NEWSLETTER— COGNAC Project
NEWSLETTER—COGNAC
INNOVA Észak‐Alföld Regional Development and Innovation Agency
Coordination of R&D&I policies and their coherence with other policies
in the Newly Acceded Countries
The project called COGNAC and coherence of the R&D&I
(Coordination of R&D&I poli‐ policies focusing on the public
cies and their coherence with research spending and policy
other policies in Newly Ac‐ mixes and comprehensively
ceded Countries) is a project the SMEs and research target
financed by the Sixth Frame‐ areas. The key priority of the
work Programme of the Euro‐ project is to directly enhance
Valladolid,Spain, 3rd Project Managment
pean Community for Research the research and development Unit Meeting, 4th‐5th June, 2007
Technological Development issues by the exploitation of
and Demonstration Activities. additional use and possibilities
The official project starting of the parallel projects and by The advantages of a systemic
date was 23rd October 2006 the coordination of the re‐ approach by inter‐programme
and will continue till the 23rd gional policy making processes relationships ensures a unique
January 2009. (RIS‐NAC, Structural Funds), opportunity to create optimal
so that the added‐value of the linkage to other related activi‐
internal/final r e s u l t s ties of the EU and other inter‐
In the project there are 7 coun‐
(deliverables) and the syner‐ national bodies and a sustain‐
tries participating: 2 experi‐
gies of the parallel running able, coordinated use and
enced ones countries are:
projects and activities will be structured availability of this
Spain and Austria; and the
exploited. high value knowledge and in‐
others are Bulgaria, Czech Re‐
formation databases.
public, Hungary, Slovakia and
Poland as Newly Acceded The objective of the proposal
Countries. Altogether there was to develop and design The project is structured in
are 16 partners contributing to coherent R&D&I policies by seven work packages and each
the success of the project: one the coordination of the RIS‐ work package is managed by a
regional administration au‐ NAC and Structural Funds WP leader. The co‐ordinator
thorities and one implement‐ policy development and other INNOVA (INNOVA Észak‐
ing body of the Regional Inno‐ activities. Furthermore to Alföld Regional Development
vation Strategy projects from strengthen the role of research and Innovation Agency) serves
each region and Hungary is policies in the policy mixes of as project co‐ordinator and is
represented in the project by 2 the RISs and other policies at responsible for the project
regions. regional, national and EU level management .
by exploiting the synergies and
The project aims to support to develop a mutual learning
the regional dimension of the process to disseminate „good
European Research Area by policy practices” and bench‐
increasing the effectiveness marking activities.
Project financed by the Sixth Framework Programme of the European
Community for Research Technological Development and Demonstration
Activities
Page 2 NEWSLETTER— COGNAC Project
COGNAC methodology
In order to achieve all objectives, state of the art study of the CO‐ ties with operative measures and
the project pursues a linear, clear GNAC regions based on the map‐ possible intervention areas. The
and consistent project structure. ping phase. exploitation of the project results
The effective research work at regional and national level is
started with the information gath‐ ensured by a professional Advi‐
ering phase. This workpackage After the determination of com‐ sory Group composed by national
mapped the R&D&I policies, pro‐ mon priorities, objectives, a trans‐ level policy makers from each
jects and performers at regional, ferability model had been devel‐ country. The task of this advisory
national and EU level. The ad‐hoc oped to help to disseminate “good group is to ensure the dissemina‐
expert group established for this practices” and benchmarking ac‐ tion of the project results at na‐
task examined the scientific/ tivities. For the model the critical tional level and to harmonize the
economic background, framework success factors of “good‐practices” results with other policy mixes.
conditions, regulatory and admin‐ related to research and innovation
istrative factors, institutional sys‐ had been identified.
tems/structures/actors, the na‐
tional level programming works Finally, areas requiring comple‐
and growth pole programmes in mentary and mutually reinforcing
the region/ country and technol‐ actions had been identified, com‐
ogy foresight existing in the re‐plemented by the development of
gions. trans‐national concerted policy
actions and joint initiatives. An
The benchmarking of R&D&I poli‐ action plan was prepared, comple‐
cies and activities resulted the menting the catalogue of priori‐
Mapping of RDI activities
As European regions are heterogeneous, a systematic approach had to be used in order to analyze the data nec‐
essary for developing recommendations to effective national and regional RDI policies. The objective of Work‐
package2 was to map and analyze scientific, technological and innovation activities, knowledge base and excel‐
lence in the participating regions, countries and in the European Union.
The main activities under Workpackage2 were launched at the beginning of 2007 with a great contribution of
all COGNAC project partners. In order to furnish all appropriate data to the workpackage leaders, the structure
and form of necessary data had to be defined. After few round‐tables of discussions a template for gathering
information was agreed. A partner from each region was responsible for filling the template and delivering it to
TUKE.
Information gathered within Workpackage2 included basic socio‐economic indicators, description of regional
and national R&D&I policies and activities and R&D&I policy monitoring and foresight systems; identification
of research projects with regional impact, list of up to ten regional excellent projects, database for excellence
thesaurus; list of institutions dealing with RDI on national and regional level and their description; database of
key regional players and decision makers. Information gathered within Workpackage2 provided other work‐
packages basic input for their analyses and studies.
Deliverables created within Workpackage2 included
‐ key regional players inventory (a database of 20 – 50 key regional R&D&I actors in each participating
region),
‐ excellence thesaurus (a database of regional excellence projects, institutions, SMEs and experts),
‐ project managers database (a database of project managers in the field of RDI with experience in running
international projects),
‐ politicians database (a database of decision makers).
Project financed by the Sixth Framework Programme of the European Community
for Research Technological Development and Demonstration Activities
NEWSLETTER—COGNAC Project Page 3
Benchmarking of R&D&I policies and activities
The benchmarking practice of COGNAC project resulted a state of the art study, which shows where the eight
partner regions are in the field of research and development and innovation. The study comprises from two
main parts: first a benchmarking exercise (quantitative comparison) of some chosen performance indicators,
second a comparison study (qualitative analysis) of the regional/national innovation background of the par‐
ticipating regions. This analysis and benchmarking phase served as basis (input) for the rest of the work done
in this project.
Total intramural R&D expenditure by sector of performance 2003
The benchmarking exercise is focusing on per‐ 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Castilla y León 0,08 0,33
formance indicators chosen by the consortium East Slovak
0,46
0,14 0,08 0,06
and divided on 2 main parts: regional economic Malopolska 0,26 0,20 0,38
performance and regional research performance. North Great Plain 0,25 0,07 0,37
This exercise resulted that the best in class region North-Hungary 0,08 0,03 0,16
is Styria amongst the COGNAC regions, however South Central Planning Region 0,05 0,12
the consortium decided not to follow the good Styria 2,20 0,13 1,00
practices only of Styria, but to try to find good Strední Morava 0,57 0,05 0,11
1,26
practices in the case of Newly Acceded Countries EU-15 0,25 0,42
Business enterprise sector
Government sector
as well. Higher education sector
Private non-profit sector
The comparison study focuses on similarities and differences regarding R&D&I policies, legal background, ini‐
tiatives, activities, projects with regional impacts, RIS priorities, information systems and regional/national
SWOT and technology foresight and top technology areas, branches, institutional structure and key players.
The comparison aimed to find the strength and the weaknesses of the diverse systems.
Transferability model of best practices
Transferability model of good practices identified in COGNAC partner regions (countries) is describing trans‐
ferability of different initiatives aimed at fulfillment of certain objectives in R&D&I development support. All
project participants led by the partner from Zlín Region, Czech Republic (Regional Authority of the Zlín Re‐
gion with help of regional Technology Innovation Centre) had identified their good regional initiatives (or
national ones but with significant regional impact) and those initiatives were described in details for identify‐
ing aspects influencing their transferability from one region to another. Initiatives are defined as programmes
of support or development projects and it was decided that each region will introduce maximally two best
initiatives for purpose of this project.
Together we have gathered detailed information about 14 initiatives of 8 partner regions and detailed descrip‐
tion of those initiatives with individual lists of conditions for transferability is one of outputs of the work
done. Conditions for transferability of each initiative are divided into two groups. The first group comprises
criteria for definition of the initiative which are general and basic, those which need to be fulfilled in any case
for the implementation of the initiative. The second group is “specific criteria of transferability” and these are
criteria which are critical for the success of the initiative. Such criteria were defined mostly by regional experts
on basis of successful experience with implementation of particular initiative and they offer us key informa‐
tion when we plan not only to implement any successful initiative from anywhere in our region but to ensure
successful implementation of this initiative in our region as well.
For creation of transferability model it was needed to sum up common features (especially objectives) of all
initiatives and it turned out to be little bit problematic since the scope of initiatives was too broad. Therefore
the workpackage leader have identified main areas of intervention of initiatives on basis of transnational cata‐
logue of priorities and formed 4 groups of initiatives accordingly – Networking and Infrastructure, Financing,
Direct Support to SME’s, Human Resources. Each group has its own model characterized by the strong focus
on the same objectives and each model describes basic features of transferability like key players of admini‐
stration, target groups, usual financial sources, above mentioned general and strategic conditions for transfer‐
ability and expected results to which the implementation of such initiatives should lead.
Project financed by the Sixth Framework Programme of the European Community
for Research Technological Development and Demonstration Activities
NEWSLETTER—COGNAC Project
Recommendations and action plan
Project partners:
‐ Regional Development Council in Foundation CARTIF, as the leader of WP5 has supervised the elaboration of the WP
the North Great Plain, Hungary fostering the mutual learning among all involved partners in the project and sup‐
‐ University of Debrecen Medical porting eventual cooperation processes. Through the development of the five deliv‐
and Health Science Centre, Faculty erables of the workpackage, it has been possible to achieve the two pursued objec‐
of Medicine, Hungary tives: identification of areas requiring complementary and mutually reinforcing
‐ Bay Zoltán Foundation for
actions, and joint policy initiatives and EU level recommendations.
Applied Research, Hungary
The starting points for the elaboration of the WP5 were the different innovation sys‐
‐ Kosice Self‐Governing Region,
tems and the priorities, and the public policies on R&D&I field in the COGNAC re‐
Slovakia
gions. The WP5 is focused on an action plan developed by the COGNAC partners
‐Technical University of Kosice,
coordinated by CARTIF. In order to elaborate an action plan according to the priori‐
Slovakia ties of the COGNAC regions in the R&D&I fields, a transnational catalogue on Priori‐
‐Junta De Castilla Y Leon, Spain ties was created gathering the specific objectives of the regions in that field. The
‐Fundación CARTIF, Spain catalogue considers on one hand the regional priorities, detected by means of a
‐ Internationalizierungs Center further analysis of the economic context, and on the other hand, the specific char‐
Steiermark, Austria acteristics of the COGNAC regions, detected by means of the analysis of regional
‐ Joanneum Research R&D&I SWOTs.
Forschungsgesellschaft GmbH,
Asutria It is very important to foster mutual learning among the involved partners and
‐ Krakow Technology Park Ltd., hence, the action plan is formed up by joint action initiatives proposed by the
Poland COGNAC partners, and based on the common interests in the R&D&I field among
‐ National Institute of Animal the involved partners. It is relevant to remark that the mutual learning process
Production, Poland has been fostered along of the project by means of the meetings in different in‐
‐ Applied Research and volved regions and by means of the transferability of R&D&I information, but this
Communications Fund, Bulgaria process has been more present in the last stage of the project because of the crea‐
‐ District Administration – Stara tion of the COGNAC Action Plan.
Zagora, Bulgaria
‐ Regional Authority of the Zlin
Region, Czech Republic
The elaboration of the COGNAC action plan has followed the stages of the decision
making model designed also in WP5. During the elaboration of the action plan
‐ Tomas Bata University in Zlin,
and bearing in mind its future implementation, the opinions of the responsible bod‐
Czech Republic
ies with capacity to take decisions in the R&D&I fields, have been considered in the
whole process. Furthermore, thanks to the collaboration of the responsible bodies,
the COGNAC action plan has a transnational approach, what lets to think of its
implementation in any COGNAC region.
Along with the Action Plan, and taking into account the experiences of partners on
the design, implementation and evaluation of initiatives and/or pilot projects and/
or R&D&I projects, a set of recommendations about mutually reinforcing action
and about transferability of the initiatives are gathered. As most of the involved
regions have not capacity of decision at regional level, both types of recommenda‐
tions are thought considering the regional level, but also the national level and the
EU level. Foundation CARTIF, in WP5, using the knowledge generated in the previ‐
ous project WPs and fostering the mutual learning among the COGNAC partners,
coordinates the development of the action plan. What supposes an open door for
future processes to cooperate in the development of the innovation systems in
the COGNAC regions.
Project financed by the Sixth Framework Programme of the European
Community for Research Technological Development and Demonstration
Activities