CO - INNOVATE

By project PASSPARTOOL

Published on 30 September 2020

Ireland

About this good practice

The practice seeks to increase the number of SMEs engaging in innovation, in particular through enhancing the innovation management capability of owner managers of SMEs.
This five year, €16.6M, INTERREG funded project between the six border counties of the Republic of Ireland, NI, Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise seeks to improve the innovation capabilities of a cohort of over 1,400 businesses. The programme is open to all existing micro, small and medium enterprises. Its priority sectors include Life Sciences, Agri-Food and Health.
The programme consists of a five stage process with 1,408 businesses entering stage 1 and only 19 accessing the supports under stage 5. Stage 5 support may be given to individual companies or a cluster of companies and will be toward the further development of a new product or service, and should follow on from the initial stages of the project.
Firms are initially screened using a Innovation Ready Reckoner (records key data (Stage1), a subsequent Business Status Review and an innovation audit (stage 2), followed by an innovation capability programme which consists of 10 days consultancy to assist a company develop its proposed project (stage3). Stage 4 consists of strategic intervention with a third level university or college over a 12 month period and stage 5 the provision of grant support of up to €300,000 at a rate of 50% .

Resources needed

This is a €16.6M project over a five year period with the majority of resources focussed on stages 4 and 5.

Evidence of success

Each stage of the project has set targets and the targets for stages 1-3 and 5 have almost been achieved.
Target numbers were:
Stage 1– 1,408 businesses
Stage 2– 1,200 businesses
Stage 3– 469 businesses
Stage 4– 70 businesses
Stage 5- 19 firms or clusters.
The Local Enterprise Office has responsibility for the local delivery of stages 1,2 and 3 and to date 51 firms have availed of stage 1 support( target 61), 48 stage 2 support ( target 61) and 2 stage 3( target 5).

Potential for learning or transfer

The model/practice involves a five stage funnel-like programme through which businesses journey and receive an increasing intensity of support at each stage.
The focus at stage 1 is on small and micro enterprises thus a cohort of owner managers not generally targeted for innovation capability development are directly engaged with.
The supports throughout the five stages are practical and tailored to the needs of the firms.
The cross-border nature of the co-operation between firms and between academic institutions.
The partnership management structure involving 6 partner organisations from three jurisdictions may be an interesting structure for other cross-border regions.