Digital Innovation Hubs: dynamic facilitation and thrust from regional innovation agencies

Project Information

DIHnamic

Grant agreement ID: 824186

DOI 10.3030/824186

Project closed

EC signature date 30 July 2019

Start date 1 September 2019

End date 31 August 2022

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost € 496 250,00

EU contribution € 496 250,00

Coordinated by

INSTITUTO PARA LA COMPETITIVIDAD EMPRESARIAL DE CASTILLA Y LEON
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - DIHnamic (Digital Innovation Hubs: dynamic facilitation and thrust from regional innovation agencies)

Reporting period: 2021-03-01 to 2022-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

In recent years, digitalization has become an essential driver of economic growth, vital for the survival of companies.
The Institute for Business Competitiveness of Castilla y León (ICE) has been financing projects for companies in the region's private sector for more than 20 years. The DIHnamic project was designed in collaboration with the Digital Innovation Hubs (DIH), acting as one-stop shops, to help SMEs take advantage of digital opportunities based on the above “test before invest” approach.
On the other hand, measuring the real impact of the services provided to SMEs by regional agencies is very important in order to decide the best use of public funds..
The overall objective of the DIHnamic project has been to verify, at a large-scale, new innovative facilitation services that have been already piloted with success, orchestrated by means of the dynamic facilitation and thrust of the Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) in the region of Castilla y León, and other DIHs across Europe, addressed at SMEs from Castilla y León, and its dissemination at the European level throughout innovation agencies. In this sense, DIHs have been promoted as the ideal one-stop shops for SMEs to facilitate the access to innovation services.
O1: Design and implementation of a digitalization support service for SMEs.
O2: To explore other innovative facilitation mechanism throughout collaborative work with other agencies.
O3: To show the adequateness of the RCT methodology to assess the effectiveness of actions.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

WP 1 - Project Management
DIHnamic technicians worked on the coordination of the project from the administrative, contractual and financial point of view: reporting, contract management and communications with the European Commission. Internal procedures mechanism and a quality and risk register of the actions developed were established and constantly updated.
WP 2 - Planning and design of an open call at DIHs
The work was aimed at the definition of the Regulatory Bases, the call regulations, the RCT protocol, the monitoring methodology to control the outcome data from SMEs, the recruitment materials, the evaluation process and criteria, and the establishment of the ethical framework.
The Data Management Plan (DMP) addressing issues related to Responsible Research Innovation (RRI), providing responsible guidelines, including ethics, and ensuring proper handling of data protection and privacy issues and compliance with the new GPRD in relation to participants was completed.
WP 3 - Implementation of the funding call at DIHs
Work was focused on the launching of the call for proposals, the evaluation of the received proposals, randomise those which were above the threshold and had the higher score, grant the awarded services and carry out the required administrative processes. Establishment of the baseline outcome data for the RCT trial during the application to the call was carried out and Final resolution and acceptance process were done.
WP4 - Experimentation in innovation, monitoring and controlling
Work was focused on carrying out the granted actions with the support of the DIHs. After the Final Resolution and the acceptance process forty-two SMEs received the services provided by the DIHs, randomly assigned in the randomization process.
Compliance with the established obligations and targeted KPIs and on collecting the outcome data for the RCT trial according to the defined methodology (in WP2) was made.
Other innovative facilitation mechanisms in Europe were mapped and deep analysis of one of the facilitation schemes in a comparison exercise was made.
WP5 - Analysis and reporting
The outcome data and the results of the RCT were collected and produced and the impact of the facilitation actions were quantify. A guide was elaborated to be followed by other innovation agencies to support technicians for the replication of the best practices. Compliance with the established ethical framework and EU data protection regulations for the publication of the RCT results was checked.
WP 6 - Exploitation, Dissemination and Communication
The work focused on identifying the appropriate exploitation strategies for the sustainability of DIHnamic's results. Thus Exploitation and communication plan was completed.
Several newsletters were published and made available through international networks such as Galactea and renowned websites and different news were published on ICE and DIHs social media profiles for different audiences: society (Twitter), professionals (LinkedIn). European innovation and networking events organized by NESTA and EURADA were attended to disseminate the innovation practices implemented in DIHnamic and the usefulness of the RCTs.
ICE organized four online infodays with other regional DIHs to disseminate the call and a reactive online workshop to train technicians from other innovation agencies in the best innovation practices pivoted around the DIHs derived from the DIHnamic project, as well as in conducting RCTs to quantify the effectiveness of the innovation actions established.
WP 7 - Ethics requirements
Regarding the Ethics section, the development of the topics requested in the delivery requirement D7.1 POPD was finalised during the first period, confirming that it complies with our Institute's Personal Data Protection Rules. All this work was carried out under the supervision of ICE's Data Project Manager.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

With the DIHnamic project, ICE has developed new digitalization support services in collaboration with the fully operational Digital Innovation Hubs, seeking new ways and new approaches to improve support for companies in Castilla y León.
Thus and within the project, ICE explored new services adjusted to the current needs of SMEs, in a user-friendly way and continuously measuring their impact, in order to balance the cost-benefit and make profitable the public money ICE is responsible for. The use of the RCT methodology was very useful to be more aware that impact measurement is extremely important.
The impact sought with DIHnamic has been to improve the digitalization systems of the companies to make them more competitive and thus try to boost their business growth by increasing their turnover. Hence, the aim is to increase investment in digitalization, which will have an impact on hiring new people with digitisation skills or investing in training their employees to improve their skills. All of this, taken together, will have an impact on improving the entire regional ecosystem.

DIHnamic logo

DIHnamic flyer call

Infoday evidence

DIHnamic flyer

DIHnamic rolll-up

Infoday evidence

Workshop evidence