MEDPRIDE - Mediterranean Project for Innovation Development - 402

Eumedis Project number: 402

EC Project code: 402

Contract "signature" date: 2002-09-17

Planned start date: 2002-09-16

Planned duration: 30 months

Planned end date: 2005-03-15

Actual start date: 2002-09-16

Total Budget: 2.281.836,73 ?

EC Contribution: 

1.825.469,42 €

Sector: Industry, research and innovation

Background: 

Innovation, as intended by the EC, is a key factor to increase competitiveness of enterprises, particularly of SMEs. During the last few years it has been assumed by the EU and by national Governments that innovation must be supported by specific actions in all countries as:
• stimulate the creation of innovative enterprises through financing innovation and improved access to investment and risk capital,
• improve access to new technologies, new products and production processes, facilitate diffusion of information, SMEs cooperation with research centres and universities, international networks, and access to all tools that could help integration of innovation into existing processes and traditional industries,
• facilitate improved knowledge management and transfer of know-how,
• help SMEs benefit from the globalisation process.
It is well known that support to innovation must become one of the components of enterprise policies, as well as economic development actions. This issue is even more crucial for countries from the southern Mediterranean region; globalisation has accelerated the need for innovation and the patterns to manage innovative knowledge and new technologies are getting more and more complex. Therefore, there is a concrete risk of divergence between regions that are able to take up innovation in their development process and regions that do not have enough means to face this challenge. The reasons underlying this situation can be different: cultural, economical, lack of infrastructures, lack of adequate and user friendly specific tools, nevertheless very often the main obstacle to innovation is a combination of all these aspects.
The project intends to face at least some of these problems, providing the Mediterranean partners with some methodological tools that can help them giving a structured answer to this challenge. MED PRIDE is based on the assumptions that enterprise development must be supported in different ways: first of all, stimulating new business ideas and the creation of new enterprises based on technologies that allow facing globalisation and competitiveness, secondly, by supporting the take-up of new technologies and innovative knowledge management in traditional industrial sectors.
Information technologies offer a great opportunity to achieve these objectives through the use of new tools, minimising costs and re-engineering processes. The global tendency is towards the most intensive use of these technologies, therefore the Mediterranean partners must be provided with the best instruments to support this transformation in their countries and. catch-up with the "new economy" features.
Through these instruments the project intends to give a concrete support to the diffusion of Information Society on the demand side. The implementation of a certain number of viable and sustainable business ideas based on the use of ICT will certainly contribute to the creation of an appropriate background for further investment in the sector.
The European partners of the project have already developed and successfully tested the methodology to support innovation in the two ways described. So far, it is not necessary to reinvent the whole method but to identify, among the activities undertaken by the partners, the best working tools to support innovation that could be adapted to the needs of the Mediterranean partners and to their social and economic features.
For this reason the project will be based on a cooperative approach that will allow the following:
• identify the specific needs and objectives of the participating countries in order to target the activities on different specific contexts,
• transfer of know-how and sharing of methodology and tools for the development of innovation,
• develop common operational models that shall give Centres of Excellence of the Mediterranean countries the opportunity to provide a concrete, effective and sustainable support to innovation. This will be based also on relevant characteristics, typical of each country, such as development priorities, entrepreneurship potential, existing links between enterprises on one side and research and academic world on the other, technical constraints such as connectivity, availability of innovative technologies and know-how, market potentialities, lack of awareness, lack of trained human resources,
• implement medium term strategic plans for the diffusion of innovation culture through concrete and effective measures supported by: dissemination and information instruments such as World Wide Web solutions and awareness raising activities; creation of local communities among operators involved at different level in the innovation process such as research centres, universities, incubators, associations, local authorities, financial institutions, etc.
To achieve these objectives the network will use an ICT platform aimed at satisfying two main requirements:
• create and consolidate a real and effective working area that should facilitate training, exchange of information and transfer of know-how among member organisations,
• support dissemination and information to the public in order to ensure that final users will benefit from the initiative.

Objectives: 

Overall Objectives
• To develop a common strategy to promote the introduction of technological innovation in the MEDA context for the SMEs.
• To enhance the SMEs competitiveness to face the challenges of the free trade markets environment to be implemented in future years.

Specific Objectives
• To set up a network of Centres of Excellence in MEDA Countries based on the common use of an operational model addressed to the creation and the development of innovative enterprises.

Description: 

The main objective of MED PRIDE is to set up a network of Centres of Excellence (CoE) in European and Mediterranean third countries aimed to share and implement an operational model for creation and development of innovative enterprises. Centres of Excellence will be development agencies and intermediary organisations acting in the field of creation and support to SMEs at national and local level as well as Universities having the capacity to stimulate appropriate match making between research/technology on one side and business initiatives/SMEs on the other side.
In line with the objectives of the EUMEDIS initiative, the project intends to support transfer of competencies in the field of industrial innovation and develop a common strategy to support the introduction of technological innovation in the Mediterranean context, so to enhance SMEs competitiveness and help them facing the challenge of free trade area.
To tackle this issue MED PRIDE will focus on two specific objectives:
1. to stimulate the creation of innovative enterprises, including hi-tech industries based on ICT and other innovating technologies,
2. to promote the adoption of innovation by existing SMEs, through the use of new technologies and improved knowledge management.
MED PRIDE also aims at being an open platform for further enlargement: both at technical level and content level the project could be extended to other countries and new participants: in effect the transfer and sharing of know-how will be based on models and methodological tool kits that can be adapted to different needs and replicated in different contexts. In this sense, it is significant to note that at the end of the project the results will be the creation of 6 application models for enterprise creation and innovation, all based on the same relevant methodology, standards and key elements, but that will differ on specific implementation criteria, according to the priorities that will be given by each Centre of Excellence or to the constraints that each one will have. It is also reasonable to expect that the timing and the speed for implementation and for obtaining results will be different according to each country's features. From the technical point of view, the project will create specific outputs that could be re-used in the future for any further partner. Moreover the www platform will provide a user friendly and open solution that will allow increasing the number of partners without prejudice.
MED PRIDE is based on some assumptions that, considering the complexity of innovation challenge in the Mediterranean area, are the most adequate to provide a concrete and successful instrument to help develop innovation:

(a) At the basis of a successful innovation process there is the need to access the information on new technologies, services, improved competencies and know-how, financial tools etc. To facilitate this process MED PRIDE aims at improving performances of organisations that can act as interfaces both for existing SMEs and for new enterprises. For this reason the project involves intermediaries such as development agencies, enterprises associations/representatives and universities. These organisations have also a very good penetration at local level, which represents an important asset. Centres of Excellence involved can guarantee a good dissemination of information and coherent actions to stimulate and facilitate innovation in their territory

(b) This method will avoid implementation of dispersed interventions and will facilitate the development of a coherent action at national level, in every participating country. The project methodology of work will lead to the development of synergies and networks with other actors involved in enterprise development and innovation process such as local development organisations, venture capitalists, incubators, and communication and information services.

(c) The transfer of know how to the Mediterranean partners, is based on two essential criteria: the first one is the identification of good practices implemented by the European partners. This will reduce risks linked to the implementation phase and allow the adaptation of the methodology proposed to different social and economic environments. Secondly, the transfer of know-how will request a proactive effort from the Mediterranean partners. The direct involvement in the implementation is fundamental to strengthen and develop their ability to: manage the tools provided by the project, develop information and awareness raising tools that should boost the entrepreneurial potential in their countries, create and improve networks with other operators involved in the innovation process, being them institutional or private.

(d) Action is oriented towards an easy and open exploitation by the final users: potential entrepreneurs and existing enterprises. The tools that will be shared by the network of CoE are user friendly and flexible enough to be adapted to different needs. The project is demand driven: the most important factor to demonstrate the effectiveness of actions undertaken will be the requests for financing and for intervention by the final users on the basis of a sustainable and effective project submitted for financing to be developed when the Centres will be established. It is important to note that this activity will help creation of new information networks but also consolidation of existing networks at local level, since the diffusion of information at all levels is absolutely necessary to reach the demand potential even in more peripheral areas of the participating countries.

(e) MED PRIDE will contribute to the diffusion of the use of information society technologies at two levels: (i) at institutional level, since a consistent part of the CoE work will be undertaken through internet (creation of a dedicated web site, fruition of distance learning through satellite technologies, exchange of documents and information through a dedicated area of the portal, creation of a private communication area between every CoE and its local network); (ii) at public level, enhancing the social and economic environment through: creation of innovative enterprises where the use of ICT and high technology is a fundamental component, support to take up of innovation by existing SMEs operating in traditional sectors, where the need to improve performances is very strong.

Results: 

1. Creation of Centres of Excellence or task forces dedicated to foster innovation and economic growth through a better use of ICT.

2. Creation and adoption of specific and customised models for enterprise creation and innovation in each participating country.

3. Creation of new Innovation Action Tool-Kits, on the basis of needs expressed by the Mediterranean CoEs and enterprises.

4. Groups of trained personnel will be able to deal with the creation of innovative, ICT based companies.

5. Create an international network to facilitate exchange of experiences, transfer of know-how and co-operation.

6. Adoption of technological innovation and ICT based solutions by a number of SMEs throughout the involved countries.

7. Access to better & wider customised information through internet, particularly via the MEDPRIDE web site (thanks to its navigation features) and the targeted links with other web sites.

8. Improved access to technological and financial support, thanks to the work undertaken by the CoE.

9. Improved ability by SMEs to take up with new opportunities offered by IS and ICT tools and solutions (E-business, e-commerce, new ways for marketing products, availability of new products, etc.).

Project Management: 

The project will be managed according to the following organisation:
• A Management Board (MB) will be nominated at the starting of the project. Each MEDPRIDE partner will appoint one representative. The MB will be chaired by the Coordinating partner. The Coordinating partner, in normal conditions, shall convene meetings every six months.
• The MB will be in charge of the global project strategy.
• The overall project management will be under the responsibility of the Co-ordinating partner.
• Each Contractor will appoint:
a) a Project Manager,
b) an Administrative Officer
• The Project Technical Committee (PTC) will include the Project Managers appointed by the Partners and will be chaired by the Project Co-ordinator. PTC will meet every 3 months.
• The PTC will be in charge of define common work methodologies, standards and tools, coordinate the different activities undertaken by different partner, during the project life; formulate and review activities related to publications and press releases with regard to the project, monitor the results achieved during the entire project; validate the deliverables,
• Check the time of activities and respect of schedules by every partner.
• Each work package coordinator will be responsible for the coordination of specific work package related activities.

Web site: http://www.medpride.net

Project Coordinator: Roberto, SALIOLA (more details ...)

Project Manager: Simona, CIGLIANO (more details ...)

Leading partner

Italy

Sviluppo Italia SpA [http://www.sviluppoitalia.it]

Participating Partners