INNOADDITIVE workplan entailed one work package (Peer learning of innovation agencies), consisting of three tasks: 1) collection of good practices of initiatives already implemented to support adoption of Additive Manufacturing in SMEs; 2) organization of peer learning workshops for sharing those good practices; 3) Design of a new initiative for fostering the adoption of AM in SMEs (Design Option).
As for the first task, good practices were collected by the three project partners after a scouting process scoped mainly within the partnering region and innovation ecosystem, as well as at a national level. In order to ensure comparability and easiness of collection and sharing, good practices were collected by means of a common template that was developed during the first two months of the project. As a result, ten good practices were tracked by the three project partners. Five out of ten good practices were collected from innovation agencies beyond project consortium: this allowed to maximize the impact of peer learning. A short description of the collected good practices is available on the Design Option Paper. All good practices include guidelines for implementations and suggestions to other innovation agencies that might be interested in replicating them in their own ecosystems. Full description of good practices was not included in the final deliverable because of length issues: however, they can be made available to interested innovation agencies upon request.
As for the second task, workshops were organized in the three partnering regions to present the collected initiative, and allow for exchange and mutual learning between participants (including other innovation players and company representative associations in the regions). As required by the INNOSUP-05 call, the Twinning advanced method (Twinning+) inspired the organization of peer learning professional training workshops pivoted on the exchange of the previously collected good practices between project partners and beyond. Focus was especially given in sharing know-how, tips and hints for the management of these initiatives. Due to the COVID-19 pandemics outbreak, in-situ workshops had to be replaced with online workshops, having the duration of two to three hours each. The three workshops took place with almost the same format, organized by the three partners between November 2020 and march 2021. Altogether, 39 participants took part in the workshops. Referent persons from the tracked good practices (including innovation agencies beyond the consortium), were invited to participate and present their own. Each presentation would last between 15 and 25 minutes, plus a short question and answers session moderated by the workshop host (one of the three INNOADDITIVE partners).
As for the third task, project partners engaged in the design of a new initiative for supporting the adoption of AM in SMEs. An initial ideation of the format of the initiative was done by the three partners during an online service design workshop. After that, the initial concept was further elaborated by Hub Innovazione Trentino, involving staff with manufacturing engineering background and technology transfer competences. The design work was inspired by design thinking and service design methods, in order to maximize the quality and feasibility of the expected output (the Design Option). Also, the Innovation Challenge Design Canvas, delivered by the previously funded INNOSUP-05 "INNOCHALLENGE" project, was utilized as a blueprint. As a result, the partners co-created a novel format of initiative that Innovation Agencies can adopt to further enhancing open innovation and technology transfer in SMEs with regards of advanced Manufacturing technologies and solutions: The "Additive Manufacturing Research-Industry Open Innovation Booster". The Design Option comes with a short visual Guide, which also includes the collection of the good practices.
The Guide is embedded in the final deliverable D1.1 Design Option Paper, and available as a stand-alone document for download on www.innochallenge-project.eu/innoadditive.
