Version: Final Date: 11 April 2012 Regional Innovation Monitor Regional Innovation Report (Mazovia) To the European Commission Enterprise and Industry Directorate-General Directorate D – Industrial Innovation and Mobility Industries Jacek Walendowski Technopolis Group www.technopolis-group.com PREFACE The Regional Innovation Monitor (RIM)1 is an initiative of the European Commission's Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry, which has the objective to describe and analyse innovation policy trends across EU regions. RIM analysis is based on methodologies developed in the context of the INNO-Policy Trendchart, which covers innovation policies at national level as part of the PRO INNO Europe initiative. The overarching objective of this project is to enhance the competitiveness of European regions through increasing the effectiveness of their innovation policies and strategies. The specific objective of the RIM is to enhance the scope and quality of policy assessment by providing policy-makers, other innovation stakeholders with the analytical framework and tools for evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of regional policies and regional innovation systems. RIM covers EU-20 Member States: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. This means that RIM will not concentrate on Member States where the Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics NUTS 1 and 2 levels are identical with the entire country (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania), Malta which only has NUTS 3 regions, Slovenia which has a national innovation policy or Cyprus and Luxembourg which are countries without NUTS regions. The main aim of 50 regional reports is to provide a description and analysis of contemporary developments of regional innovation policy, taking into account the specific context of the region as well as general trends. All regional innovation reports are produced in a standardised way using a common methodological and conceptual framework, in order to allow for horizontal analysis, with a view to preparing the Annual EU Regional Innovation Monitor reports. European Commission official responsible for the project is Alberto Licciardello ([email protected]). The present report was prepared by Jacek Walendowski ([email protected]). The contents and views expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of the Member States or the European Commission. Copyright of the document belongs to the European Commission. Neither the European Commission, nor any person acting on its behalf, may be held responsible for the use to which information contained in this document may be put, or for any errors which, despite careful preparation and checking, may appear. 1 http://www.rim-europa.eu Table of Contents 1. Main Trends and Challenges in the Regional Innovation System 1 1.1 Recent trends in regional economic performance 1 1.2 Recent trends in regional innovation performance 3 1.3 Identified challenges 5 2. Innovation Policy Governance 6 2.1 Degree of institutional autonomy 6 2.2 Institutional-set up, co-ordination and implementation mechanisms 7 2.3 Availability and use of policy intelligence tools 11 2.4 Key challenges and opportunities 12 3. Innovation Policy Instruments and Orientations 14 3.1 The regional innovation policy mix 14 3.2 Appraisal of regional innovation policies 20 3.3 Good practice case 23 3.4 Portfolio of innovation support measures 24 3.5 Towards smart specialisation policies 26 3.6 Possible future orientations and opportunities 30 Appendices Appendix A Bibliography................................................................................................32 Appendix B Stakeholders consulted...............................................................................34 Appendix C RIM Repository information ......................................................................35 Appendix D Statistical data ............................................................................................36 Regional Innovation Monitor i Figures Figure 1-1 Economic and innovation performance indicators........................................ 4 Figure 2-1 Timeline of Priority Setting of Regional Innovation Strategies .................... 8 Figure 2-2 Management and implementation structure of the Regional Innovation Strategy............................................................................................................................10 Figure 3-1 Flagship projects realised in the framework of Measure 1.1 Strengthening of research and development sector. ..................................................................................16 Figure 3-2 Flagship projects realised in the framework of Measure 1.4 Strengthening business intermediary organisations.............................................................................. 17 Figure 3-3 Examples of projects realised in the framework of Measure 1.5 Development of entrepreneurship.................................................................................. 17 Tables Table 3-1 Overview of the regional innovation policy mix.............................................15 Table 3-2 Existing regional innovation support measures ............................................19 Table 3-3 Key regional innovation indicators ................................................................21 ii Regional Innovation Monitor Executive Summary 1. Introduction: Main recent trends in the Regional Innovation System The economy of Mazovia is developing rapidly, at about 7% per annum. Among the main competitive advantages of Mazovia are: strong research potential, the presence of the main financial institutions and qualified staff. As a result, it is not surprising that Mazovia is a leading Polish region in terms of inflow of foreign direct investment. During the last three years for which data are available (since 2007), annual average investments are estimated at about €4.69b. Two particular issues of concern, however, are the large number of companies that have ceased trading, and growing public debt. The analysis of innovation performance over the last ten years shows a mix of both positive and negative trends. Mazovia has certainly improved its performance, especially in terms of R&D and innovation investment intensity. Recent developments also show that there has been a consolidation of efforts and activities undertaken by different R&D performers. On the other hand, there are still major structural barriers that have not been resolved, such as a high share of R&D activities funded by the State. 2. Major innovation challenges and policy responses Based on the analysis of main trends in the Regional Innovation System (RIS), the following three main challenges for the regions have been identified: Challenge 1: Strengthen the diffusion process between the metropolitan area and sub-regions. In particular, there is a need to identify areas of shared interest between different sub- regions and the Warsaw area. It is also necessary to establish a better understanding about the drivers required for innovative start-ups to be established outside the Warsaw area. All this will be a difficult task, but the overarching objective (ideal scenario) should be to develop strong sub-regional poles mutually co-operating with the Warsaw area and with each other as much as possible. Challenge 2: Establish greater prioritisation in the future innovation programmes. Keeping in mind that Mazovia could lose convergence region status in the next programming period of the EU Structural Fund interventions, the challenge is not only to find new sources of funding, but also above all to establish linkages with the national funding system to maximise the added value of regional programmes during the forthcoming programming period. At present the national and regional programmes offer similar types of support. Challenge 3: Pay grater attention to the role of foreign direct investments and growth of existing companies. As noted earlier, Mazovia is a leading Polish region in terms of inflow of foreign direct investments. For SMEs, those investments represent an opportunity to become more actively involved in international business activities. For policy makers, the challenge is to watch closely the developments and establish an environment conducive to co- operation and innovation. It is also observed that on balance the trend in terms of creation of new companies is positive, but the numbers of companies that ceased trading is substantial. The focus should be placed on increasing the survival rate of operating companies. Regional Innovation Monitor i 3. Innovation policy governance The overall autonomy of the regional authorities vis-à-vis the central government is important, although not as strong as in other decentralised governance systems in the EU. Launched in June 2005, the RIS-Mazovia project aimed at fostering co-operation between the scientific and research institutions, industry, and local and regional government administration. The Regional Assembly formally adopted the Strategy in April 2008. The post-RIS Mazovia activities have been continued with support provided from the ESF programme ‘Human Capital Operational Programme 2007- 2013’. While there have been some changes in the management and co-ordination of RIS (since 2005), including the establishment of the Regional