Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
the
setting
up
of
high-tech
businesses
with
high
market
risk.
The
services
provided
include
technical
services
and
advice
on
finance,
marketing
and
technology.
Business incubators—a place where newly created firms are located in a rather
limited space. Its aim is to increase the chance of growth and rate of survival of
these firms by providing them with modular building facilities, common technical
facilities, and also managerial support and back-up services. The main emphasis of
incubators is job creation and local development, but the technology orientation is
often marginal.
At the beginning of the 1990s a new wave of policy schemes and approaches
were to emerge within the practice of regional technological development in
Europe. These new approaches were to have their roots in a number of factors,
including the results of evaluations that revealed the limitations of solely relying
on the science/technology park project-based approach in achieving job creation,
business growth and industrial restructuring. Concerns were also being raised
about the relationships between national innovation systems, EU scientific com-
petitiveness and regional performance following the ascension of nation states
such as Spain and Portugal in 1986 and East Germany in 1990. Similar funda-
mental debates are again currently resurfacing as the EU extends its territory and
membership to include the 'new' eastern European states such as Poland, Hungary,
Czech Republic, Estonia, Slovakia, etc.
This new strategic approach to regional development policy initially emerged
through a series of experimental and selective schemes: STRIDE, SPRINT, RITTS,
RTP and RIS. These were characterised by a quasi-activist approach, with emphasis
on networking and institutional external economies to support technological
innovation (Komninos
2002
; Simmie
1997
; Landabaso
1999
). The European
Commission (EC) first launched these approaches with STRIDE, a financial support
initiative that sought to strengthen the European innovation and technology support
services, such as science parks, innovation services, and networks of technology
and innovation specialists. However, it also sought to go further than these existing
projects by also seeking to (i) facilitate the diffusion of new technologies to firms by
offering support to specific projects for technology transfer, support for innovation
financing by smaller firms and inter-firm cooperation; and (ii) to improve the
awareness and understanding of innovation, by supporting exchanges of knowledge
and experiences between member states. Regional Innovation and Technology
Transfer Strategies and Infrastructures (RITTS), Regional Technology Plans (RTP)
and Regional Innovation Strategies (RIS) provided co-finance and guidance to
regional governments to undertake an assessment of their regional innovation
potential, and define strategies that promoted the cooperation and capabilities of the
small firm sector, the research and technological community, and the public
authorities. Overall, more than 60 initiatives were launched in the 1990s (Komninos
2002
), and a European wide network ensures the continuity of these early schemes.
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