Final Report Summary - KVOUCHER (Implementation of a Transeuropean Knowledge Voucher System) A knowledge voucher is a coupon that entitles small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to receive a certain amount of consultancy / research from knowledge-intensive organisations, so-called knowledge institutions (KIs). Vouchers are rapidly becoming one of the main tools to promote the access of SMEs to research and innovation, and nowadays several dozens of voucher schemes are active in European regions. Some of these schemes are limited to the geographical regional borders, others admit the participation of external KIs. But even in the most open cases, SMEs seldom take advantage of transregionality, thus losing the possibility of receiving the most convenient service, regardless of the geographic location of the provider. The overall objective of KVOUCHER is therefore the promotion and improvement of transeuropean knowledge transfer from knowledge providers to SMEs through the implementation of a cross-border Knowledge Voucher system, so a company in one region will get the possibility through a voucher to 'buy competence' and carry out a joint pilot project or study together with a knowledge provider (a KI,) in a different region. Seven European Union (EU) regions joined efforts for this experiment: Noord Brabant, Flanders, Valencia, Veneto, Wielkopolska, Munich and South Ostrobothnia. After carrying a SWOT analysis and a benchmarking exercise in order to determine success factors, the main challenge of KVOUCHER was to include and promote transregionality into the partners' regional voucher schemes for 2010-2011. This was done through marketing actions among local SMEs and KIs, adapting existing programmes to transregionality modifying when needed their procedures and operation, and, in some places, creating a new voucher programme. This was the case of Wielkopolska, where the regional authority approved in March 2011 their new voucher programme inspired by the KVOUCHER experience. Twenty SMEs from five regional voucher programmes were guided in a pilot experience through various degrees of the matchmaking procedure with KI providers from outside their own region by a brokerage network built by the partner regions specifically for KVOUCHER. Through monitoring and evaluation activities, feedback was collected in order to draw conclusions and recommendations for improving the current programmes and/or implementing new ones. The website http://www.kvoucher.eu received during its 15 months of existence over 2600 visits from more than 1600 different visitors from 70 different countries. Five newsletters were issued during the life of the project, five transregional workshops for observer regions were held in different partner locations, and the project was closed by a final conference on May 11, 2011 at the House of the Dutch Provinces in Brussels, attended by partners' representatives, regional observers, public authorities and European Commission (EC) officers. The growing number of voucher schemes among the European regions tells us that vouchers are here to stay, as a tool providing a great impact among SMEs with a reasonably low investment. We think that the KVOUCHER effort has strengthened the sustainability of vouchers in Europe and the KVOUCHER partner and observer regions are open to continue with this effort in the future. Project context and objectives: Knowledge and knowledge transfer are key elements for innovation of the European industrial framework. Mostly this transfer is not obvious, the difficulties arise when one of the sides is not structurally or even culturally ready to play its role in the exchange, especially when SMEs are on the receiving side of the knowledge transfer process. Since doing business is more and more a global issue, SMEs need to use the best available expertise, even if this expertise has to be obtained in another country. For knowledge providers, there exists a similar need. They want to exhibit their expertise to companies in their country, but to an increasing extent they also need an international projection as well. An incentive mechanism in the form of interregional knowledge vouchers attempts to bridge this gap and to lower the barriers for establishing collaborations among regions in different countries. Simply put, a knowledge voucher is a coupon that entitles SMEs to receive a certain amount of consultancy / research from knowledge-intensive organisations, so-called KIs. A company in one region will get the possibility through a voucher to 'buy competence' and carry out a joint pilot project or study together with a knowledge provider (a KI,) in the other region. Vouchers are rapidly becoming one of the main tools to promote the access of SMEs to research and innovation The overall objective of KVOUCHER is therefore the promotion and improvement of transeuropean knowledge transfer from knowledge providers to SMEs through the implementation of a cross-border knowledge voucher system. This implies the following specific objectives: a) to prepare a standardised methodology and toolkit for the description, analysis and benchmarking of existing voucher systems and for application to the interested partner regions; b) to develop common specifications for a shared transregional voucher system as well as a mechanism to adapt it to any specific EU environment. KVOUCHER will become integrated in existing systems of partner regions, and will be the foundation for a new system in partner regions that do not have one; c) to provide SMEs, KIs and stakeholders with proper tools in order to access, use and maintain a voucher system; d) to analyse the conditions under which a joint KVOUCHER pilot could be carried out and prepare an action plan for its implementation; e) to implement a real-life joint pilot in order to validate the transregional voucher system involving between 20 and 30 SMEs selected from the different partner regions. Each of them will get a voucher to receive support from KIs located in the remaining partner regions; f) to design and apply a set of indicators in order to evaluate the performance of the transregional voucher system; g) to execute the proper dissemination actions in order to create awareness in the partner regions and expand the voucher system beyond the consortium boundaries through the creation of a network of observers. Project results: The project started with knowledge gathering activities aimed at providing the right framework for the set up of an operating transregional voucher system based on the existing local regional programmes. First, a methodology was designed for data collection and benchmarking of voucher schemes. A data collection template was prepared and used to collect in-depth information about the partners' regional voucher schemes. This included a SWOT analysis, leading to the identification of success factors and the benchmarking of the regional schemes. At the same time, tools needed for embedding transregionality into the local voucher systems were designed and implemented: - an initial database of knowledge providers in the partner regions, to be used as a first reference in the transregional matchmaking; - a network of brokers, considered as the right intermediaries between the SMEs and the foreign KI providers. Next step was to include and promote transregionality into the local voucher schemes for 2010-2011. Some programmes had already this possibility, although geographically limited and seldom used. In other cases, the original system only contemplated local KI providers. Other partner regions just did not have any running voucher scheme. Therefore, some parallel actions were taken: - market among the local SMEs the potential of using the local voucher to purchase the best knowledge available regardless of geography, and among the local KI providers the possibility to sell their services outside the regional boundaries; - adapt, if necessary modifying / updating the current procedures, the regional programmes to admit foreign KIs paid with the local voucher; - build 'from scratch' voucher schemes in places where they did not exist. Then came the moment when the voucher calls were open, and the project partners - especially the brokers' network created among them - started to actively interface between SMEs and KIs looking for the most convenient matchmaking. Twenty SMEs from five regional voucher programmes were guided through various degrees of the matchmaking procedure with KI providers from outside their own region, and although just a few reached a successful end, there are others still in process and even the failed ones provided a good deal of information. The pilot experiences were in fact monitored in detail with a double objective: - to compile the development of each contact SME-KI in order to have a complete picture of the transregional experience, study its particularities and come up with ideas to improve the system; - to collect information needed to feed indicators especially designed to evaluate the pilot experience, its success and its impact. We catalogue as relevant results of KVOUCHER: - the methodology and tools to analyse voucher programmes and benchmark them; - a set of specifications and recommendations to implement voucher programmes with embedded transregionality; - the sustainability of the transregional approach in the regional voucher programmes of the partner regions; - special mention deserves the creation of a brand new regional voucher programme in Wielkopolska, under the inspiration of KVOUCHER; - a brokerage network among the seven partner regions with strong personal and professional bonds, the identification of brokerage as a key factor in transregional vouchers, and guidelines for their operation. Potential impact: The growing number of voucher schemes among the European regions tells us that vouchers are here to stay, as a tool providing a great impact among SMEs with a reasonably low investment. We think that the KVOUCHER effort has strengthened the sustainability of vouchers in Europe and the KVOUCHER partner and observer regions are open to continue with this effort in the future. Dissemination activities were used to spread the experiences and results of KVOUCHER among the actors and stakeholders in the partner regions, but also among other regions outside the project consortium. The website http://www.kvoucher.eu received during its 15 months of existence over 2600 visits from more than 1600 different visitors from 70 different countries. Five newsletters were issued during the life of the project, five transregional workshops for observer regions were held in different partner locations, and the project was closed by a final conference on May 11, 2011 at the House of the Dutch Provinces in Brussels, attended by partners' representatives, regional observers, public authorities and EC officers. Exploitation of the results started before the end of the project, and its first manifestation has been a significant participation in the promotion of an European voucher model through the participation in the Riga Declaration about EU vouchers. A regional network focused on vouchers has expanded from the initial KVOUCHER consortium to external observer regions. Their first act has been the preparation and presentation of an application to the fourth call of INTERREG 4C about exchange of good practices in the voucher field. Project website: http://www.kvoucher.eu Related documents Final Report - KVOUCHER (Implementation of a Transeuropean Knowledge Voucher System)
