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045B - ECCE Innovation - Developing Economic Clusters of Cultural and Creative Enterprises in the Innovation Process
Project priority: Innovation
Strategic Initiatives: unspecified
Start date: 01-08-2007
End date: 31-12-2011
Website: www.nantesmetropole.fr
ERDF Grant: 1,926,987.30
Total eligible cost: 3,853,974.60
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Lead Partner contact person
Name: Denis Caille
Organisation: Nantes Métropole
Address: 2 cours du Champs de Mars 44923 NANTES ,
Tel: +33 2 40 99 98 53 J2390
Email: denis.caille@nantesmetropole.fr
Country: France
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Project partners
1. Nantes Métropole [FR]
2. Stadt Aachen (Municipality of Aachen) [DE]
3. CIDA - Creative Industries Development Agency [UK]
4. Gemeente Eindhoven [NL]
5. Landeshauptstadt Stuttgart [DE]
6. Birmingham City University [UK]
7. Cardiff [UK]
8. Dublin City Council (Comhairle Cathrach Bhaile Átha Cliath) [IE]
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Summary description
The aim of the Project is “to foster the innovation capacity of Creative Industries (CI) in order to access new markets”. The creative sector is the most dynamic sector in the economy. It is a key driver of economic and social development and leads to innovation in various other industries and sectors. Turning creative ideas into businesses is the key aim of the project. It will focus on the exchange and transfer of expertise, knowledge and experience related to the cultural and creative industries at a regional level with a view to:
- Helping to develop new markets for creative SMEs and micro enterprises across cities
- Developing business, academic, artistic, scientific and policy expertise that will support the development of new products, services and processes
- Supporting participating cities and regions to adapt to the new economic paradigm concerning creativity and innovation
- Enabling participating cities to remain competitive in attracting talents or retaining them
To achieve this aim and tackle the challenges previously identified regarding the sector, 4 objectives have been identified by the Partners:
1) Increase the number of business-to-business partnerships or linkages within and between creative and other industries (WP1).
2) Increase the involvement of creative SMEs in bids for public procurement and improve the use of public procurement to support creativity (WP2).
3) Increase public and private investment to encourage business entrepreneurship in the CI (WP3).
4) Develop and strengthen partnership opportunities between CI and R&D bodies active in the creative field (WP4).
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Detailed description
The methodology used to ensure cooperation is based on shared decision—making and a participative processes, fed by the lead partner's project management and coordination team. The involvement of each partner constitutes the guarantee for successful transnational transfer of expertise. As much as possible, the method will seek consensus and avoid top-down processes.
The common methodology and network management will be the foundation for all the Actions. This will involve each partner and increase the effectiveness of the Project.
Each Partner is actively taking part in each WP. This will help foster the cooperation process within the Project and give coherence to the Project.
Every 3 months, a technical meeting will be organised on WPs in one partner's city. The aim being to discuss and monitor the quality of Actions to be delivered by each Partner. This will support the Steering Committee's annual meeting in monitoring the running of the Project.
Partners will deliver regular reports on Actions to the Lead Partner. Such reports will be essential to ensure that their activities in the Project are properly carried out. The Lead Partner will monitor the Partners' submission of such reports closely.
Internal communication will also be supported by onsite presences during the events, conference calls, email exchanges and by an innovative online tool for networks of partners (see Communication Strategy).
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Objectives description
The aim of the Project is “to foster the innovation capacity of CI in order to access new markets”. The creative sector is the most dynamic sector in the economy. It is a key driver of economic and social innovation. Turning creative ideas into businesses is the key aim of the project. It will focus on the exchange and transfer of expertise, knowledge and experience related to the cultural and creative industries at a regional level with a view to:
- Helping to develop new markets for creative SMEs and micro enterprises across the partner cities
- Developing and furthering academic, artistic, scientific and governance research and knowledge that will support the development of new products, services and processes
- Supporting participating cities and regions to adapt to the new economic and social environment
- Enabling participating cities to remain competitive in attracting talents or retaining them
To achieve this aim and tackle the challenges previously identified regarding the sector, 4 objectives have been identified by the Partners:
1) Increase the number of business-to-business partnerships or linkages within or between creative and other industries (WP1).
2) Increase the involvement of creative SMEs in bids for public procurement and improve the use of public procurement to support creativity (WP2).
3) Increase public and private investment to encourage business entrepreneurship in the CI (WP3).
4) Develop and strengthen partnership opportunities between CI and R&D bodies active in the creative field (WP4).
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Activities description
WP1 will promote and foster the mutual contributions CI, technology and other established industries can bring to each other. It will train and establish a network of Transfer Agents to support and advise creative businesses on this potential. An ECCE Innovation Award will also be launched to further support and give visibility to successful cross-sectoral creative projects. It will also gather public authorities so as to improve interservice and multidisciplinary dialogues and provide tailor-made policy answers to creative industries.
WP2 will provide CI with advises and resources to better benefit from public procurement: awareness raising actions for public authorities and creative entrepreneurs, an online dissemination of calls for tenders relevant to creative businesses and improve access to public procurement, specific local expertise offered by local Transfer Agents to help CI better use public procurement.
WP3 will raise the awareness of stakeholders, foster collaboration processes and advocate the establishment of investment schemes at regional level. This will be supported by matchmaking activities between CI and potential investors in order to explore investment opportunities.
WP4 will develop and strengthen partnership opportunities between CI and R&D institutions through various events, guides and the launch of a “Creativity Voucher” that will help creative entrepreneurs benefit from R&D. WP4 will also pave the way for the development of a training programme between universities specifically focusing on CI and innovation.
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Innovation
1. First of all, CI and creativity drive innovation and have a significant impact on the economic performance and the innovation capacities of traditional industry sectors. Supporting creativity is essential for a region and its industry's competitiveness. Creativity is a means to improving the aesthetic appeal of a product, a way to commercialise and renew the image of older products or new technology. It is also linked to the initial invention that leads to innovation further down the line.
Fostering creativity is therefore a way of unleashing imagination which will then inspire businesses or new forms of consumption and ways of life that also take into account new social imperatives. We are moving from a knowledge-based to a creativity-based society.
The Project will focus on areas that integrate strong cultural (including language) elements. It will test the ability of cultural diversity to be an asset in innovation. It aims at developing better policy tools
to foster the intangible and intellectual property in the development of new products and services.
2. The Project itself is also innovative by developing new markets for CI and establishing transnational networks that will consider new tools to foster creativity such as public procurement or investment. To ensure continuity and enable exchanges networks will rely on an innovative network of Transfer Agents.
The Project also proposes innovative tools to foster transnational cooperation: A Creativity Award; a Creativity Voucher giving free “research” audits for creative ideas; the development of a common curriculum leading to an education programme focusing on CI and innovation.
The Communication Strategy will also be innovative by relying on new dissemination tools (e.g. Web 2.0 platforms, the production of a short film promoting CI and innovation, etc.).
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Project specifics
The Project will foster cooperation between cities and focus on creative industries, a sector essentially composed of SMEs that face various challenges when trying to develop their economic activities. Finding new markets and opportunities is therefore essential to support a sector which drives innovation and therefore contributes to Europe's competitiveness.
First, the project will foster collaboration between creative entrepreneurs and businesses from other sectors (ICT, textile, construction, etc.). These cross-sectoral “creative” connections will help to develop new innovative products and services. Take, for example, the influence of designers on electronic appliances or car manufacturing.
Another opportunity offering great potential to creative businesses is public procurement. The project will develop CI' ability to participate in public procurement and raise the awareness of public authorities pertaining to the benefits of involving creative SMEs in their activities.
A specific work package will be dedicated to exploring and improving the opportunities offered by calls for tenders.
- Also, creative entrepreneurs often lack financial support to develop their activities. The Project will focus on developing more connections between investors and creative industries and create models pertaining to the development of regional investment funds targetting creative businesses.
- Finally, creative entrepreneurs still need to develop more connections with research and education bodies in terms of research and training opportunities targetting creative industries. The Project will help to develop talents that combine creativity and business expertise and link research outcomes and business needs of the creative sector with a view to develop innovative products and services.
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Previous EU projects involvement
The Project illustrates and follows the Spring Council conclusions referring to creativity and SMEs as key drivers of innovation in the ‘Lisbon' context. It also contributes to the 2009 European Year of Creativity and Innovation as well as the European Agenda for Culture which highlights the role of culture as a catalyst for creativity.
It will build on the previous ECCE Project which has succeeded in creating a transnational network of Local Resource Centres. It will be a natural step forward and focus more on CI's innovation capacity through cross-sectoral (B2B) connections so as to develop new products, services and processes as well as open up new market opportunities.
To save resources and time, feasibility activities will be partly based on other EU-funded projects' results:
- The previous ECCE Project already provides information related to CI.
- The new one will collaborate with the “MIICA — Media in Industrial Creative Arrangements” FP7 project which will study
and develop a technical and social infrastructure for CI (transparent layer of software and ecology of new networked devices to support CI).
- It will also build on the results of the project “CreATe: Creating a joint research agenda for promoting ICT-based innovations in Creative Industries” (also funded by FP7). It gathers R&D bodies and regional innovation agencies to strengthen the innovation potential of regions through ICT and CI collaboration.
FP7 is rather poor in considering the impact of CI (non technological companies) businesses in fostering innovation. The Project's added value lies in the objective to link CI and R&D centers.
Collaboration will take place with:
The “Creative Metropoles” project (INTERREG IVC) which gathers northern cities.
The European Investment Bank (first positive contacts have already been taken) as the latter is supporting CI in the context of regional policy. The use of JEREMIE, JASPERS or JESSICA will be considered for CI (WP3).
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