designing RIS3, policy makers have to build an efficient ecosystem to identify where and how available knowledge could actually be used. Furthermore, they have to find the right policy mix resulting from the EDP.

In order to find the appropriate approach tailored to company needs and thus improve the results of RIS3, the whole regional innovation ecosystem need not be involved, but only the most relevant players.

Therefore, "Beyond EDP" project aims at professionalising EDP management. It will, in turn, facilitate change management and its acceptance by regional stakeholders, particularly the managing authorities.

By this way, it will allow avoiding common mistakes and will provide efficient methodologies and practices that will benefit to European regional policies makers to enable them to implement effective RIS3 for their regions. Not only will the efficiency of RIS3 be improved, but also the development of relevant public policies.