European Commission - Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs

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Technological Districts: Support to Innovation Transfer

Region
ITALIA›CENTRO (I)›Toscana
Title of measure
Full title in national language:
Distretti Tecnologici: contributi per il trasferimento dell'innovazione
Duration:
2016 to 2018
Policy objectives Plus
2.1. R&D cooperation projects between academy and industry
4.5. Knowledge transfer and cooperation between firms (incl. technology acquisition)
5.1. Cluster development
Presentation of the measure:

The "Technological Districts" initiative is promoted by the Central Government, after consultations with Regional Governments. Twelve districts were selected by the National Ministry for University and Research (MIUR) for Tuscany.
This measure aims at strengthening the regional system of technology transfer, supporting the activities of the Technological Districts in the framework of horizontal technological priorities of the (Smart Specialisation Strategy) S3.
This measure supports R&D collaboration for the development of new technologies, new products and services carried out by public-private partnerships. In particular, it will be support the management activities of Technological Districts, through the promotion of actions, designed to stimulate and increase the capacity to absorb new knowledge, particularly among in SMEs.
This measure targets consortia and service centres in charge of the management of regional districts.

Keywords:
Applied business research
Cluster
Budget, source and type of funding
Year201620172018
National public funds 997675997675997675
Regional public funds
EU Structural Funds 655780668904682291
Private funds
Other
Form of funding provided
Grants
Policy learning
To what extent the measure can be considered as a success and worthy of policy learning?:
There has been a positive response by beneficiaries to the measure (e.g. over-subscribed in terms of requested versus available budget) but it is too early to judge results or impact
Evidence of outcomes based on evaluation and other evidence:

The beneficiaries showed a lot of interest in this measure. Few partnership born thanks to this measure.

What are the most important “Do’s and Don’ts” that regional stakeholders should be aware of when launching a similar measure?:

DO's:

  • Focus clustering on initiatives aiming at promoting long-term innovative activity;
  • Foster interaction between research institutions and districts in order to encourage the development of common initiatives in the area of applied research and experimental development;
  • Promote the increase in absorptive capacity of SMEs.

DON'Ts:

  • Support individual business or research activity within the same district. A collective approach should be preferred.
Would you recommend this measure as an example of regional good practice to policy-makers from other regions ?:
Yes