Pilot Regional Innovation Partnership Projects

A major component of the EU-DRIVERS project was the involvement of Pilot regional innovation partnership projects.  The projects provided a core base for practical knowledge sharing about routes to improving regional cooperation between universities, public authorities (local/regional government) and business or community organizations to encourage regional innovation. Lessons from the pilot projects formed the basis for development of good practice guides and development of a sustainable leadership development programme for relevant stakeholders at the regional level.

These pilot ‘showcase’ projects, involving the triple helix stakeholders from a university, public authority (local/regional government) and business or community organization were developed as the project evolved. Each pilot project was a working example of how the three stakeholders have come together to create a major impact on a key aspect of the regional economic or social infrastructure, addressing a major regional need.  Projects were varied in terms of sector and geographical areas.

The Four two-day leadership workshops aimed at developing participants’ leadership and boundary-spanning skills through practical knowledge-sharing regarding the show case projects. They explored all of the elements involved in making regional cooperation work – including issues such as motivators and barriers  to cooperation, strategy (regional and organisational), leadership, governance and funding.

State-of the art Knowledge on Regional Innovation

Three Annual Reports on the latest knowledge on innovation issues have been produced, based on desk research, relevant literature review and gathering of example of good practices from within and beyond the partnership. These annual reports served as the basic material for the conferences.

Three Conferences on Regional innovation