Questions on Intermediaries and Services

• For each policy objective how does the mix of relevant Intermediaries compare between regions? (see examples from Brittany - Lower Austria)
• What are the main differences and similarities in Intermediary-Services combinations between regions? Can we explain these differences? (context?) (see examples from Brittany, Lower Austria and Limburg, and from Lower Austria and Flanders)
• How do the efficiency scores of services compare between regions? How to explain the difference in impact of some services in different regions?
• Are there clear "impact profiles" of the service types? What are the explanations from the regions?
• Etc.

M1: comparing intermediaries between regions - lessons from Brittany and Lower Austria benchmarking

The bilateral benchmarking workshop gathering Brittany and Lower Austria generated a conclusion that having the same "brand" in different regions doesn't mean to deliver the same services - Technopôle is not the same like Technopol Programme: in Brittany and Lower Austria there are service providers acting under the same name, but not offering the same service portfolio.

In Brittany the mission of the "Technopôles" is the expansion of technology companies and particularly the stimulation of technology oriented start-ups within the Science Parks which are managed by the Technopôles. Technopôles help start-ups to structure their projects (key stages) and ensure project coherence through overall project monitoring. They provide assistance for new corporate leaders throughout the start-up phase and introduce them into the Park network.. If we take the overall activity portfolio Brittany's "Technopôles" deliver different services, targeting different business type and start up founders with different backgrounds (some manage cluster initiatives, other are working much more like small local development agency and manage local funds…) nevertheless regarding the budget taken into account in IMPACTscan and consequently what is financed by the regional government all "Technopôles" have the same mission: the start-up creation support is a core common activity.

The scope of the Lower Austrian Technopol Program is to promote technology and to reinforce the international competitiveness and position of Lower Austria in Europe as a modern centre of the technology industry. Each Technopol combines Research and university training with a business park in one location: direct technology transfer from science to business - and fundament for the future of R&D oriented innovation. Every Technopol has an own active on-site Technopol Manager bringing together applied research projects, Technopol-based research institutes and companies but with less focus on the academic and technology oriented start-up support which is provided by other service providers.

Therefore one conclusion for carrying out inter-regional benchmarking activities is not to limit the comparison of names/types of organisations active in the innovation support but to carry out a more detailed analysis of the individual services.

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Policy result: using IMPACTSCAN to legitimise changes in the Slovene system

Slovenia used M2 to compare total staff involved in types of activities (e.g. advice): this provides a benchmark from other regions. Slovenia uses this to argue for downsizing the system. Using IMPACTSCAN for legitimising changes in one system is an approach that worked very well for Slovenia.

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M2: comparing services types between regions - lessons from Brittany, Limburg and Lower Austria benchmarking

Brittany and Lower Austria have quite similar service mix available at the regional level, the differences with Limburg are bigger.
On this graphic the focus of Brittany on the mission of public interest on "awareness-raising", "access to info" and 'advice" as well as support in "project management" is made quite clear. It is interesting to see what kinds of intermediaries are involved in Lower Austria for similar service delivery.
"Access to finance" is an important aspect of intermediaries' mission in Brittany. It is interesting to have the description of the respective content for "finance" in each regional context because huge amount of money is a stake.
The low score for Brittany concerning "technology services" needs to be explained to avoid misunderstanding, this graphic triggered highly interesting discussion regarding the technology-based innovation support in the respective regions.

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M2: comparing relative budget shares over services - Lower Austria's analysis and comparison with Flanders

Comparing the split of Lower Austria (NÖ)'s regional budget over service types with the other IMPACTSCAN partner regions shows a noticeable well-balanced budget share over all IMPACTSCAN service categories:

The highest share for technology related services of all IMPACTSCAN regions is reflecting the specific attention the Lower Austrian government is paying for increase of the public R&D activities.
Also with respect to "Incubating Services" Lower Austria is posting the highest share, which is also based on the fact that Lower Austria's "Incubating services" provided by the "RIZ" are following a broad approach including innovative start-ups, but not as a focus.
For the service types "advice" and "networking/clustering" the situation is different: The respective NÖ services have a strong focus on innovation by providing specific services and therefore in both cases the NÖ budget shares come second among the IMPACTSCAN sample.

The main reason for this high performance regarding the mentioned service types and the overall well balanced budget shares is mainly rooted in the fact that Lower Austria is not allocating such a huge budget share to "Finance" as the partner regions Brittany, Flanders and Limburg are doing neither to "Infrastructure" as Dolnoslaskie (Lower Silesia) is doing.
Nevertheless Lower Austria notes its highest budget share for the service type "Finance" also like further 4 out of the 6 IMPACTSCAN partner regions.

A focus for the inter-regional benchmarking on absolute figures from regional level only, may lead to misinterpretation: Flanders has very high expenditures for policy objective "Enhancement of firms' innovation capacity" in absolute figures, and most of the budget is direct funding from administration (approx. 133 Mio €). There is no additional national budget, due to the distribution of competences in the federal state of Belgium (innovation policy is fully regionalised). In comparison the Lower Austrian government is spending for direct funding approx. 10 Mio €, further 25 Mio € are coming from the national side, thus in total 35 Mio €. With respect to the population of both regions (Flanders: approx. 6 Mio inhabitants, Lower Austria approx. 1,6 Mio inhabitants) a similar amount of direct funding for the enhancement of firms' innovation capacity per inhabitant is spent in both regions even though the absolute figures are leading to different interpretation.

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M3: comparing firms opinions on innovation services Madrid - Flanders

When analysing opinions of the firms in Madrid firms on the effect of innovation services on innovation enablers, both information access (consultancy and advice related to technology, finance, markets, etc.) and direct public financial support are the best appreciated services.
Compared to regions like Flanders, information access support is better evaluated by firms in Madrid, while the financial resources are highly appreciated in both regions.

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