Thematic Pole 2 - Danube Region Synergy Workshop 'Research - Innovation - Knowledge Society'
'The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.' Lao Tzu
The Thematic Pole 2 has incorporated the capitalisation methodology devised by the DTP, and the process has already been kicked off by organizing the Danube Region Synergy Workshop “Research – Innovation – Knowledge Society” held in Vienna on 30 March 2017. The TP 2 invited, as well, the projects belonging to TPs 1 and 3, since the aim of the Synergy Workshop was to gather information on the potential synergies between projects belonging to these three TPs (TP1, TP2 and TP3). For this purposes, all 17 projects funded under priority area 1 „innovative and socially responsible Danube Region” were invited to participate and detect projects' synergies.
TP 2 went further in searching potential synergies among projects – not only within pre-defined thematic poles, but also beyond them and invited the programme Interreg V-A Slovakia-Austria.
Here, the special thank you goes to the Danube-INCO.NET project who initiaited the workshop along with the two DTP funded projects ResInfra@DR and Excellence in ReSTI that used the opportunity for their kick-offs.
Workshop methodology
The projects were invited to make a short (max. 7-minute-long) presentation focusing on the following aspects of each project:
• Topic and title of project, link to previous action if important;
• Objectives and expected results;
• Partnership and roles;
• Activities planned;
• Outputs incl. target groups also beyond partnership;
• Potential synergies with other initiatives or projects (offers and needs);
• Contact, additional information.
This format was used in order to focus only on the exploration of possible synergies and promotion of networking by providing basic, targeted project information, thus contributing to the ongoing capitalisation process.
Prior to the Synergy Workshop, all interested project participants received a “feedback form for the presentation session of the synergy workshop”, which had to be filled-out by each project. The feedback form contained 2 main sections: “project information” and “project activities”. Each presenter filled out the basic project information (according to slides), then added 3-5 simple project actions/activities/initiatives to the “project activities” section with which the other projects might be interested in establishing synergies with.
The basic idea was that every participant received this feedback form about the other projects during the presentation session and had the chance to indicate immediately – i.e. during the presentation of the other participants – the possible synergies.
The filled-out feedback forms thus provided at the end of the presentation session a short overview on the potential synergies among projects – not only within pre-defined thematic poles, but also beyond them.
Results
The following activities were indicated at the “project activities” section of the feedback form (i.e. the synergies were looked for in case of these activities/actions/initiatives).
D-STIR:
• raising awareness on Responsible Research and Innovation – RRI
• dissemination of information on STIR – Socio-Technical Integration Research method
• transnational cooperation, involvement and mobilising of Danube actors in the field of Responsible Research and Innovation
ResInfra@DR:
• Dialogue meetings on research infrastructure (including the specified target groups)
• Training participation or information which I can widespread in out community
• Participation in the Peer to Peer pilot actions as (a) an organisation hosting/developing a research infrastructure or (b) involvement in the Peer team visiting research infrastructures or their host to support as expert
• Interest to use the outputs of the project as the produced guidelines and strategy in other processes
• Generally interested to receive an update on the developments like through subscription to newsletter
RI2Integrate:
• Matchmaking along Quadruple Helix on research infrastructure utilization
• RI related business ecosystem development
• PPI related tool development
• Community awareness raising on RIs
• Knowledge transfer training for practitioners
With regard to the synergies within thematic pole 2 (i.e. among the 3 projects above), all participants from projects ResInfra@DR and RI2Integrate think that a synergy exists with D-STIR activity “raising awareness on Responsible Research and Innovation – RRI”. ResInfra@DR partners also indicated an existing link to activity “transnational cooperation, involvement and mobilising of Danube actors in the field of Responsible Research and Innovation”, which further underlines the importance of RRI and a synergy-building and networking possibility along the lines of various RRI-related activities.
Based on the responses, RRI seems to be the also interesting for the two projects that have Research Infrastructures in focus. Partners from different countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Serbia) expressed their interest in RRI and its dissemination process, while Serbian and Bosnian partners also mentioned previous participation in RRI-related projects, which can be used as a starting point for further common future activities (e.g. projects).
D-STIR activity “dissemination of information on STIR – Socio-Technical Integration Research method” received less positive feedback, but its importance still cannot be downplayed – maybe the method is not as known as or more specific than RRI therefore less participants saw an existing synergy between D-STIR and their projects in this field.
With regard to RI2Integrate activities, most partners found that there exists a synergy with “knowledge transfer training for practitioner” within the framework of their project. Serbian and Bosnian partners expressed their interests also in sharing experiences on knowledge transfer, pointed out similarities between DTP projects RI2Integrate and ResInfra@DR, as well as referred to previous projects of similar topics (technology/knowledge transfer) in which they participated (Erasmus+).
Further interests were shown by partners in case of activities “Matchmaking along Quadruple Helix on research infrastructure utilization” and “RI related business ecosystem development” – this indicates potential synergies in relation to research infrastructures, in addition to RRI and knowledge transfer activities.
If we look into the potential synergies beyond the pre-defined thematic pole (including partners from other thematic poles), we observe that the most potential synergies exist with activities “raising awareness on Responsible Research and Innovation – RRI “ and “transnational cooperation, involvement and mobilising of Danube actors in the field of Responsible Research and Innovation“ within project D-STIR .
Excellence-in-ResTI project partners were mostly interested in and requested more information about the pilots, indicating that D-STIR and Excellence-in-ReSTI has a similar target group (higher education and research and SMEs). Excellence-in-ReSTI partners found the concept of RRI interesting and saw potential synergies concerning awareness-raising and dissemination or participation in pilots (both from the side of higher education institutes and business entities).
From the policy-maker’s side, the representative of Interreg V-A Slovakia-Austria programme clearly indicated a synergy with “knowledge transfer” and was interested in institutional cooperation through D-STIR giving information about RRI-related activities (e.g. activities in pilots in business and academia sectors and on Danube Region level), which can be disseminated to potential beneficiaries of the Interreg programme via consultation (e.g. in a period of preparing the project application).
CrowdStream was another project interested in all activities of project D-STIR.
With regard to project RI2Integrate, most partners saw a synergy with activity “knowledge transfer training for practitioners”, followed by activities “Matchmaking along Quadruple Helix on research infrastructure utilization” and “RI related business ecosystem development”.
Higher education partners of project Excellence-in-ReSTI mentioned a match with their own activities in the sense that transfer of innovations from university to economy is not sufficiently used and – as RI2Integrate proposes – should be encouraged through trainings and tools. The Hungarian partner in project Excellence-in-ReSTI has also foreseen joint events and stakeholder meetings with RI2Integrate given the common interest of the 2 projects (mainly knowledge transfer) and the fact that both projects are run by Hungarian Lead Partners.
Project SENSES was also interested in the knowledge transfer training activities. INNOHPC was also interested in the knowledge transfer training, but also in “PPI-related tool development” and “matchmaking along quadruple helix on research infrastructure utilization”.
Accelerator indicated a synergy with activity “RI-related business ecosystem development” in the sense of involving SMEs in the accelerator schemes of the project.
A Danube INCO.NET partner saw a synergy with activity ““matchmaking along quadruple helix on research infrastructure utilization” and offered support to activities addressing the policy level as part of the “Quadruple-Helix” model.
As in the case of D-STIR, the representative of Interreg V-A Slovakia-Austria programme saw a potential in linking the beneficiaries of SK-AT programme with the RI2 beneficiaries; the synergy is based upon knowledge transfer.
With regard to project ResInfra@DR, synergies were mainly seen in case of activities “Dialogue meetings on research infrastructure” followed by activities “Training participation or information which I can widespread in out community” and “Generally interested to receive an update on the developments like through subscription to newsletter”.
1 higher education partner in Excellence-in-ReSTI and 1 business partner in NewGenerationSkills projects (from Thematic Pole 3) were interested in dialogue meetings on research infrastructures, and participation in trainings or pilot actions.
Danube INCO.NET partners also saw synergies with regard to research infrastructure through dialogue meetings or training participation. INNOHCP saw synergies – in addition to dialogue meetings – with participation in the peer-to-peer pilot actions.
Interreg V-A Slovakia-Austria indicated a generally interest (relevant information on research infrastructures) and suggested that information transfer might be provided on the Interreg webpage so the beneficiaries (who are of interest) might be informed and have access in the news.
In conclusion, there are clear synergy possibilities between projects D-STIR, RI2Integrate and ResInfra@DR (Thematic Pole2) and Excellence-in-ReSTI and SENSES (Thematic Pole 3) in relation to “knowledge transfer” activities, which is also of interest to other Interreg initiatives (such as Interreg V-A Slovakia-Austria). In case of some interested partners, synergies are seen and can be further developed between ResInfra@DR and other projects in Thematic Pole 1 (INNOHPC) and Thematic Pole 3 (New Generation Skills) with regard to dialogue meetings on research infrastructure or participation in/information on trainings.
