Objective
This thematic network will bring together organisations from nine member states of the EU to undertake a collaborative exchange of understanding about the contribution of knowledge-intensive service consultancies to the commercial competitiveness and growth of client organizations in different sectors, types and sizes of firm, and core and peripheral regions. A series of interim reports, arising from each work package, will examine the application of this understanding to economic policy, especially as applied to the promotion of technical and organisational innovation.
In targeting areas of policy, it will address:
1) The impact of the international integration of European service markets on the availability of consultancy expertise to clients in different parts of the Union.
2) The diversity of national experience, including the significance for consultancy activities of variable regulatory and corporate regimes, patterns of business organisation, including the corporate use of in-house expertise and the position of SMEs, and prevailing patterns of consultancy supply.
3) The degree and patterns of regional inequality in consultancy provision and use, their causes, and their significance for public agencies wishing to enhance regional technical and organizational innovation and competitiveness.
The outcome of the thematic network will be a policy-orientated analysis of best practice in the employment of consultancy skills to support technical and organisational innovation, taking account of the needs of various sectors, large and small-medium enterprises, and the work of public agencies in different nations and regions. Where appropriate, proposals will also be made for further research into the changing corporate context of technological and managerial innovation involving growing consultancy inputs.
The work programme of the network over 18 months will consist of five sequential work packages, each focused around a workshop. Four (work packages 1-3; 5) will be based on international meetings among the participants (Month 2, 5, 9,17), and one (work package 4) will take place simultaneously in each participating country (Month 13).
Fields of science
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
WC1H 0AP LONDON
United Kingdom