Presentation about innovation policy governance at the Innovation seminar organized by Kronoberg Region (SWE) on the 23th of June 2015

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Innovation and leadership –
governance and internal innovation
Working with competitiveness poles
and regional leadership in Wallonia
Innovation Seminar « The challenges of implementing
innovation strategies”, 23 June 2015
Florence HENNART

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Agenda
• Background elements
• Competitiveness Poles Policy as a new governance
approach
• Creative Wallonia : fostering the creative economy
• Conclusion : Do’s and don’t’s

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3,6 Millions
inhabitants
3 Regions with large
exclusive competencies
and legislative power

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Key figures

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Industry = 13%
of total added
value

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Regional development plans
1999-
2004
• 1999 : Contract for the future of Wallonia
• 2001 : launch of the business cluster policy, bottom-up
2006
• 2006-2009 : 1st Marshall Plan (1,6 billion €)
• 5 priority axis for economic development
• Launch of the Competitiveness Poles Policy -5 poles, 280 millions €
2009
• 2009-2014 : Marshall Plan 2.Green (2,75 billion €)
• Pursuing and deepening the competitiveness Poles policy, 388
millions € – Creation of a 6th Pole (Green chemistry)
2015
• 2015-2019 : Marshall Plan 4.0 – 2,9 billion € (Human capital,
Industrial and innovation policy, Attractiveness, Energy and circular
economy, Digital economy)
•  Axis II: Deepening of S3 through Competitiveness Poles (316
millions €+265 millions €), new RDI Strategy, support to growth of
enterprises

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Marshall Plan 4.0 - Budgets 2015-2019
Millions €
Axis I - Human capital as an asset 304,56
Axis II - Supporting the development of industry through a
policy of innovation and business growth 850,48
II.1 Innovation (Competitiveness Poles + valorization) 642,06
II.2 Growth of SMEs 208,42
Axis III - Mobilizing the territory for economic
development 374,00
Axis IV - Efficiency, energy transition and circular economy 1 096,17
Axis V - Support to digital innovation 244,78
Total 2 869,98

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Definition of a Competitiveness Pole
Critical Mass at the
regional level,
virtuous growth
circle, Global
competitiveness
Training
centers
Research
units
Enterprises
Partnership,
Joint strategy
and joint innovative
projects

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Creation process : a mix of top-down and
bottom-up approaches
•University study
•Regional potential
and perspectives
•Criterias
•5 domains identified
Selection of
priority domains
• Creation of 1 Pole/domain
• Terms of reference
• Stakeholders defining the
Partnership, strategy,
concrete projects, mix of
technologies and sectors
Call for interest
• Analysis by an
independant jury
•Labellisation of the
poles and first
projects by the
Government
Creation of the
Poles
Same process for the 6th Pole

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Competitiveness Poles in Wallonia
Cross-sectoral regional ecosystems

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Implementation : Policy mix
• Collaborative R&D projects (2 entreprises and 2
research centres)
• Innovation platforms
RDI
• Investment subsidies
• Common infrastructures (R&D, infrastructures)Investment
• Sector expert to support export approaches
• Promotion actions and international prospection
• Attraction of FDI
• + EU projects
Internationalisation
• Development of specific trainings
• Training policy
• Internships
Training
• Up to 350.000-400.000 € / Pole / Year (Wages)
• IF Private counterpart of 50% (expenses /
valorisations)
• Project support, networking,…
Animation structures

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Implementation : Annual call for projects
• Analysis by :
• the Pole
• the
administration
• Internal jury
Letter of
Intent
• Formal
administration
opinion
• External jury
recommandation
Finalized
project • Decision of
support /
budgets
• Conditional
decisions
Regional
Governement
Monitoring and Evaluation : coordinating
administration, external jury, external evaluation,
Governement

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Results and challenges
Key results Challenges ahead
Relevance of key priority domains and
strategy
Driving effect for the whole economy
Positive collaboration dynamics in and
between poles
International Strategy, European
projects
Good representation of stakeholders
(+/- 1.000 members)
SMEs involvement
Positive dynamics for participating
enterprises
Industrial impact, valorisation,
market uptake
R&D support predominant Innovation dynamics to foster on a
continuous basis, cross-sectoral
dynamics
New policy approaches, policy mix Going beyond specific support tools,
mobilizing the whole policy mix
=> Competitiveness Poles policy at the heart of the Regional S3

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• Framework program for creativity
(2010)
• Objective : To place creativity and
innovation at the heart of the Walloon
society and economy.
• Means : Thinking out of the box to :
 promote the creative society
 fertilize innovative practices
 support innovative productions
 Piloting, testing
 Open network of stakeholders
Wallonia, European Creative District (2013-2015):
demonstrating, at the European level that a post-industrialized
economy can transform itself through the potential of creativity
and the creative and cultural industries
Creative Wallonia

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Consolidation and deepening of our Strategy
Competitiveness
Poles
Innovation,
ICT, KET
Internation-
alisation,
Europe
Resource
efficiency
Creative
economy,
high
potential
SMEs
New innovative value chains

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Conclusions – Do’s and don’t’s
 Don’t think it’s easy
 It’s a long time process –
find your own way
 Get inspiration from
outside but adapt to your
own situation
 Starting point =
objectives, not the tools
 EU programmes and
network as strong levers
BUT supporting role
essential

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Conclusions – Do’s and don’t’s
 Think and act out of the box
 Don’t rely on old fashioned
structures to impulse new
dynamics
 Use Pilots...
 And then drive change
 Focus on policy processes
+ incentives
 Flexibility and adaptability
 Dialogue

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Conclusions – Do’s and don’t’s
• Partnership
• Responsabilisation
• Involvement of
stakeholders
• Mix top-down /
bottom-up
• EU
• Adapting existing tools
• Kill the bad experiences
• Develop promising ones!
• Rely on external
expertise
• Make choices
• Testing new approaches
• Be open to new proposals
• Act at the border of the system!
• Political leadership – defining
policy objectives
Pilot Evaluate
DialogueAdapt
It’s a process : learning by doing

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Thanks for your attention !
http://economie.wallonie.be
http://clusters.wallonie.be/federateur-en/
www.creativewallonia.be/wecd
florence.hennart@spw.wallonie.be
Chloe.faton@spw.wallonie.be