Rural Innovation and Business Systems

Ambitious for Scotland

Rural Innovation and Business Systems

Final Conference, Wednesday 27th February 2013

John Mackenzie, Development Manager

Ambitious for ScotlandAmbitious for Scotland

What is RIBS ?

• Northern Periphery Programme project.

• Five participating partner countries.

• Research and develop products and tools that can be utilised by any rural region.

• Identify strengths and weaknesses in each region.

• Share findings of the learning experience.


RIBS Partners

• Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Scotland

• Lulea University of Technology, Sweden

• Micropolis Ii, Finland

• West Iceland Regional Development, Iceland

• WESTBIC, Ireland


Manage a successful project as lead partner.

Share and learn best practice from our partners.

Investigate the challenges of innovation in a rural context.

Utilise the products developed by the RIBS partners.

Help to scope out innovation policy moving forward.

Aims and Objectives


Online resources• Developed website (www.ruralinnovation.eu)

• Twitter account @innovationrural

Mapped innovation Ecosystem (2011)

Too many programmes

Lack of context

Confusing landscape

Limited joined up working

Innovation Survey •Designed and analysed by Lulea University of Technology, Sweden

•120 Companies surveyed across partnership

Knowledge Exchange• Hosted 3 KE visits

• KE visit to Sweden

• Project dissemination in

Norway

• Learned from our partners

HIE Initiatives

Four main areas of focus

Lead Partner for the Rural Innovation and Business Systems project


Website where the outputs of the project are communicated

The products and services developed during the project will be shared on this website

The website will be updated and maintained until 2018

You can also follow @innovationrural on Twitter

Online resources: www.ruralinnovation.eu


Innovation Map June 2011


Mapping Innovation Landscape

Findings

1. Too many similar programmes.

2. Lack of context.

3. Confused landscape.

4. Limited joined up working.

5. Advisor confusion.

6. Lack of promotion at a regional level.

Outputs

1. Reduction and merging of products

2. Toolkit for HIE Account Managers

3. Regional representation for national programmes

4. Joint promotion of services

5. Sharing of information


Twenty Five Companies Survey in the HIE area Strengths

Ambitious Businesses

Quality Focus

Creativity Informality Community Values Physical Environment

Innovation Survey


Twenty Five Companies Survey in the HIE area Challenges

Remote location

Higher Cost Location

Lack of Competition knowledge Infrastructure Levels of Entrepreneurship Supply of skilled staff

Access to Investment and Capital

Innovation Survey


Knowledge Exchange Visits


Similarity between the regions in the context of population, geography and challenge but mostly importantly in the levels of ambition.

Focus on what resources are in your region and try and use them as a platform to grow.

A strong University reaching out across the region can really act as a Hub for regional growth

Infrastructure such as connectivity and transportation links is a challenge for all rural regions but the more you investment the more long term benefit can be derived.

Increased support is required to enable new businesses to emerge through incubators, increased innovation and entrepreneurship support.

Renewable energy and our goal to make wave and tidal our differentiator is the correct strategy.

Knowledge exchange what did we learn ?


Knowledge Exchange what did we learn ?

• That business mentoring is used very effectively by our partners.• Universities are the pipeline for developing new companies.• Having a local supply chain in place is the key to developing a

industry around a sector. For example Facebook in Sweden.• We are doing well in a number of areas such as support for

internationalisation, food and drink, tourism, marine science and renewable energy.

• That micro clustering for sectors such as tourism, creative industries and food and drink can help to bring economies of scale enabling access to larger markets.

• Keeping skilled talent in the region and attracting new talent is challenging in rural areas


Our new programme of entrepreneurship support aims to stimulate innovation.

Aim to develop new Espark presence in Inverness in 2013.

Increase collaboration across the innovation support partners .

Utilise the Business Compass and Navigation Tool to measure progress.

Look at the internationalisation tool and clustering work methodology developed during this project and utilise these moving forward.

Promote the successes of the region through case studies and business testimonies

Actions taken and next steps


Crystal Mackay, Development Manager (01463 244 556)

[email protected]

John Mackenzie, Development Manager (01463 244 520)

[email protected]

Website: www.ruralinnovation.eu

Follow on Twitter: @InnovationRural

Contact Rural Innovation:

Documents

Rural Innovation and Business Systems