Platform for trans-Academic Cooperation in Innovation (IPA Adriatic CBC 2007-2013)
Platform for trans-Academic Cooperation in Innovation (PACINNO)
Full title: Platform for trans-Academic Cooperation in Innovation
Grantor: IPA Adriatic Cross Border Cooperation 2007-2013
Grant number: 1°str/0003
Grantor's website: http://www.adriaticipacbc.org/
Project website: http://www.pacinno.eu/
Duration: November 2013 - March 2016
Coordinator: University of Trieste, Italy
Partners: - Centre of Excellence for Biosensors, Instrumentation and Process Control (COBIK), Slovenia
- University of Rijeka Faculty of Medicine, Rijeka
- School of Economics and Business in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
- University of Tirana, Albania
- Institute Mihajlo Pupin, Serbia
- Faculty of Economics, Montenegro
- Ionian University, Greece
Total funding (University of Rijeka Faculty of Medicine): EUR 621.427, 22
Brief description:
The goal of PACINNO is to establish a platform for cooperation in research and innovation covering the whole Adriatic region. Targeting both research institutions, policy makers and business entities, the project will help develop new bridges between the research and scientific activities, carried out at academic institutions, and the economic system, with specific reference to the technological needs of SMEs. More generally, PACINNO is aimed at overcoming the main obstacles and barriers to the economic development of the Adriatic countries, fostering the competitiveness of their minor firms (both in the high-tech fields and in the traditional industries), and promoting the creation of innovative start-ups. To reach such ambitious goals, the project will capitalize on the several programs and initiatives already implemented in the Adriatic region by the EU, the national governments and the local stakeholders. PACINNO will combine research activities with direct interventions in the local innovation systems. In particular, at the research side, we will carry out on-the-field surveys - aimed at identifying the innovation's actors and activities in the region and measuring the innovation potential at the local level - and provide a full mapping of the national innovation systems and the policies implemented. Thanks to the support of the PACINNO Associate Partners and combining the most advanced experiences and practices at the Adriatic and international level, we will be able to generate a new set of recommended innovation policies that will be made available to public and private stakeholders and policy makers of the region. Within the several other activities planned in the technical work packages, PACINNO will establish technology transfer offices (TTOs) at the participating countries level, with the objective to facilitate the transfer of research outputs into innovation, facilitating best practices transfer and fostering crossborder collaboration. In coherence with the Strategic Theme, PACINNO has also the objective to stimulate the emergence and the development of innovative economic sectors and companies in the Adriatic region, while promoting the development of the existing traditional SME’s into more more advanced and competitive companies. Furthermore, the project will foster the direct establishment of high-tech spin-out companies within the regional scientific institutions (research centres, universities) with the goal to promote their market consolidation and the realization of their full growth potential. To this end, we will strenghten the academic entrepreneurial teams through specific management training and mentoring. A particular attention will be given to the attraction in the region of prospective investors (VCs, business angels, public investors,..) willing to provide funds and mentoring to the most promising innovative start-ups. The active involvement and participation to the project initiative of the key innovation stakeholders (research centres, territorial bodies, science and technology parks, business incubators, financial investors, business units, multinational companies based in the region) is meant to create a regional innovation system supported by a permanent platform of collaboration, where private and public institutions can interact and integrate their efforts and resources to favor innovation outcomes across the region, even after the end of PACINNO.