Download the ideas for mainstreaming here.

The promotion of the cluster system’s good practice is a relevant topic both in the Veneto Region agenda and in the implementation of the INTERREG IVC project MINI EUROPE. The Maramures delegation included representatives of the academic and the business community: Prof Dr. Eng Radu Cotetiu, the Dean of Engineering Faculty, North University Baia Mare, Prof. Dr. Eng Mircea Lobontiu, director of Engineering and Technological Management Department, Engineering Faculty, North University Baia Mare; Florentin Tus, secretary general of Chamber of Commerce and Industry Maramures, Lucian Micu, director of marketing – AMI SA Company, Nicolae Dascalescu, director TECHNOCAD SA Company and Mihaela Lite – regional manager MINIEUROPE.

During the opening session, Mr. Michele Pelloso, the Director of the Industry Department of the Veneto Region, introduced the visit emphasising the importance to share Good Practices to improve regional policies.  Mr. Pier Antonio Nicoletti, Responsible of the Regional District Office, presented the Regional Scheme supporting Clusters.

Three different Veneto Region clusters shared their experience: the Footwear Cluster presented by Ms. Simionato Claudia, the Refricold Cluster presented by Ms. Roberta D’Orazio and the Nanotech Cluster presented by Ms. Federica Lodato.

The event continued with a visit of NanoFAB, the Veneto Nanotech laboratory set in the Science Park VEGA in Venice and with a meeting with Veneto Union of the Chambers of Commerce of Veneto Region, Mr. Francesco Pareti.

Mr. Nicoletti underlined the added value al that an SME can acquire as a cluster member. The cluster’s SMEs, in fact, can maintain their individuality and at the same time have access to opportunities typical of large companies like fair participation, access to new markets and utilization of innovative materials and tools.

Mr. Nicoletti brought two examples: the participation of the Packaging Cluster to an important trade fair where  the SMEs  promoted themselves with a unique coordinated image (same stands, layout and catalogue) as a one stop shop for their big clients. The other one:  the possibiliy for the “Carousel”  cluster to involve the Aerospace department of Padua University in the research of the velocity effects on human body in order to prevent possible accidents and disseminate the results in all the cluster companies.

Apart from the good practice descrition, the catalogue also contains a judgement on the transferability of the practices.

The practices are now available here:  Mini Europe good practice catalogue update May 2011

“The moment is good” said Ismael Abel Vallés, expert in Innovation and Entrepreneurship, as “the actual crisis and economic situation forces everyone to find out new solutions” and moreover “ the commitment of our policy makers is very high”. Valencia region is in fact planning, on one hand, to structure a fund to sustain innovative enterprises and, on the other, to assess the ongoing industrial clusters in order to select the new regional priorities.

Veneto and Valencia share similar economic systems: high number of micro companies, traditional manufacture sectors,  low rate of investment in research, incremental innovation. This was also why the Veneto Region decided to structure a support system to facilitate the credit access (“financial engineering” programme) in particular to SMEs and to foster the investments in research and innovation. The financial aid in fact concerns only investment in industrial research, organisational innovation, cooperative research (also in collaboration with Universities and Innovation Centres) and technology transfer. The programme includes three synergic tools: revolving soft loans, guarantee system, venture capital fund. The “Financial Engineering” programme is an efficient system because “it is consistent in time as the financial resources are reinvested in the fund and then keep available for more companies” said Michele Pelloso, Director of the Industry Department at the Veneto Region, and “ the private and public partnership multiplies the effect, sharing at the same time the investment risk ”.

In this system an important role is also played by the Confidi, which, as pointed out by Marco Ronconi, in charge of the business area in Neafidi, “are private consortia, acting as intermediaries among the banks and the companies, giving advices, coaching entrepreneurs and providing the necessary guarantees”.  Another way to overcome the dimensional barrier is also enhancing the cooperation among SMEs.

This is also the aim of the “Clusters programme” currently running in the Veneto Region. Pier Antonio Nicoletti, in charge of the District Office at the Veneto Region, introduced to the Spanish delegation the main features of the “District Act” as well as the annual calls to support the Venetian clusters.

Together with the positive aspects of the programme also the weaknesses were arisen and then discussed; in particular the issue of monitoring and assessing the clusters. The Valencia Region is tackling just in this period this topic and a methodology is on process. Maybe the next time will be the turn of the Veneto Region to import practices from Valencia!

Regional policy makers, public officers, innovation managers and experts working in the field of innovation and SMEs support attended the event held in Venice, on September 18th 2009. The more than 60 participants have had the chance to share the views and the programmes and to compare the different innovation infrastructures models and practices running in several European regions.

During the opening session, Mr. Andries Greiner, Deputy Queen’s commissioner of the Flevoland region and Chair of the MINI EUROPE Monitoring Board have introduced the conference topic together with Mr. Vendemiano Sartor, Regional Councillor of the Veneto Region in charge of Economic Development, Research and Innovation. They have been followed by the description of the general framework of innovation infrastructure in the eight partners’ regions: the Province of Flevoland (the Netherlands), North West of England (UK), Észak-Alföld (Hungary), Maramures (Romania), Mid Sweden (Sweden), Valencia Region (Spain), Western Greece (Greece) and Veneto Region (Italy).

Afterwards several stakeholders have presented to the audience and discussed together their own experiences, among them Gian Angelo Bellati, Regional Union of the Chamber of Commerce,  Zsolt Hradeczky, Pole Programme Network Development Agency – Debrecen, Andrea Berti, Start Cube University Incubator – Padova,  Celia Brigg , North West Universities Association – Manchester, Massimo Malaguti, Galileo Science Park – Padova,  Hedwig Boerrigter Regional Development Agency Flevoland – Lelystad and Enzo Moi, Veneto Innovazione – Venezia.

The event had also the ambitious goal to exemplify suitable paths to overcome the current economic situation implementing innovative strategies that have already proven their effectiveness in other European areas: “It is an important idea – said Mr Sartor – and the Veneto Region is deeply engaged in it presenting the concrete policy initiatives aiming to support clusters development and to provide innovative financial tools to boost SMEs competitiveness. The collaboration with our European partners will surely accelerate the development and stimulate change for the benefit of businesses and entrepreneurs”.

Even though in Veneto there is a very high level of entrepreneurial propensity, private funds (and also private venture capitalists), which companies or moreover starts-ups can apply to, are still lacking. The credit system is often far from the SMEs needs and, especially now because of the credit crunch, it is rather reluctant to give loans without the proper guarantees. On the other side, SMEs asking to fund innovative ideas or start-ups working in high-tech sectors like biotech, nanotech and ICT, are not always able to provide guarantees as their value is more based on intangible assets.
Public funds for innovation and research are usually connected to periodic calls which are not always in line with the company’s timescale and needs.

To overcome the barriers above mentioned, a well balanced mix of financial engineering tools, focused on research and innovation, has been set up and launched.
The Financial Engineering actions includes three integrated tools:

1-System of guarantee for innovative investments

2-Revolving Fund for SMEs innovative investment

3-Venture Capital and private equity Fund

In line with the Operating Programme strategy, the Regional Authority has launched tenders to select and charge external Bodies to manage the funds. In all the cases a high level of experience as well as a spread system of local desks is required to give companies assistance as well as coaching.
Besides another mandatory requirement for all the tools is that to the Managing Bodies are requested of an equal amount of private funds to be added to the public provision. Finally the mechanism is studied to feed itself as the guarantee system as well as the revolving fund foresee a return of money and moreover the venture capital fund is based on a reinvestments system.

The Veneto development model is characterised mainly by the wide presence of small to medium-sized companies often interconnected each other in networks and productive clusters. The small dimension of such companies although, on one side, guarantees flexibility as well as quick market reactions, represents on the other side, a possible barrier that prevents innovation as relevant and consistent investments are often not affordable for small companies.
Moreover the majority of those companies are concentrated in traditional sectors like mechanics, eyeglasses, sportswear, textile, furniture where knowledge is often acquired through “learning by doing” and informal relationships among people more than through direct investment in R&D.

This is the reason why since 2003 the Veneto Region has launched a specific programme for the innovative development of productive clusters. The programme has been designed to take into account and strengthen the spontaneous trend of companies to aggregate together (bottom-up approach), formalise such clusters and provide funding not for their governance itself but for common initiatives focusing in particular on research and innovation.