Project

The overall objective of the RIM-Plus project is to contribute to the competitiveness of European regions by increasing the effectiveness of regional innovation policies and strategies, by continuing the efforts begun in the framework of the Regional Innovation Monitor from 2009-2012.

As in the previous RIM project, its purpose and specific contribution is to enhance the scope and quality of policy assessment by providing policy-makers, other innovation actors and researchers with the analytical framework and tools to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of regional policies and regional innovation systems. To this end, the inventory of innovation strategies at regional level in Europe that was established in the course of the first Regional Innovation Monitor project, will be maintained, regularly updated in a more proactive manner than before made available to actors involved in developing regional innovation policy measures. Moreover, the so far established channels of communication (workshops, topical publications and newsfeeds) will be extended and further developed.

At regular intervals, the project team at Fraunhofer ISI draft and update online profiles of regional innovation and regional-level R&D funding systems in Europe. As before, these baseline activities focus on Germany and Austria, while other countries are covered by other partners within the consortium. They will be complemented by the drafting of in-depth regional reports in which the local R&D funding system is reviewed down to the level of individual sections of the regional budget.

Moreover, two thematic papers will be drafted on topical issues such as the specific role of policies to develop the contribution of universities to regional economic development. Shortly before the end of the project’s period of performance, the findings of all project work performed during that period will be summarised, synthesised and analysed in more detail in a final report.

Other than in the previous project, the organisation of workshops has been outsourced to ERRIN, the European Regions Research and Innovation Network. Nonetheless, all project partners will attend the workshops and contribute content.