Evaluation of PAXIS initiative points to importance of long term projects
The European Union's attempts to increase the number of start-ups should be restricted to 'focused and long term projects', the evaluation of the European Commission's PAXIS initiative has concluded. The pilot action of excellence for innovative start-ups (PAXIS) was launched in June 1999 under the 'innovation and SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises)' section of the Fifth Framework Programme. Its aim was to contribute, through a practical approach, to the identification, analysis, validation and dissemination of local conditions of excellence for the creation of innovative firms. The recommendation that the Commission should employ only focused and long term projects is justified by the observation that these types of projects alone are capable of improving the 'initiative culture' necessary for creating start-ups. '[T]he start-up raising process is catalysed by an initiative culture,' states the report. Other recommendations follow, and include a call for more 'real life' experiments aimed at raising more start-ups; support for specific actions dealing with the transfer and extension of good practice in the field of innovative start-up creation and support; increased support for the human aspects of start-up launching; and a focus on issues which EU Member States and regions would not choose to tackle alone. In concrete terms, the report proposes that a selected number of existing PAXIS projects are given the opportunity to demonstrate their transferability and sustainability through the enlargement of the consortium. In this way the partners will cover most areas of Europe, and the subsequent transfer of best practice to these partners would be guaranteed. In relation to the PAXIS networks, which link Europe's 'regions of excellence', the report recommends a 'EUREKA-like approach, where consortia are built bottom up (...) and are funded to develop ways of exchanging past experience which will help each champion to improve its own.' Following the conclusion that 'the more specific the projects, the more concrete the results', the paper calls for distinctions to be made in the future between targeted and conceptual projects. 'Too broadly targeted projects should be selected with much care,' states the report. A review of the projects supported under PAXIS reveals that those that focused on a few sub-elementary processes gave rise to more tangible and transferable results than other projects with broader approaches or ambitions. The most successful projects were deemed to be those dealing with the early stages of start-up creation, such as pre-incubation, academic spin-off, entrepreneurship training and promotion, and early stage financing. The PAXIS networks were found to have been successful, having extended the knowledge base of the participants with regard to start-ups in 11 out of 15 cases. The networks had also succeeded in providing positive feedback to the relevant political authorities, thus increasing the likelihood of future policy decisions favouring increased support for start-up incubation schemes, and had increased mutual knowledge of EU issues in relation to start-up creation. Two challenges are identified for the networks under the next round of PAXIS: finding ways of implementing and putting into practice the lessons already learnt, and 'networking the networks' around key common problems and mechanisms so as to enlarge and enrich the learning process.