Business needs to be informed on innovation. But how to do it? Andrzej Szoszkiewicz Smartlink Ltd. Regions for Economic Change Brussels, 7 March 2007

SMARTLINK: What we do Information and publishing: - Internet:  Funduszeonline.pl – the most comprehensive Polish database on funding,  Winnova.pl – expertise and innovation portal  GUIDE – the grants resource for Europe,  Open 4 Business – sources of funding for SMEs on local and regional portals - Print:  books  magazines  folders promoting projects and programmes Research Advising regional and local governments

A picture of a Polish company 1.8 mln enterprises, out of the total number of 3.4 mln registered companies, are in fact conducting their business activity. In comparison to 1990 the number of SMEs increased by almost 330% Majority of enterprises (95%) are micro-enterprises (fewer than 10 employees) The average size of Polish SMEs is smaller than in the EU, employing about 3.3 people Low profitability: the gross profitability index was at the level of 1% in Polish SMEs operate mainly on local markets: only about 14 thousand of firms are involved in exports.

R&D expenditures The innovative capacity of the economy can be estimated on the basis of the R&D expenditures in relation to GDP. In 1999 it was 0.9% to drop down to the level of 0.56% in In terms of the R&D expenditures per capita Poland amounted to 64.2 USD (as per the purchasing power parity), much less than EU average being USD.

Business needs to be informed on innovation. But how to do it? Speak the same language – employ business journalists Be reliable Be comprehensive Be regional with European ambitions Use different media Promote networking

Winnova.pl – new attitude WIELKOPOLSKA FOR INNOVATION The project is being realised within the framework of IROP Measure 2.6 and co-financed by the European Social Fund and Polish public funds. It is implemented through co-operation and partnership of Smartlink Ltd. and the Adam Mickiewicz University Foundation – Poznań Science and Technology Park. It is the biggest information project on innovation in Poland comprising online and printed information and conferences.

Winnova.pl 1. Comprehensive: the project comprises all relevant information and data bases related to innovation, knowledge and technology transfer, best practices and project financing. 2. Up to date: the project will not stop with the establishing of the portal alone, but will continue to be updated and expanded on a continuous basis. 3. Maintaining contact with users on a regular basis: alongside the actual content of the portal, we will use a number of tools to facilitate direct contact with users. These include newsletters, alerts, a dedicated forum, a technology fair.

Winnova.pl 4. Modelled on the best in business: the concept of the project is based on our own experience as well as European best practices (e.g Irish-based expertiseireland.com project). Experts and specialists from abroad contribute their expertise and assistance drawing upon their own extensive experience in the field. 5. Effective promotion: it is next to impossible to expect success without suitable promotional activities. The project covers a number of ideas to increase awareness of the portal, both in Poland and in other countries. In order to achieve this objective we intend to use the network of Polish diplomatic and commercial outlets.

Winnova.pl 6. Multilingual: all information will be available in Polish and English. Selected newsletter issues will also be translated into other languages. 7. Resource integration: technology used to build the portal makes it possible to export into the portal either entire existing data bases or selected sections of data corpus. This makes it possible to group under one address the majority of information resources that would otherwise remain scattered.

Winnova.pl 8. User-friendly: the portal’s layout and functionality is designed to facilitate the use of all information and resources contained in the portal. Scheduled functionality audits will yield precious user feedback to tailor the portal even further to meet the users’ expectations and requirements. 9. Expert knowledge: when preparing the information content we enlist the assistance of the leading experts in the fields of innovation, commercialization of research results, patents so that they can offer their experts advice to the portal’s users. 10. Umbrella-nature: we intend to make it the biggest portal of this type in Poland. It will serve editors of other portals as the definitive and reliable source of up-to- date information.

Thank you for your attention Andrzej Szoszkiewicz Smartlink Ltd.