1 Support of the innovation developments of small and medium-sized enterprises in South Transdanubia Nikol HUBA-VARGA South Transdanubian Regional Development Agency (STRDA) 12nd June, 2007

2 Convergence objective Regions > 75% in EU25) Index EU 25 = 100 Quelle: Eurostat Geographical Eligibility Draft April 2005, GDP/head Objective Regional Competitiveness and Employment Phasing-in regions, "naturally" above 75% Objective Regional Competitiveness and Employment Convergence objective statistically affected regions

3 EUR-27 = 1.92 < – – 1.88 >= – 0.8 no data Regional RTD expenditure in 2002 in % of GDP

4 NUTS II. regions of Hungary

5 SOUTH TRANSDANUBIA km heads 69 head/km2 Counties: Baranya Somogy Tolna

6 Number of European patents per 1 million populations, 2000 (USA309.1) Germany229.3 Finland186.8 Austria158.9 EU15126 Italy112.5 Slovenia98.7 Ireland66.4 Spain46.8 HUNGARY29.8 Poland26.4 Czech R Portugal8.8

7 South Transdanubian Regional Development Agency (STRDA) The STRDA is the working body of the South Transdanubian Regional Development Council The most important activities of STRDA: Management of application programmes Regional planning Project development Economy development, support for the innovation Organizing the international relations of the region Organizing the inner relations of the region, regional marketing

8 Regional Innovation Strategy of South Transdanubia RIS Project ( ) Development of a sector based innovation strategy Following the programming methodology of the Structural Funds Main programming document of South Transdanubia – important part of the Regional Operative Programme ( )

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10 Regional Innovation Agency and Network 3 year long project ( ) supported by the National Innovation Fund Aims: To support the implementation of the Regional Innovation Strategy To operate a complex, easy-to-reach system of services with guarantied quality, which supports the innovative development of the SME-s Development of the innovation services

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12 Members of the Consortium: Regional Development Agency (Co-ordinator) Chamber of Commerce and Industry Pécs - Baranya County Innovation and Technology Development Center Entrepreneurs Centre of Somogy County Public Foundation Kapos Innovation Transfer Center University of Pécs University of Kaposvár

13 Functions of the Regional Innovation Agency: Programming, implementation and monitoring of regional innovation development programmes, management of grant schemes Project generation Co-orditation of financial resources for innovation development (national and EU funds, establishment of innovation financing systems) Establishment and operating of the Regional Innovation Database and Information System Initiating international, interregional development projects Co-ordination of the regional innovation system, networking

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15 Baross Grant Programme First regional grant programme for innovation development Managed by RIA: programming, project development, regional decision about supported projects, managment of the grant scheme Supports the innovation projects of small and medium- sized enterprises SME programme for 2005: 535 million HUF (approximately 2 million EUR), 32 supported projects according to the sectoral priorities of the Regional Innovation Strategy (food industry, machine- and electronic industries, textile industry,health industry, evironmental industry) 2006: re-launch

16 Establishment of Competence Centres Grant programme for development of the innovation services - Implementation is in progress, call for proposals in July New methodology of project development: 4 projects elaborated in co- operation with the RIA and the RIEDC, key implementing organisation identified during the RIS, regularly consultation, ex-ante monitoring of the projects creation of sector-specific bridge building organisations in 4 sectors identified by the RIS (food industry, environmental industries, creative industries, fealth-tourism), new members of the RIA network on the basis of the university knowledge potential, strengthening the links between the business sector and the research and consultancy organisations Task of the competence centres: establishment and coordination of sectoral networks and clusters of sme-s, support of their innovation projects, create links to the knoweledge bases, provide innovation services

17 Main outcomes

18 Business potential of R&D activities in the university environment and their transfer to SMEs in the Cross- Border Region The report consists of two parts. Part one includes the survey on the innovation activity and absorptive capacity of small and medium size business. Part two contains the survey about the University of Pécs innovation and research potential and its spillover perspective to local businesses.

19 The most important findings of the business survey Technological innovation

20 Different types of innovations and innovation intensity

21 Collaboration of the Hungarian firms

22 Summary The innovation potential of South-Transdanubian SMEs was measured by relying on a recent version Oslo Manual based questionnaire that incorporates product, process, organizational and market innovations. Based on the analysis of the 201 questionnaires 30% of sample businesses did not innovate at all in the time period. This finding is very similar to previous innovation research outcomes from Baranya county implying that there has been no improvement in the field of innovation in the South-Transdanubian region over the last seven years.

23 STRDA, Regional Innovation Agency Contact: Nikol HUBA-VARGA Tel:

24 Thank you for your attention!