Limburg (Belgium) PROJECT TOTAL ERDF ERDF URL - WEB ADRESS POPULATION LIMBURGACRONYM BUDGET CONTRIBUTION OBJECTIVE Strategic Plan Innovation: New Opportunities For ECU 498,954 2 761,565 the Future in Limburg CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVES DEVELOPING A REGIONAL INNOVATION PARTNERSHIP Limburg is a small province located at the eastern edge of Flanders, bordering with the Netherlands Strategisch Plan Limburg being an established plat- and Germany. Limburg is part of the Euregion form took the initiative to bring the main regional Meuse / Rhine: Maastricht, Aachen, Liège, Hasselt. players together in an innovation partnership. The From a mainly rural area, the region was trans- Steering Committee, the main executive body of the formed into a coal mining region at the beginning of RIS exercise, is composed of members of govern- this century. The closing of the mines in recent ment (local and regional), organisations (unions and decades presented a major socio-economic prob- employers), private sector (industry and services), lem for the region. A reconversion plan was drafted institutions (university and polytechnics). In order to and executed by the Flemish government. ensure a business focus, a captain of industry, a senior director of Philips Electronics, was invited to Alongside this plan a platform was formed by the be chairman of the steering committee. employers organisation in 1987 in order to co-ordi- nate the local actors in helping to build a new eco- Local resources were largely tapped for the analy- nomic structure. In the decade since Strategisch sis phase with a specialist in innovation management Plan Limburg was formed three key objectives have and strategy from Limburgs Universitair Centrum been defined and pursued: contracted to lead the interviews and workshops of the SME needs analysis. A total of 30 SME’s, • Developing star sectors; selected from seven ‘star sectors’ were chosen for • Education and training of managers (SME’s); interviewing and in addition seven workshops were organised in sub-regional industry clubs with some • Promotion of technology and innovation. 100 SME’s attending. In order to facilitate wider com- The third objective was realised by starting the RIS.- parison of the results, the questionnaire used was Limburg project. From the outset, an ambitious aim based on the ‘Repertory Grid’ method applied in the for the project was set by the Steering Committee: RITTS-Flanders project. The questionnaire was “A larger share of innovative products and services adapted and improved in collaboration with an expert in the total economic output of the region”. from the Catholic University of Louvain (KUL) for more in depth interviewing. An expert from the KUL STEERING COMMITTEE carried out interviews with the main business and innovation support organisations (some 30 interviews Chair: Senior Director, Philips Electronics. in 24 organisations). Prior to starting the supply anal- Members representing: ysis, the KUL team also carried out some interviews Public authorities and agencies: European Com- of SME’s in the needs analysis study, in order to mission; GOM Limburg; Management Committee appreciate the typical problems regarding innovation Objective 2 Limburg; Provincial Government; Flem- and business support. ish Government. Social partners: ABVV (Trade At the end of the analysis phase, a launch meeting union); ACV (Trade union); KHNL (Chamber of Com- was arranged in order to give the project an exten- merce); NCMV (employers); Strategisch Plan Lim- sive media coverage and to ensure the commitment burg; VIA (employers); VKW (employers). Private of the 170 SME’s and organisations present for the sector: Generale Bank; Helvoet Pharma; Inalfa; implementation phase of Spin Off-Limburg. Paclan; Plastruco; Radson; Radson Alutherm; Higher Education: Katholieke Hogeschool Limburg; FIRST RESULTS AND PILOT PROJECT Limburgs Universitair Centrum; Provinciale Hoge- school Limburg Three long term objectives were chosen as a result of the first phase findings: streamline the interme- diary infrastructure; increase the customer focus of all players in the innovation infrastructure (including government); stimulate internal innovation in SMEs. In order to develop a vision and to prepare the implementation phase, four pilot projects were launched each looking respectively at how innova- tion can be stimulated by SMEs themselves, 32 G government; intermediaries; and education and Although already active in cross-broder co-opera- research. For each of the four pilot projects, a task- tion the RIS has provided the opportunity for the force has been established, chaired by a captain of partnership to open up new contacts on a wider industry, and composed of approximately 25 mem- European level. One concrete example is the deci- bers, representing companies, institutions and sion to choose Wales as a best practice region for organisations. After an initial meetings of the pilot benchmarking purposes. From the start Limburg projects working groups, the following short- and was also part of the ‘Industrial Regions’ subgroup long-term projects are taking shape: of the RIS-RITTS network. Several meetings were held in different regions which was very useful for • PLATO-project around the theme: innovation in sharing experiences and working methods. Limburg SME’s; is now participating in a TRIPS (Trans Regional Inno- • establish a ‘Regional Innovation Forum’; vation Projects) together with Castilla y Leon, Aragon and Wales which will concern the theme of • one central access and communication point for supply chains in the automotive sector. regional and local government; • establishing a Forum SME’s/Local Government; APPLYING TECHNOLOGY FORESIGHT AT THE REGIONAL LEVEL • improve coherence and insight in innovation sup- ply for SME’s; An important aspect of the RIS approach to sup- porting the “star” industrial sectors of the province • first stop shop for SME’s when consulting inter- was the undertaking of a technology trends analy- mediaries; sis. For Limburg, as part of a small open economy, • improve vocational training for the 7 star sectors it is important to take into account the business and of the region; industry evolution on a European and worldwide scale. It was decided to work on the basis of the trends • establish an ‘Open Learning Center’ in the local defined by the UK’s Technology Foresight exercise. university (L.U.C.); The UK exercise, based on working groups of aca- • streamline the co-operation between SME’s and demics and company directors, had set out a range Schools. of themes out of which the following four were The overall RIS will be built around these pilot proj- selected for their relevance to the future develop- ects with the aim being to have the pilot projects up ment of Limburg: 1- the changing business envi- and running by the end of 1998. The four task- ronment; 2- patterns of work & leisure; 3- security forces of the pilot projects will form an “innovation & safety in private and professional activities; 4- Forum” acting as a “sounding board” for the imple- increased use of sensors & control instruments; 5- mentation of the Spin Off-Limburg action plan. computer modelling & simulation. These trends will be used to set objectives and provide targets for the IMPACT ON REGIONAL POLICY innovation strategy. AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVES It is already evident that the RIS project will not end in December 1998 at the end of the period of ERDF co-financing. Indeed the project is more like a feasability study and action plan leading to the launch of activities and projects. In particular, it is clear that the Steering Committe will remain in place after the project is finished, albeit in a modified form. It is foreseen to organize an annual ‘Spin Off meet- ing’ in order to maintain the level of innovation ¨ CONTACT awareness and to foster contacts with the socio- economic actors including those of partner regions. Dirk Broeckx Strategisch Plan Limburg Tel: +32-11/591432 Fax: +32-11/591434 E-mail: [email protected] 33.