Services offered to SMEs in order to facilitate access to funds for innovation, such as risk capital or development capital funds, or resources for innovation projects financing. Also support to develop investment plans or schemes should be considered under this heading.
Normally the sources of finance addressed could be both private (e.g., development banks) and public (regional, national or international innovation programmes, besides public financial institutions)

Access to Information [top]

Services offered by intermediaries addressing specific topics or actions, such as newsletters of alert systems, helping the firms to tackle with concrete projects or activities. Besides also included under this headline are included the information bureaus or contact points supplying partners search services and the like. The channels of access to information can be direct (actual persons attending the demands), on-line through portals or website facilities. The information services, ranging from simple news up to the access to a knowledge database, can be specialised and technological, devoted to fund opportunities or to the management of intellectual property and internationalisation.

Administration [top]

Departments of the own regional Administration offering specific services to innovation and general eco, usually linked to the infrastructures or funding provision to support firms initiatives.
Both groups “Economic development organisations” and “Administration” work usually very close together under common regional directives.

Advice [top]

Services included under this headline are basically counselling assistance on innovation and business management issues: innovation audits, business strategy and planning, markets access and the like. These services are usually provided free of charge and do not take longer than a couple of days support to one specific firm. Some intermediaries do also provide the same kind of advisory services more in depth – what could also be considered as consultancy services – in open competence with private service providers. Market services can also belong to this category.

AGGREGATED VARIABLES [top] (not used in this version of the tool)

The Impactscan Tool variables have been aggregated as follows:

POLICY OBJECTIVES: 1 Increase and improvement of knowledge and capacities: Enhancement of the firms innovation capacity + Increase in availability of technology / 2 Support to business cooperation and “lead markets” access: Cooperation among firms + Development of international presence / 3 Creation of new technology based firms

SERVICE TYPES: 1 Information and Knowledge services: Contact Generating and awareness-raising - Access to Information + Advice + Technology services / 2 Resource provision: Human Resources + Finance + Infrastructure + Incubating Services / 3 Operational services: Project Management + Networking and Clustering + Access to Finance

INTERMEDIARY TYPES: 1 Public sector: Economic development organisations + Public-private Financial partnerships + Administration - 2 Scientific System: RTD Institutions / 3 Economic sector: Service centres + Business associations + Science and Technology parks

INNOVATION ENABLERS: 1 Innovation process: Idea generation & creativity process + Implementation of innovation + Market orientation & operation + Exploitation of the innovation / 2 Resources to innovate: Financial resources + Human resources + Information and technologies / 3 Organisation: Strategy + Structure & organisation + Innovation culture

Business associations [top]

The main purpose of “Associations/Networks” is essentially to link together subjects with some element in common - for example: working in the same industrial sector - with the aim of producing economies of scale. They usually offer institutional and public relationship and information services, even when the trend of the most advanced ones is to offer also other higher value added service.

Contact generating [top]

It includes all the activities of promotion of innovation culture and activities in the firms. They include general events or specific presentations to firms of public support programmes, visits to companies, dissemination, etc.

Economic development organisaitons [top]

Structures with a public nature (often inside central administrations offices or departments), created by public authorities with the aim of general economic and location development of the region generally not focussing on innovation oriented topics, but including inward investment, creation of business parks, facilitating, simplifying and being the intermediary/interface between governments (or the supranational institutions) and firms, etc.
These organisations offer usually horizontal services and the large majority of these types of structures do not focus their activity on a particular industrial sector, instead they offer their services especially oriented towards all kinds of regional SMEs and large companies.

Finance [top]

Finance covers the direct financing of firms or financial aids with the purpose to carry out innovation activities. Financial support covers non-repayable subsidies/grants, credits with market conform interest loan or with interest loan below market price providing of equity capital and providing of assumptions of liability.
In the case of repayable financial support and assumptions of liability only the capital costs have to be considered.

Human resources [top]

Services dealing with training for firms’ employees in technological or organisational issues like project management, quality, safety, environment, computer science, etc. These kinds of services not only address knowledge increase, but also create opportunities for relationship between people, etc…
More specialised services, in topics such as creativity for product design, are also quite often provided.

Innovation Enablers [top]

Culture [top]

How to create a company culture aimed for innovation?
The company culture is a system of unwritten rules and convictions that determine the behaviour of employees. Because of these unwritten rules employees know which behaviour is wished for and which not. Some cultural elements are closely related to the innovation capacity.
Some of these are:
* Focus for the future (inquisitiveness for new developments and possibilities, external orientation)
* Openness and cooperation (informal contacts, shared interest, motivation and responsibility)
* Toleration of failure (condition for learning, accepting risks)

Exploitation [top]

How to maximise profit from the innovation?
Once the innovative product or service has been launched the product or service is part of the mainstream activities of the company. This category defines the ability of a company to run regular business, selling products or services, produce and deliver them in time, deliver after sales service and in the end making money out of the innovation.

Financial [top]

How and where to obtain financial resources and how to allocate them?
The ability of a company to obtain money for their innovation activities and to allocate this money to those activities. Some sources for obtaining money for innovation are: Loans from banks and financial institutions, subsidies or tax reductions from regional, national or European government, money from friends and family, informal investors, economic development organisations, venture capitalists, joint-stock companies, or by going to a stock exchange.
For some regions the firms’ capability of obtaining money for innovation activities is one issue inside this heading.

Human [top]

How to get the best out of the entrepreneur and its employees?
The ability of the company to acquire the right employees and to enhance their competencies. The ability of the entrepreneur and/or the company staff to develop their own competencies important for innovation management some of which are: Having the right leadership, being able to make choices, communicate these choices, “manage with a soft hand” and be result oriented.

Idea generation [top]

How to come up with new ideas?
The ability of a company to generate and select new ideas for innovating products, processes or markets. Companies with high capabilities in the former 6 categories should be able to generate these new ideas. However, this process stage is very important in innovation management and innovation support activities are often targeted at enhancing this capability in companies, often by offering methods and tools for creating ideas and supporting the selection process.

Implementation [top]

How to transfer innovations into ongoing business?

Ability of a company to develop activities to transfer an innovative idea into a mature product, service or process. Many company disciplines, if present, are (preferably simultaneously in teams) involved in the process like design, development, marketing, sales, procurement, production (production engineering) and customers.

Info and Technology [top]

How to acquire the right information, knowledge and technology?
The ability and possibility of the company to acquire information and have access to knowledge from outside the company using several resources like universities, institutes and other companies, symposia, workshops and trainings, fairs and events, written resources like professional literature and patent literature, formal and informal meetings and (international) networks and commercial consultants and specialists.

Market [top]

How to find customers and open up new markets?
Is head and tails of the innovation process, closing the innovation circle. It consists of the ability of a company to develop activities for selling innovative products like marketing and sales (customer interactions) and of activities to determine market needs like market research and customer analysis for future products and services.

Strategy [top]

How to plan future's business?
Ability of a company to define mission, goals and strategy for the future based upon its ambition and vision and the ability to communicate these within the company. Innovative companies can also define innovation goals and have an innovation strategy.

Structure [top]

How to structure the organisation and its processes for innovation?
The way in which in a company tasks are assigned (organisation chart), how people are cooperating and the flow of material and information is managed (processes), how decisions are made (decision structure), how things are coordinated (deliberation structure), and how these processes and structures are supported by methods, tools and infrastructure. Innovative companies can have specific processes and structures for innovation management.

Incubating services [top]

Infrastructure and basic services (accountancy, secretarial services, providing information and communication structure, etc.) provided for innovative start-ups normally for a limited period of time, typically 3 to 5 years in order to support their take off.

Infrastructures [top]

Infrastructures cover investment in all kind of buildings/facilities and in "heavy" equipments with the purpose to support companies in their innovation activities or to foster the framework of innovative firms. Infrastructure is only directly provided for firms without any complementary services by intermediaries. Otherwise the investment is part of other professional services provided by intermediaries and thus belongs to the respective service type.
In order to smooth the respective relevant innovation budget the annual costs for depreciation of the investment will be considered instead of the absolute investment amount in infrastructure.

This type of infrastructures can be both managed directly by the regional administration or by innovation intermediaries (Industry Associations, Technical Schools, etc.) being their beneficiaries the regional firms; therefore, neither educational nor research facilities are here considered. Besides, general regional investment real estate development for business, technology or science parks are not considered as long as this infrastructure is not provided for innovation support of firms.

Networking - clustering [top]

Services in clustering include support to cluster initiatives to set common objectives for cluster development, organisation of the clustering process or integration of actors and service-providers in the cluster. As for networking similar services are very often provided, addressed to creation of local or regional cooperation networks and interlinking /signposting of networks at local, regional, national or international level.
Website and virtual services systems are tools to be quite commonly provided, as well as the organisation of “thematic clubs”, symposium, workshops…

Project management [top]

Comprehensive support for project management/coaching; idea generating, project planning and follow up, exploitation and marketing was part of “project management”
Innovation project coaching for single firms or group firms, e.g. providing of a part or full time project manager by the intermediary. In most of the cases these services are paid by the customers.
Very often the projects concerned are RTD projects; however other projects in the field of engineering and organisation are also here included.

Public private financial [top]

“Financial institutions” covers entities managing venture capital, development capital, guarantee funds, or loans and targeting innovation-oriented firms with public share holders or at least with a public private partnership. The relevant budget is limited to the public part. They can be associations, companies or banks.
For example:
A private bank is managing the regional innovation support funding scheme of 12 Mio € provided by the regional government. The funding covers 50% of the R&D costs for a concrete innovation project of the supported firms. The eligible budget is 12 Mio €. The co-financing by the firms is not considered.
A (public owned or private) venture capital company is managing a revolving equity funds for innovation oriented start-up support of 50 Mio €. The money comes from the regional government. The engagement in a new company lasts in average 5 years. Thus the venture capital company can spend approx.10 Mio € per year in average in new start-ups. The relevant budget is 10 Mio €. The budget is not linked to the costs of the equity funds (e.g. opportunity costs of commercially available interest rate if the support start-up doesn’t pay an interest rate.
The regional is share holder of a regional bank with 5% shares as public private partnership. Each year the bank supports innovation oriented firms in the region with 20 Mio equity capital €. The government guarantees the assumption of liability for the growth capital. The annual costs for the guarantee mount up to 500,000 € in average. The relevant budget is 500,000 €. The private equity fund is not considered due to the private sources. If the region is no share holder but is also providing the guarantee for the assumption of liability the eligible budget is also 500,000 €.

RTD institutions [top]

RTD institutions are structures having research as their primary mission; however they can have offices (technology transfer services, liaison offices, etc.) created in order to disseminate or economically exploit the result of their research.
By definition, the activities of these subjects are mostly focussed on applied research and predominantly on the industrial sector. They mainly offer information services, support in R&D and expert or specialised training. Like almost all R&D activities, most of these structures are either public, or publicly financed, however they might provide service collecting private R&D funds or requiring forms of payments.
Target clients of this type of structure are large companies, institutions and innovation driven SMEs.

Science Technology parks [top]

A technology park is an organisation that stimulates and manages the flow of knowledge and technology amongst universities, R&D institutions, companies and markets; it facilitates the creation and growth of innovation-based companies through incubation and spin-off processes and provides other value-added services together with high quality space and facilities. This technology parks are usually equipped for business incubation, laboratories, etc. They typically have services for start-ups and enterprises in a given regional area.

Service centres [top]

In this category several different types of service centres can be included (specialised service centres, technology transfer centres, innovation centres, technology brokers, etc.). The Service Centres also include the service agencies of Chambers of Commerce/Industry or other supporting organisations. Private service companies could be here included, even when Impactscan partners have agreed to omit the consideration of private firms as service centres.
Their services can range according to widely varied supply set (from simple information, to technical support in specialised industrial sectors), and can be offered for a fee and, in some cases, publicly subsidised in part or in total.

Start up services [top]

Support for potential entrepreneurs and new innovative firms, going from discovering and screening business ideas (normally technology-based) until the take off of the firm. In the middle a wide range of services are usually provided by generalist or specialised intermediaries: incubation infrastructure and services, mentorship, training courses in enterprise creation and management (development of business strategies and planning, etc.)
Under this heading services are considered which are already included in previous categories that take specific forms to support new firms; this is the case with e.g. access to finance (seed capital, business angels networking, etc.) or advice for accessing to market.
Regarding that start-up services are in contradiction to the above mentioned service types, not content oriented but target group oriented (potential entrepreneurs and young innovative companies), causing a strong overlapping of start-up support with the other IMPACTSCAN types in their region that can not be avoided.
However, it is necessary to allocate the individual service to ONE service type in an unambiguous way. This might have the consequence for some intermediaries to be “reduced” to their main and “core” objective even though these intermediaries are providing a broad range of activities contemplated under the Impactscan service categories (information dissemination, advice, networking, access to finance, start-up support).
In order to solve this situation and allowing a relevant analysis of regional innovation support services as well as getting a comprehensive impression of the detailed service portfolio of the regional innovation supporting infratructure, the following rule will be considered:
Start-up support will be considered as an additional type of Impactscan Service with informative purpose, and the regions will split start-up activities according the defined Impactscan service categories with the respective budget.
There will be an additional column for start-up support for highlighting the priority of start-up support and for comparison between regions. In this column the relevant regional budget for start-up support will be listed.
A young company is usually defined as a company not older than 3 to 5 years. De facto it is up to every partner region to apply the most acknowledged definition within its region.

Technology services [top]

Specialised technology oriented services, with high value added, that involve a direct interaction with the firms. These often require the presence of RTD teams and suitable equipment, laboratories and installations, show-rooms, demonstration equipment or facilities of any kind to support innovation activities of firms for a time-limited period at the service provider (intermediary).
Technology services also include basic and applied research, product design and development, intellectual property rights protection, technology transfer activities, technology management etc.

IMPACTSCAN

A policy intelligence tool for regional innovation policy

USERS GUIDE

Dictionary of most used terms.

A policy intelligence tool
for regional innovation policy