ALADIN – The ALpe Adria Danube universities INitiative - Input to the Digital Agenda for the Danube Region

Stakeholder Conference on the EU Strategy for the Danube Region, Vienna/Bratislava21.04.2010

Dr. Christian Kittl

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Agenda

>The ALADIN Network

–Aim and Background

–Geographical Scope

–ALADIN in the EU Strategy Process for the Danube Region

>Open Innovation

–vs. the Traditional Closed Innovation Model

–to Improve the Competitive Position of the Region

–The Role of Universities and Policy Makers

–The Living Labs Approach

–Smart Region - The Danube Region Living Lab

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The ALADIN (ALpe Adria Danube universities INiative) network

ALADIN was created in Ljubljana on 23rd October 2002 by Karl-Franzens University Graz (Austria), University of Rijeka (Croatia), University of Trieste (Italy) and University of Maribor (Slovenia) as an international network working at regional level

>to share common ideas and knowledge in teaching and research activities in the field of e-Commerce

>and to cooperate creating mobility of students and professors, offering common lectures, creating virtual teams of students from different universities and professors lecturing at different universities,

>in order to harmonize with global and international activities of e-Commerce,

From 2002 on the ALADIN network has constantly grown, reflecting the need for cooperation in the ICT fields which are crucial for the development of the Enlarged Europe and promoting research cooperation with SMEs and Governments, in order to harmonize with global and international activities of ICT in the Enlarged Europe.

Today, universities, associated centers of excellence and Living Labs located in 11 European countries, namely Austria, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia, are represented.

ALADIN Aim and Background

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The ALADIN network represents 17 universities in the Danube Region.

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The ALADIN network already actively contributed to the strategy formation process and will continue to play an active role.

>In February 2010 the ALADIN group sent a letter to the Members of the European Parliament representing the countries in the Danube Region, stressing the key role of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) and interest to be involved in the preparatory process of the European Strategy for the Danube Region.

>As a result of a ALADIN Meeting held at Corvinus University of Budapest, March 21-23, a Position Paper1 was formulated and submitted to the EC as input to the public consultation process.

>Key messages of the Position Paper:

>Regarding the main pillars of the Danube Region Strategy, namely

- to improve connectivity and communication systems (covering in particular transport, energy issues and the information society);

- to preserve the environment and prevent against natural risks;

- and to reinforce the potential for socio-economical development,

we suggest to include education, training, RTD, ICT & innovation areas as enablers.

>Support an open innovation approach, especially the Living Lab concept, to develop the Danube Region’s innovation system and thus increase the competitiveness of the region.

ALADIN in the EU Strategy Process for the Danube Region

1http://elivinglab.org/CrossBordereRegion/EUDanubeRegionStrategy/ALADINPositionPaper.pdf

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The traditional closed innovation model: companies generate, develop and commercialise their own ideas.

Open Innovation vs. the Traditional Closed Innovation Model

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Open innovation is about trading innovation components into and out of an organisation across its semi-permeable boundary.

Open Innovation

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In its report dated 25.3.2010, the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy formulates a Motion for a European Parliament Resolution on a new Digital Agenda for Europe: 2015.eu

The European Parliament

“Considers that, alongside consistent deployment of ICT, it is essential to promote ICT research excellence and foster public and private investment in high-risk, collaborative ICT research and innovation”;

“Recalls that the future competitiveness of Europe and its capacity to recover from the current economic crisis largely depend on its ability to facilitate the general and effective deployment of ICT in undertakings; notes, however, that SMEs are still lagging far behind large undertakings and draws special attention to the guarantees which micro and small undertakings should be given to ensure that they are not deprived of the benefits of the development of ICTs; calls on Member States and the Commission to step up support for SMEs as regards the use of ICT tools to increase their productivity;

The report calls for

>promoting world class research through Open Innovation

>promoting the emergence of and the use by SMEs of Internet based services, such as cloud computing or software as service models.

Open Innovation – In line with the proposed Digital Agenda 2015.eu

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The European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL).

Open Innovation - The Living Labs Approach

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Especially in the eastern part of the Danube Region more Living Labs are needed.

Open Innovation - The Living Labs Approach

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ALADIN aims at embracing the Living Lab concept and methodology on a regional level in order to facilitate the transformation into a Smart Region

>Currently, applying the Living Lab approach to build „Smart Cities“ is strongly promoted on EU level

>Proceeding to the level of „Smart Regions“ is a logical next step

>Already now first regional Living Labs are forming, e.g. in the MEDLAB project

>ALADIN aims at applying the Living Lab concept and methodology on a regional level to the Danube Region

>A respective event will be organised during the Hungarian Presidency in the first half of 2011

>We invite governments and enterprises, especially SMEs, to join this initiative and to support the further uptake of the Living Lab concept and methodology in the Danube Region.

Open Innovation for a Smart Region

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The ALADIN group thus proposes:

To apply the Living Lab concept and methodology on a regional level in the Danube Region.

“Danube Region as the Living Lab

for economic and social innovation.”

Open Innovation - The Danube Region as the Living Lab

Thank you very much for your attention!

Dr. Christian Kittlevolaris Center of Excellence & Mobile Living LabChristian.Kittl@evolaris.net

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Backup

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A transition from closed to open innovation models is needed to improve cooperation and collaboration in the region.

In a world of growing complexity and need for cooperation, the competitive positions of both organisations in the region’s countries and the region as a whole are increasingly determined by their competencies and skills at learning and developing in a continuous process.

In order to increase the competitiveness of the Danube Region, cooperation and collaboration capacity especially of SMEs has to be improved. From a regional strategy point of view, cross-border collaboration is a must, hence cross-border innovation is a significant enabler.

More flexible innovation approaches are needed than the traditional closed innovation models, where a company generates, develops and commercialises its own ideas in a fully-integrated model.

A transformation to open innovation, characterised by the use of purposive inflows and outflows of knowledge to accelerate internal innovation, and expand the markets for external use of innovation, respectively, is needed.

Open innovation practices have been promoted by economic trends such as the increased cost of R&D, escalating technological complexity, the increased tendency for valuable inventive steps to occur at the interface between fields of knowledge (such as bio-informatics or materials-electronics) and enhanced communication via ICT.

Open Innovation to Improve the Competitive Position of the Region

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Cross-border collaboration of enterprises, universities and policy makers is necessary in order to enable the transition process.

While the European Commission considers the universities as motors of the new, knowledge-based paradigm it also clearly states that they are not in a position to deliver their full potential contribution to the re-launched Lisbon Strategy yet. The main conclusion is that “Europe must strengthen the three poles of its knowledge triangle: education, research and innovation. Universities are essential in all three. Investing more and better in the modernisation and quality of universities is a direct investment in the future of Europe and Europeans.” (EC, 2005)

Policy makers should engage in new business-administration-academia partnerships. Special focus is needed with respect to cross-border partnerships in the region and the changing roles of central/local government, business, universities, and other research organizations. Properly constructed, operated, and evaluated partnerships can provide effective means for accelerating the progress of technology and knowledge sharing. Building trust among all stakeholders, especially in the context of cross-border cooperation, is a central prerequisite to this end.

Open Innovation – The Role of Universities and Policy Makers