Presidency Summary 2012

Presidency Summary 2012

2012 Executive Committee

•Joint Presidents: John Hill, Pera; Mark Glover, TSB

•Executive Secretary: Célia Gavaud, Pera

•Treasurer: Dean Hallam, Pera

•Presidency Team and Executive Working Group members: David Golding, TSB;

Kate Yarrington, TSB

Overview

This year Taftie, the European association of leading national innovation agencies, celebrated its 20th anniversary. A milestone year in the lifespan of the association and a relevant one for asking itself essential, existential questions such as how to succeed being cohesive, strategic and effective with 26 members (originally Taftie was founded by 6 organisations); how to grow without losing its “soul” and should it actually continue growing. It was also an important year for the UK; Pera and the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) jointly headed Taftie, London hosted the highly successful2012 Summer Olympic Games andthe government launched the twobiggest public support programmes to industry ever – Growth Accelerator (£180 million overall budget) and the national Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS – £75 million). Finally, in quarter 3 of 2012, the UK showed small but promising signs of coming out of a two year long recession.

In this context, the joint-presidency proposedtwo inter-related themes for the year, the underpinning goal being to work with Taftie members on topics related to supporting economic growth in Europe through two aspects relevant to TAFTIE’s focus on innovation:

•Innovation support to stimulate entrepreneurship and the growth of small businesses;

•Challenge-led innovation, delivering economic growth and solving societal challenges.

The two themes were developed through dedicated events. The Cambridge Annual Conference in June (see paragraph 1 of this report for further detail) and anExpert Session in Februaryfocussed on the topic of Entrepreneurship and high growth. The Policy Forum in December (see paragraph 2 of this report for further detail) and a dedicated Expert Sessionin May addressed the issue of Grand Challenges approach of H2020.

The new concept of Expert Sessions– thematic working meetings – was launched in 2012, with three sessions held. The feedback was very positive and therefore the 2013 Presidency will take up the model (see paragraph 3 of this report).

The EWG meetings were the place of important if delicatedebates on key issues for the association; specifically this year were discussed guidelines for communicating with the European Commission; decision-making in a large group (from a few founding members to currently 26 members); membership application guidelines. If a consensus was found on the topic of communication with the EC and on decision-making, the debate on membership is still open and will be taken over in 2013. Another topic discussed in 2012 was that of the surplus generated over the years by Taftie and how it should be used. The association is in a fortunate position of having extra revenue at its disposal however finding consensus on its uses is requiring time.

Fewer task forceswere held in 2012 due to the fact that no specific proposals were brought up to the attention of the Executive Committee; however more networking groups, ad hoc groups and Taftie Academy training sessions and workshops were held in an effort to maximise the use of the Taftie Academy and keep cost down for agencies (see paragraph 4 of this report).

In 2012, the Presidency was keen to put into practice a desire that had been expressed by the group over recent years that of opening collaboration to non-Taftie member strategic partners. For instance, working with the Inno-Partnering Forum group seemed an obvious but important route to exploit (see paragraph 5 of this report). The Annual Conference in Cambridge is another example of this opening strategy with over 70 participants overall, of which 31 were not from Taftie member organisations.

Finally, we hope that the various meetings were great occasions for the members to (re)discover the UK and its excellence and growth centres; London, which at the time was busy preparing for the Olympic Games; Edinburgh a leading centre of the Enlightenment and now the most competitive large UK city; Cambridge, the flagship ofBritish science-led entrepreneurship and last but not least Birmingham, once the heartland of British manufacturing which is again back in the spotlight for its advanced manufacturing competences.

Cambridge Annual Conference

In 2012 Taftie celebratedits20th anniversary: twenty years of building anetwork of key stakeholders all focused on thedesign and implementation of national innovationand entrepreneurship programmes, as well asworking in partnership to inform and advisestakeholders at a European level. In a context of economic crisis,the Presidency was keen that the conference beanchored in a relevant theme linked to the efforts of national and European authorities to support industry through these challenging times. The theme of “innovation support to stimulate entrepreneurship and the growth of small businesses” was therefore deemed most relevant. Indeed, in time of high economic instability, understanding the role of high growth SMEs to the good health of national economies and how to support and maximise this role is essential for governments and government agencies. The purpose of the conference was to establish a shared platform of intelligence with possibilities of cross-border cooperation between all or some specific Taftie partner countries.

The event was also open to non-Taftie Members. 100 delegates were invited, including about 50% of external organisations. Eventually 72 participants attended the conference, of which 31 were from organisations that are not members of Taftie. Delegates represented UK government (Department for Business, Innovation and Skills), other Innovation Agencies (Serbia, Luxembourg, South Africa), International Institutions (EC), think-tanks (NESTA), High Growth SMEs (Brompton Bicycles Ltd., Human Touch Ltd., Michael John Design Ltd., etc.) and Research and Technological Organisations represented by their European Association (EARTO). A report presenting the proceedings of the conference was published in the autumn and was uploaded onto the Taftie website and posted out to all non-Taftie conference participants.

Brussels Policy Forum

Since 2009 Taftie has held annual Policy Forums for discussions on acute issues regarding innovationpolicy implementation. Following up this tradition a Policy Forum was held on Monday 9th December 2012, in Brussels, at the Renaissance Hotel. The forum title was ‘Horizon 2020: The Evolving State of Play and Grand Challenges’.

2012 has been an important year as plans for the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 plans were developed and finalised. Following an Expert Session in Edinburgh in May where a European Commission speaker and Taftie members exchanged ideas about the use of ‘Grand Challenges’ in H2020, and the Birmingham Expert Session on Pre-Commercial Procurement programmes the Policy Forum has been designed to provide a forum where Taftie members can discuss plans with officials from DGs Research and Innovation and Enterprise. Following the discovery in Edinburgh that only a few Taftie members already had a challenge-led approach in place the Policy Forum provided an opportunity for members (and EC officials) to learn from Vinnova and the Technology Strategy Board’s Challenge programmes and to consider how they would align with Horizon 2012.

New Initiatives

Expert Sessions

Expert Sessions (ES) have been held as an addition to all three EWG meetings in London, Edinburgh and Birmingham (February, May and September). All three events garnered highly positive feedback from the participants. The concept of the ES is simple: on an agreed topic, in relation to the yearly themes, the session brings together for two to three hours external experts who will briefly present to the room on the topic and open the floor for discussions. A briefing paper and a summary paper can be prepared. The topics covered in 2012 were as follows:

•London (February): “Innovation support to stimulate entrepreneurship and the growth of small businesses”; invited external experts: Robert Crawford, National Endowment for Science, Technology and Arts (NESTA); Colin Moody, Director at Pera, in charge of the design of the Growth Accelerator programme. A summary paper was produced and uploaded onto the Taftie website following the ES.

•Edinburgh (May): “Horizon 2020 – A Briefing for Taftie EWG”; invited external experts: Michael Arentoft, head of strategy for ICT R&D&I / Innovation Policy andresponsible for innovation in H2020 at theEuropean Commission and Paul Lewis, Managing Director of Services and Commercialisation and Ian McCoull, Business Innovation Director, at Scottish Enterprise. A briefing paper was produced and circulated to all participants.

•Birmingham (September): “How to set up and run a Pre-Commercial Procurement programme”; invited external expert: Stephen Browning, Head of SBRI at the Technology Strategy Board. Slides of the meeting were uploaded onto the Taftie website.

The feedback from participants to the ES has been very positive throughout the year; so much so that the 2013 Presidency will continue running them.

Working Better

Fewer task forces. Only one Task Force (State Aid) ran in 2012 due to the fact that no other specific proposals were brought up to the attention of the Executive Committee. However more networking groups and Taftie Academy training sessions and workshops were held in an effort to maximise the use of the Taftie Academy (TA) and keep cost down for agencies. Overall,two TA staff trainings and three networking workshops were held, and a total of 79 participants attended 2012 events (as of October 2012)[1].

Better use of the website and other new technologies. The Taftie website was completely redesigned during 2011. This enabled a better, rationalised way of working in 2012. Most documents were downloaded onto the secured area of the website instead of being sent via email. Monthly Troika meetings were organised online using a webconference facility with video. And all meetings used the free Doodle survey tool to register participants for all the meetings.

External Relationships

The Commission

Relationships with the EC in 2012 have been regular and very pertinent. Taftie sought the contributions of the EC during several public and members-only events; regarding the public events: Peter Wragg, Head of Business Cooperation, Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry spoke at the Annual Conference in Cambridge, and attended the Policy Forum in Brussels, Peter Droll Head of Unit, Innovation Policy, DG Research and Innovation was a key speaker, as was Sven Schade from DG Enterprise.In addition, Michael Arentoft, Head of Strategy for ICT R&D&I / Innovation Policy at the EC, participated in the Edinburgh Expert Session (part of the EWG) which was also an opportunity to feed in to Commission decisions on plans for Horizon 2020. Additional representatives of both DG Research and Innovation and DG Enterprise took part in the Policy Forum.

In addition, the European Commission DG Enterprise and Industry sought Taftie’s contribution as part of its Consultative Forum of the Enterprise Europe Network which started during the summer with a first meeting in Brussels; followed by the request to all Taftie members to answer a number of questions asked by the EC on the topic which were then submitted early October to the Commission. The EC acknowledge Taftie’s contribution and invited a representative to attend a second meeting on the topic in Brussels in December.

Strategic partners

Focus on collaboration with the Inno-Partnering Forum (IPF).

Even if all IPF partners are also members of Taftie, IPF contains additional members, and people and personal contacts are different. Therefore it was important to ensure that the two networks of people were introduced and exchanged ideas. The IPF project, funded by the EC, is due to end in December 2012 and has been looking at improving innovation agency support to SMEs. The project was keen that the knowledge generated by IPF would be transferred and taken over by Taftie to ensure that it was not lost. Vinnova’s IPF project coordinator came to present the project results at the Birmingham EWG. There it was agreed the IPF project results would be in a first instance accessible to Taftie members from the members-only area of the Taftie website. Once the project has ended, they will be transferred to the public area of the website. In addition Taftie members have been invited to all IPF events and the Taftie Academy Networking Workshop in e-identification was opened up to IPF members and held in conjunction with the IPF workshop on tools for delivering innovation support.

[1] Further information about 2012 Taftie Academy activities can be found in the overall feedback document available at