Regional Innovation Monitor › ... › brittany_rim_report_120412.pdfRegional Innovation Monitor i Executive Summary 1. Introduction: Main recent trends in the Regional Innovation

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Version: Final Date: 12 April 2012

Regional Innovation Monitor Regional Innovation Report (Brittany) To the European Commission Enterprise and Industry Directorate-General Directorate D – Industrial Innovation and Mobility Industries

Prof. Michel Lacave

Technopolis Group - ITD

PREFACE

The Regional Innovation Monitor (RIM)1 is an initiative of the European Commission's Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry, which has the objective to describe and analyse innovation policy trends across EU regions. RIM analysis is based on methodologies developed in the context of the INNO-Policy Trendchart, which covers innovation policies at national level as part of the PRO INNO Europe initiative.

The overarching objective of this project is to enhance the competitiveness of European regions through increasing the effectiveness of their innovation policies and strategies. The specific objective of the RIM is to enhance the scope and quality of policy assessment by providing policy-makers, other innovation stakeholders with the analytical framework and tools for evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of regional policies and regional innovation systems.

RIM covers EU-20 Member States: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

This means that RIM will not concentrate on Member States where the Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics NUTS 1 and 2 levels are identical with the entire country (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania), Malta which only has NUTS 3 regions, Slovenia which has a national innovation policy or Cyprus and Luxembourg which are countries without NUTS regions.

The main aim of 50 regional reports is to provide a description and analysis of contemporary developments of regional innovation policy, taking into account the specific context of the region as well as general trends. All regional innovation reports are produced in a standardised way using a common methodological and conceptual framework, in order to allow for horizontal analysis, with a view to preparing the Annual EU Regional Innovation Monitor reports.

European Commission official responsible for the project is Alberto Licciardello ([email protected]).

The present report was prepared by Prof. Michel Lacave ([email protected]). The contents and views expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of the Member States or the European Commission.

Copyright of the document belongs to the European Commission. Neither the European Commission, nor any person acting on its behalf, may be held responsible for the use to which information contained in this document may be put, or for any errors which, despite careful preparation and checking, may appear.

1 http://www.rim-europa.eu

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Table of Contents 1. Main Trends and Challenges in the Regional Innovation System 1

1.1 Recent trends in regional economic performance 1 1.2 Recent trends in regional innovation performance 2 1.3 Identified challenges 4

2. Innovation Policy Governance 7 2.1 Degree of institutional autonomy 7 2.2 Institutional-set up, co-ordination and implementation mechanisms 8 2.3 Availability and use of policy intelligence tools 10 2.4 Key challenges and opportunities 11

3. Innovation Policy Instruments and Orientations 13 3.1 The regional innovation policy mix 13 3.2 Appraisal of regional innovation policies 21 3.3 Good practice case 22 3.4 Portfolio of innovation support measures 23 3.5 Towards smart specialisation policies 24 3.6 Possible future orientations and opportunities 25

Appendices Appendix A Bibliography................................................................................................27 Appendix B Stakeholders consulted...............................................................................28 Appendix C RIM Repository information ......................................................................29 Appendix D Statistical data ............................................................................................30

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Figures Figure 1-1 Economic and innovation performance indicators ........................................ 4 Figure 2-1 Innovation Governance System ..................................................................... 9

Tables Table 3-1 Overview of the regional innovation policy mix ............................................. 15 Table 3-2 Existing regional innovation support measures ............................................ 17

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Executive Summary 1. Introduction: Main recent trends in the Regional Innovation System Until the aftermath of the Second World War, Brittany was among the poorest regions in France, with little industrial development, a strong predominance of the agricultural and fishing sector, and emigration to the Paris metropolitan area of poorly qualified people. During the three decades following the war), Brittany turned into a highly dynamic and attractive region because of: an impressive modernisation of agriculture, farming and breeding supported by powerful Christian farmers’ unions; industrialisation resulting from the national policy of ‘aménagement du territoire’ which led to the settlement of automotive plants and telecom research centres and business units; a social cohesion and regional identity significantly stronger than in other French regions.

In 2008 Brittany’s GDP amounted to 4.3% of the national French GDP (3.9% in 1990), less than the region’s weight in demographic terms (5.1%) or in employment (4.9%). However, between 1995 and 2008, Brittany’s GDP has grown by 4.3% p.a. (national growth rate: 3.8%). In comparison with the national average, there are more jobs in agriculture and less in services. Although Brittany remains the main agricultural region in France, agricultural employment has strongly fallen, the service sector being the main provider of new jobs. Brittany’s unemployment rate has constantly remained below the national and the EU-27 average.

Brittany’s GERD contributes to 3.6% of the French GERD. BERD represents 64% of GERD (5th French region) and public expenditure 26% (6th French region). GERD has increased by 2.1% p.a. between 2000 and 2008; however, its share in the GDP has decreased by 2.3% p.a. during the same period. The share of GERD in the GDP was 1.7% in 2008, below the French average of 2.2%. Brittany is losing ground with regard to the French average. The same happens with the BERD (-2.8% p.a. vs. -0.7% for France) and the share of BERD in the GDP (-0.4% vs. -0.1% for France). Business R&D mainly concentrates on ICT and electronics. Applications for patents to the EPO have increased by 7.3% p.a. between 2000 and 2008 against 3.3% as national average; in 2008, the EPO applications amounted to 4.6% of the French total, placing Brittany 4th among French regions.

2. Major innovation challenges and policy responses

Challenge 1: Innovation as a key for the diversification of the regional economic fabric. The predominance in the regional economic fabric of four sectors –agriculture and agro food, ICT and electronics, automotive and shipbuilding – appears as a risk for the future. These industries are strongly exposed to international competition; some of them depend from large groups external to the region; agriculture and agrofood have a low added value and face environmental concerns. The regional innovation policy has to support accordingly the most promising innovative ‘niches’ in the four sectors, ‘transversal’ technologies, and emerging filières, in order to reduce the dependency of Brittany’s economy upon its four heavyweights. More foresight studies and strategic intelligence will help (as the 2008 study “Biotechnologies as an engine for growth”) as well as the pre-seed and seed funds recently set up.

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Challenge 2: Opening up / internationalisation of the regional economic fabric and research and innovation system. The opening of the regional economy to international is rather weak (the percentage of imports and exports in the regional GDP is half of the French average). There is only little foreign direct investment in the region. SMEs have a limited culture of internationalisation. The visibility of universities and higher education institutions at international level is low; they host few foreign academics and researchers, and there are relatively few co-publications with foreigners. The participation of Brittany’s research teams to FP6 is strongly concentrated on ICT, the other fields are under-represented with respect to national average. Thus, there is a need for opening up to the international markets, in particular with the respect to the emerging filières and ‘niches’, which are on the global market, and to international scientific networks to the benefit of the regional economy and innovation system.

Challenge 3: Making the higher education and research system more flexible and adaptable to change. The research and innovation system is mainly focused on ICT and electronics, marine ecology and biology, agricultural and food research, and applied biology. Private R&D is mainly concentrated on ICT. There is some lack of flexibility in the large research programmes supported on regional level. In order to support the process of diversification towards emerging filières, ‘niches’ in relation to ‘lead markets’, relevant R&D fields should be strengthened (environmental technologies, renewable energies, nanotechnologies...) with particular attention paid to production technologies. The higher education system will also benefit from larger collaboration between universities and schools of engineers, as well as inter-disciplinarity. A process of rationalisation of the higher education supply among the different higher education geographical ‘sites’ would also help specialisation at higher level.

3. Innovation policy governance As in all French regions the innovation policy governance is characterised by a joint designing of the innovation strategy and a joint steering, implementation and co-funding by the regional authorities and the State administration in the region, reflected in the ‘Contrat de Projet Etat-Région’ (CPER) and the ERDF Operational Programme. A third actor also plays a key role in each region, the national public innovation agency OSEO Innovation. The 2008 Regional Innovation Scheme proposed a strategic and an operational governance approach system. For strategic governance, the key actor was the regional development agency AEB (Agence économique de Bretagne) which relied on the Committee of Innovation Strategic Orientation (COSI) representing stakeholders, the coordination of financing institutions, and the regional innovation agency Bretagne Innovation. The COSI has now been created. The operational governance relied on Bretagne Innovation, which coordinated the regional innovation network (RBI: Réseau Bretagne Innovation), grouping or gathering? All technology transfer and innovation support organisations. AEB and Bretagne Innovation merged in 2011 into BDI (Bretagne Développement Innovation), which is now the key actor of the whole system and is responsible for strategic and operational governance.

The main governance challenges, already partially addressed, are: involving effectively stakeholders at strategic level; coordinating efficiently the innovation support actors; increased ‘concertation’ between the regional authorities and UEB for better exploiting the presence of higher education and R&D across the region.

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4. Conclusions: future actions and opportunities for innovation policy • With regard to the challenges, the responses brought by the regional

innovation policies seem globally appropriate, in particular: the efforts made for enlarging the number of SMEs entering into a process of innovation; the improvement accessibility to financing for innovative projects and enterprises (pre-seed and seed money); the support to ‘poles of competitiveness’.

• Beyond these three groups of measures, smart specialisation appears as a strong opportunity for diversifying and opening up the regional economic fabric. A very good signal is given by the very recent creation of a regional cluster CAPBIOTEK in the field of biotechnologies. Other opportunities should be explored (synergies between ‘poles of competitiveness’, ‘niches’ at the crossroads of different R&D fields).

• In complement, the regional innovation policies should strongly support: the development of knowledge-intensive services and more prioritisation of research themes and higher education programmes in relation to the objectives of smart specialisation and support to future regional research-driven or innovation-driven clusters.

• Finally, beyond the highly positive measure supporting the creation of a monitoring and evaluation instrument of the implementation of the SRI, the regional authorities should further develop actions supporting strategic intelligence and foresight studies of the regional economy and innovation capacities with a large component of benchmarking at European and international level. Strategic intelligence, foresight and opening up to international experience would definitely strengthen the role of the innovation governance system at strategic level through providing the governance system with relevant material for defining future orientations.

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1. Main Trends and Challenges in the Regional Innovation System

1.1 Recent trends in regional economic performance

Brittany has a surface of 27,208 km² and a population of about 3.2m, i.e. a density of 117 per km² in 2010, which makes it more densely populated with respect both to the French (102) and to the EU-27 average (116, in 2008).

Brittany’s recent economic history is rather specific within the French regional landscape. Until the aftermath of the Second World War, Brittany was among the poorest regions in France, with little industrial development, a strong predominance of the agricultural and fishing sector, and emigration to the Paris metropolitan area of poorly qualified people. During the ‘Trente Glorieuses’ (the French expression for the strong growth that occurred in France during the three decades following the war), Brittany turned into a highly dynamic and attractive region under the influence of three factors: an impressive modernisation of agriculture, farming and breeding supported by powerful Christian farmers’ unions (later on, this process was further boosted by the Common Agricultural Policy); industrialisation resulting from the national policy of ‘aménagement du territoire’ which led to the settlement of automotive plants and telecommunications research centres and business units; a social cohesion and regional identity significantly stronger than in other French regions.

In 2008, the regional GDP amounted to about €83.6b, which puts Brittany as the 6th French region. However, the regional GDP per capita was €26,500, which represents only 87.2% of the French average (105.6% of the EU-27 average); Brittany’s GDP amounted in 2008 to 4.3% of the national French GDP (3.9% in 1990), which is less than the region’s weight in demographic terms (5.1%) or in employment (4.9%). The recent growth rates of the GDP and productivity notwithstanding demonstrate that, at least until the present economic crisis, Brittany’s economic dynamism has been maintained: between 1995 and 2008, Brittany’s GDP has grown by 4.3% p.a., which is above-average with respect to the national growth rate (3.8%); the productivity growth rate had been 1.1% p.a. between 2000 and 2006, it decreased in 2007 (-1.1%) and strongly recovered in 2008 (+2.9%).

In 2008, 5.5% of the employed worked in agriculture, 23.5% in industry (including construction), and 71% in services. In comparison with the national average (respectively: 3 %, 21.6%, 75.4%), there are significant differences with more jobs in agriculture and less in services, the share of industry jobs being slightly above the national average. If we consider the EU-27 average, the share of agricultural jobs is practically the same in Brittany (EU-27: 5.6%), while the regional share of industry jobs is lower (25.8%). Brittany thus remains the main agricultural region in France. Nonetheless, agricultural employment has considerably fallen in the last decades, while the service sector has been the main provider of new jobs (in particular: personal services, ICT) followed by industry due to late industrialisation (automotive sector in the 1960’s); the share of jobs in industry has slightly diminished from 2000.

Between 2000 and 2008, the unemployment rate declined significantly from 7.7% to 5.6%. However, due to the economic crisis, it climbed to 5.9% in 2009 and 7.2% in 2010; the recent upsurge in unemployment has mainly affected the manufacturing sector and construction. The regional unemployment trends have been similar to the national ones, except that Brittany’s unemployment rate has constantly remained below the national and the EU-27 average, a sign once again of Brittany’s economic dynamism. The structural features of unemployment are similar to the French ones: high youth unemployment and importance of long-term unemployment.

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Brittany is today in a rather favourable position in the French regional landscape with respect to growth and employment: unemployment is relatively low; the region is among the most attractive (migratory flow); there is a powerful agro food sector (12% of agrofood jobs in France) which has come out from the modernisation of agriculture; tourism has strongly developed and contributes to the development of the service sector.

The main current challenges concern first agriculture and fishing because of environmental problems, even higher standards of food quality and safety, and the changes, which affect EU policies. They also concern the regional industry, concentrated in 4 major sectors – agrofood, automotive, electronics and ICT, and shipbuilding: all of them are exposed to international competition; SMEs have a limited culture of internationalisation; sub-contracting to large groups external to the region is particularly important; agrofood SMEs are exposed to pressure from large-scale retail groups; the qualification of the labour force remains insufficient in some sectors.

1.2 Recent trends in regional innovation performance

Brittany had not been for decades a stronghold of higher education and research. It has however benefited from ‘decentralisation’ of research activities (e.g.: telecommunications) as for industry, and from its demographic growth, which has led to the development of its universities. The industrialisation process with the settlement of big companies has also contributed to the development of the higher education system. The major part of the research and innovation competences and resources are located in Rennes, the capital city. Beside the 4 universities grouped into the regional ‘Pole of Research and Higher Education’ (PRES) known as European University of Brittany (UEB), and with respect to public research, practically all national research institutions are present (CNRS, INRIA/IRISA for computer sciences, IFREMER for marine research, INSERM for health and medical sciences, CEMAGREF for environmental sciences, INRA for agricultural and food research, and IRD for development), and there are also schools of engineers carrying out research activities. In geographical terms, there are four main higher education and R&D sites: Rennes, Brest-Quimper-Roscoff (West), Saint-Brieuc-Lannion (North), and Lorient-Vannes (South).

Globally, Brittany is performing better in private R&D than in public R&D, due to the role of large companies in the ICT/electronics, automotive, and shipbuilding sectors. At the same time, this makes Brittany’s R&D fragile due to its dependency upon the strategies of these companies, as illustrated by the following data.

Brittany’s GERD amounted to €1.41b in 2008, distributed into €0,9b for BERD (64% of GERD, 5th French region) and €0.51b for public expenditure (6th French region); it thus contributes to 3.6% of the French GERD (6th French region). GERD has increased by 2.1% p.a. between 2000 and 2008; however, its share in the GDP has decreased by 2.3% p.a. during the same period. The share of GERD in the GDP was 1.7% in 2008, significantly below the French average of 2.2% and also below the EU-27 average of 2%. Moreover, Brittany is losing ground with regard to the French average as illustrated by the respective national annual rates (+3.1% and -0.8%). The same happens with the BERD (-2.8% p.a. vs. -0.7% for France) and the share of BERD in the GDP (-0.4% vs. -0.1% for France).


In 2008, there were 15,900 full-time equivalent (FTE) people employed in research in Brittany (4% of the French total), among which 10,010 researchers (4.4%) – 3,980 researchers in public research and 6,030 in private research (respectively 4.2% and 4.6% of the French total). Brittany is ranking 6th for FTE employment in public research and 5th for FTE employment in private research. Total human resources in science and technology (HRST) have grown by 3.4% p.a. between 2000 and 2008 (France: +3.6%). However, employment in high-tech industries and knowledge-intensive services has decreased by 6.1% p.a. during the same period (France: +0.3%). This reflects some divorce between the importance of research and it’s turning into innovative business, a divorce pinpointed in various studies.

The four current main R&D fields in Brittany are ICT, marine-related sciences and technologies, agricultural and food research, and applied biology. R&D activities in the health and environmental fields have grown significantly (number of labs and researchers, university hospitals) in the recent years. Furthermore, chemistry and human and social sciences are considered as research fields with great potential in the studies, which have prepared the policy and programming documents. In 2008, Brittany was ranking 3rd among the French regions with respect to: scientific production in electronics, ICT, agro-food, and marine biology/ecology; the applications for patents in electronics and electricity; mathematics. Business R&D mainly concentrates on ICT and electronics. Applications for patents to the EPO have increased by 7.3% p.a. between 2000 and 2008 (the increase has been particularly important in the fields of semiconductors, genetic engineering, chemistry, and ICT/consumer electronics) against only 3.3% as national average; in 2008, the EPO applications amounted to 4.6% of the French total, placing Brittany 4th among French regions. Large companies are mainly responsible for this ranking.

‘Intermediary organisations’ aimed at making cooperation between the private sector and public research more efficient have multiplied: there are currently more than 90 entities involved in innovation support across the regional territory. While this allows them to be close to their ‘customers’ or potential ‘customers’, their multiplicity hampers the ‘readability’ of the regional innovation support system.

Brittany hosts 3 ‘poles of competitiveness’ (innovation-driven clusters) which have taken a strategic place in the regional RTDI landscape through concentrating funding on collaborative (business-research) R&D projects and a strong support from regional and local authorities: Valorial (‘Foodstuff of the Future’), Images & Réseaux (ICT and electronics), and Mer (various activities related to the sea). It is also involved in a bi-regional pole, which has its headquarters in Pays de la Loire, IDforCAR (smart automotive). Images & Réseaux and IDforCAR are dominated by large groups (France Telecom, Alcatel, Siemens, etc. for the first, and PSA for the second). Mer involves, among various partners a large public shipbuilding group (DCNS: naval defence). Valorial is definitely SME-oriented. We thus find again the importance of large groups/companies in the innovation system.


Figure 1-1 Economic and innovation performance indicators

Source: Eurostat and Community Innovation Survey, year.

1.3 Identified challenges

The Regional Scheme for Economic Development (SRDE), the Regional Innovation Scheme (SRI), and the STRATER (‘Diagnostic Higher Education-Research-Innovation’ carried out by the national ministry of Higher Education and Research) present Brittany’s strengths and weaknesses as viewed by the leading regional actors, in particular public authorities (regional and State administration in the region). A clear strength underlined in these documents is the presence of four powerful sectors, agriculture / agrofood, ICT and electronics, automotive and shipbuilding, the first one being part of Brittany’s history but strongly modernised, the three latter being dominated by large groups external to the region, which also concentrate private R&D.

Public R&D competences available in Brittany are in close relation with these sectors and partnerships have been developed through four corresponding ‘poles of competitiveness’, i.e. innovation-driven clusters. These sectors are also exposed to international competition - sub-contracting plays an important role (with its consequences in terms of dependency upon the large groups). In the agrofood sector, added value is low while environmental concerns (pollution by pesticides and fertilizers) are mounting. Public R&D is considered as insufficiently oriented toward emerging sectors (environment, health / biotechnologies, nanotechnologies...). SMEs, as well as higher education and public R&D suffer from an insufficient opening up to internationalisation (poor level of exports for SMEs, and limited international relationships for public R&D). On the whole, Brittany benefits from a well-trained and educated labour force, but there are too many low-qualified jobs, which results in emigration of young graduates.

‐60 ‐40 ‐20 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160

Product/process innovators Marketing/organisational innovators Higher education R&D expenditure

Business R&D expenditure Patents per mln popoluation Non‐R&D innovation exp.

Government R&D expenditure Tertiary education

INNOVATION PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

Change in unemployment rate Unemployment rate

GDP per capita growth GDP per capita (PPP)

ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE INDICATORS Performance and change rela/ve to EU

Bretagne (FR52)


Challenge 1: Innovation as a key for the diversification of the regional economic fabric The predominance in the regional economic fabric of four sectors –agriculture and agrofood, ICT and electronics, automotive and shipbuilding – appears as a risk for the future of Brittany. The automotive and shipbuilding industries are fragile and strongly exposed to international competition; each sector is controlled by a large group, PSA (automotive) and DCNS (shipbuilding), of which centres of decision are external to the region. The electronics and ICT sector also depends of large groups (France Telecom/Orange, Alcatel Lucent, Siemens...). Agriculture/agrofood is still for a large part a low added value sector, with strong environmental concerns affecting agriculture.

The regional innovation policy has to support accordingly the most promising innovative ‘niches’ in the four sectors, ‘transversal’ technologies such as environmental technologies, and emerging filières or sectors such as marine renewable energies, biotechnologies, eco-construction... in order to reduce the dependency of Brittany’s economy upon its four heavyweights.

Foresight and strategic intelligence are required for taking such a move, beyond the study “Biotechnologies as an engine for growth” carried out in 2008. A more complete range of financial instruments able to support enterprises at all stages of the innovation cycle is also needed (important steps have recently been taken in this field by the Region), according to policy-makers and the SRI.

Challenge 2: Opening up / internationalisation of the regional economic fabric and research and innovation system In 2010, regional imports represented 2% of total French imports and regional exports 2.3% (about half the share of Brittany in the national GDP), while the ratio regional exports / regional GDP amounted to 9.7% in 2009 against the French average (Paris metropolitan area excluded) of 21.6%. Agricultural products and foodstuffs represent more than a third of the amount of exports. SMEs have a limited culture of internationalisation. There is only little foreign direct investment in Brittany. The opening of the regional economy to international trade has thus remained limited so far.

The same happens with the higher education and research system. There is only low visibility of universities and higher education institutions at international level. Universities and research organisations host only few foreign academics and researchers, and there are relatively few co-publications with foreigners. The participation of Brittany’s research teams to FP6 is strongly concentrated in ICT (due to the importance of large groups and private research); other fields are under-represented with respect to national average.

There is a thus a need for opening up to international markets, in particular with respect to the emerging filières or sectors mentioned in the first challenge (which are on the global market), and to international scientific networks which can effectively and efficiently support technological development and innovation in the regional economy. Actions currently supporting internationalisation should probably be better coordinated.


Challenge 3: Making the higher education and research system more flexible and adaptable to change in the regional economic fabric Today the research and innovation system is mainly focused on ICT and electronics, marine ecology and biology, agricultural and food research, and applied biology. Private R&D is mainly concentrated on ICT. There is some lack of flexibility in the large research programmes supported by the State and the Region (through the CPER – Contrat de Plan Etat-Région) and the Structural Funds. There is also some lack of coherence between higher education programmes and the ‘poles of competitiveness’.

In order to support the process of diversification toward emerging filières or sectors and ‘lead markets’, relevant R&D fields should be supported and strengthened, such as: environmental technologies and renewable energies, nanotechnologies, mecatronics ... with particular attention paid to production technologies and processes. The higher education system will also gain from more bridging between universities and schools of engineers, and inter-disciplinarity. A process of rationalisation of the higher education supply among the different higher education geographical poles would also help specialisation at higher level.


2. Innovation Policy Governance

The innovation policy governance is characterised as in all French regions by a joint designing of the innovation strategy, and a joint steering and implementation by the regional authorities and the State administration in the region, which are reflected in two major policy and programming documents: the ‘Contrat de Plan Etat-Région’ (hereafter: CPER) and the ERDF Operational Programme (hereafter: ERDF OP). A third actor also plays a key role in each region - the national public innovation agency OSEO Innovation.

2.1 Degree of institutional autonomy

All French regions have by law a general competence regarding the regional interests, a competence which is notwithstanding shared with the State and with other local authorities. There is thus no clear-cut distribution of competences among the different levels of government.

Since 2004, the regions are competent for regional economic development, which entails at least two specific competences: drafting of a Regional Economic Development Scheme (hereafter: SRDE); and public grants (direct or indirect) to enterprises (in compliance with EU Competition Law).

The budgetary autonomy of the regions with the central government is rather limited, since they collect very few taxes (and have in general little autonomy in determining their amount) and are heavily dependent on State transfers and subsidies. The role of the regions in managing ERDF funds may differ; however, they rather often manage ERDF-funded RTDI actions through a global grant. ERDF funding in the field of RTDI is generally considered by regional policy-makers as strategically important.

In 2008, the French regions spent €769.2m for RTDI, which represented an increase of €59.6m compared with 2003 (2.8% of their total budget in 2008 as in 2003); the same year, regions expenditure represented 2/3 of the total expenditure dedicated to RTDI by all French local authorities. Regional innovation policies are jointly designed by the State administration in the region (Regional Secretariat for Regional Affairs – SGAR, Regional Delegate to Research and Technology – DRRT, Regional Directorate for Industry – DIRECCTE) and the regional authorities. They are embodied in the above-mentioned policy and programming documents CPER and ERDF OP. Co-funding of RTDI programmes and actions is the rule, but a very limited number of measures happens to be funded by the region alone (and for low amounts).

The autonomy of the regions is reflected in a policy (and not programming) document, the already cited SRDE, which is relevant for innovation policies. This document indicates only policy orientations, without detailing the actions and funding needed for implementing them. Another key document is the Regional Innovation Scheme (SRI, 2008), carried out following a request of the European Commission to all French regions (see below 3.2).

On the whole, the need to implement proactive research and innovation policies in regions has progressively arisen during the past two decades. Awareness of the importance of RTD policies has increased in parallel with the growing power given to the regional authorities as regards of the economic development.


2.2 Institutional-set up, co-ordination and implementation mechanisms

Since 2000 the key institutions supporting innovation in Brittany are four, as in all French regions:

• the State administration representing in the region the ministry in charge of research (DRRT);

• the State administration representing in the region the ministry in charge of industry (DIRECCTE);

• the regional authorities; and

• OSEO Innovation.

The system is so general that it is generally known as ‘the gang of four’.

These institutions are working together for implementing the CPER and the ERDF OP.

The Brittany regional authorities manage actions and measures of Axis 2 of the ERDF OP (“Improving competitiveness and the regional economic performance through innovation and knowledge”) and Axis 3 (“Valorising Brittany’s strengths in sea-related resources” with a specific objective on sea sciences & technologies) through global grants, e.g.:

• support to bodies encouraging partnerships business – R&D;

• support to transfer and diffusion of technologies;

• support to creation and development of young technology-based enterprises;

• support to research programmes and projects oriented toward the strengthening of technological platforms; and

• studies for setting-up innovative financial instruments; etc.

From the mid-2000’s, this governance system, relying on a (sometimes ‘competitive’) partnership between the State and the regional administrations, has been often criticised across French regions2 both:

• at strategic level: because it remains very centralised and does not significantly involve stakeholders; and

• at operational/management level: because it has led in general, under the joint umbrella of the State and the Region, to the proliferation of intermediary RTDI organisations.

Brittany has tried to address these issues in its Regional Innovation Scheme (November 2008), which stresses that: the regional innovation system is complex with its 90 entities in charge of getting closer R&D and business; its beneficiaries consider it as insufficiently ‘readable’; a large majority of SMEs are poorly aware of the opportunities provided by these entities.

2 DG REGIO, Strategic Evaluation on innovation and the knowledge based economy in relation to the Structural and Cohesion Funds, for programming period 2007-2013, Report France, 2006.


In consequence, the Scheme has proposed to set up a strategic governance and an operational governance system. The strategic governance intends to address the interrelated issues of strategy, financing and modalities of implementation. Its key actor was the regional development agency AEB (Agence économique de Bretagne) which relied on the Committee of Innovation Strategic Orientation (COSI), the coordination of financing institutions (State, Region3, OSEO), and the regional innovation agency Bretagne Innovation. The COSI is in charge of proposing and discussing strategic orientations, monitoring the implementation of the innovation strategy and evaluating its results; it is composed of representatives of the business community (and chaired by one of them), State administration, regional authorities, and the academic community. It is not a decision-making body.

The operational governance mainly relied on Bretagne Innovation, which coordinates the regional innovation network (RBI: Réseau Bretagne Innovation), composed of all the entities in charge of diffusing innovation and supporting innovation to the benefit of SMEs. Its final objective is to provide SMEs with something rather close to a one-stop shop. All necessary competences and skills are to be found within the RBI.

The two agencies, AEB and Bretagne Innovation, have now merged (2011) giving birth to a single BDI (Bretagne Développement Innovation), which has 5 priorities:

• carrying out sectoral (filières) strategies;

• developing and strengthening innovation;

• promoting the attractiveness of the region (image, branding);

• promoting the internationalisation of the regional economy and of its businesses;

• supporting entrepreneurship.

Figure 2-1 Innovation Governance System

3 Together with what is called in Brittany the ‘B15’, i.e. the grouping of the Départements and of the metropolitan authorities.


It is too early to assess the impact of the change in the institutional set up. What can be said at this stage is that: a) the creation of the COSI has allowed the involvement of stakeholders, while not at a decision-making level; b) the merger between the development agency and the innovation agency is a good step toward coherence and streamlining (incidentally, a step taken by a number of French regions); c) decision-making remains undoubtedly in the hands of the ‘gang of four’.

2.3 Availability and use of policy intelligence tools

Both the SRDE (Regional Scheme for Economic Development) and SRI (Regional Innovation Scheme) have pointed at the importance of anticipating change and adapting to it. In practice, the SRDE has recommended the development of capacities of ‘observation’ of the different sectors and the setting up of an ‘alert system’, but it has not envisaged foresight activities. The Committee of Innovation Strategic Orientation (COSI) proposed in the SRI is considered as the place for debating on foresight. The SRI addresses the issue of economic intelligence in relation to innovation for the main regional sectors (filières). Within its priority axis 2 (Diversifying the regional economic fabric through innovation), it intends to favour anticipation and proactive adaptation to change through supporting and ‘mutualising’ actions of economic intelligence and watch (technological, legal, market). In parallel to the SRDE, the regional Chambers of Commerce and Industry have adopted in 2006 a regional scheme “Economic Intelligence and Innovation”. In the field of economic intelligence, BDI is collaborating with a specialised private consultancy, “l’Oeil-au-Carré”, which is proposing a range of services to businesses. BDI, beyond diffusion information and relevant studies, is also providing a mapping of the regional actors operating in the field of economic watch and intelligence.

Regarding policy intelligence, there are two recent evaluation studies relevant to innovation issues:

• the evaluation of the regional policy supporting the ‘poles of competitiveness’ (2008) and

• the mid-term evaluation of the CPER and ERDF OP 2007-2013, focused on innovation, environment and economic change (2010).

The first one was strategically important since Brittany’s regional and local authorities were among the regions dedicating important funding to the ‘poles of competitiveness’ (besides State funding). The conclusions were globally positive, except for what regards the involvement of SMEs in the poles (except the pole Valorial dedicated to agrofood), which was among the key objectives of the regional authorities.

The second evaluation was mainly formal, as a large majority of CPER and ERDF mid-term evaluations in French, due to the format established by the national authorities (more monitoring than real evaluation).

In addition, a specific study was carried out in 2008 by the Mission BRETAGNE BIOTECH 2015 on “Biotechnologies as an Engine for Growth in Brittany” which comprises a diagnostic of the sector in 2007 and a foresight approach. A foresight study on regional needs for training is currently envisaged.

However, the most important and recent policy intelligence tool is currently developed within the SRI (work in progress). The scoreboard is expected to improve the governance of the regional innovation system and give ‘food for thought’ to the COSI: assessing results and impact of innovation development, identifying difficulties and obstacles, sharing among stakeholders, and making the SRI a ‘living’ instrument. The scoreboard is built on indicators of results for each of the 12 ‘operational objectives’, which are now defined within the SRI. The regional authorities and BDI attach great importance to this tool, but it is again too early to assess its effectiveness, since it is not still fully operational.


Figure 2-2 Monitoring and evaluation instrument

Source: Bretagne Développement Innovation.

2.4 Key challenges and opportunities

As indicated above, Brittany has been engaged recently in a process of reorganisation of its regional innovation system in relation to the 2008 SRI. It must however be emphasised that the SRI is not considered as ‘immutable’, but as a policy instrument that regional authorities and regional innovation actors have to make ‘alive’. This is illustrated in particular by the merger between the regional development agency and the regional innovation agency, which resulted in the creation of BDI. As a consequence, the situation is moving and there will be opportunities for improving the system, in particular when the innovation scoreboard will be operational and will provide analyses of results and impacts.

At the moment, we consider that Brittany is facing three challenges with respect to the governance of the regional innovation system, even if they are to some extent being addressed in the aftermath of the SRI.

Governance challenge 1: Involving stakeholders at strategic level

According to the SRI, strategic governance has to rely on the regional development agency, now BDI, and on the COSI composed of representatives of stakeholders (eight members from the business community, two from the research community, two from innovation-support organisations, two elected members of the Regional Council, one representative of the State administration in the region, and an internationally recognised scientist) and chaired by an entrepreneur.

The COSI has now been set up and has held a few meetings. It is expected that its strategic role will effectively start when the regional innovation scoreboard will be operational and will feed its debates on the future orientations of the regional innovation system. Specific foresight studies (as the study on biotechnologies) would in addition be useful in that perspective. The COSI will have an excellent opportunity to play its strategic role when the new regional development and innovation scheme, presently envisaged, will be prepared.


Governance challenge 2: Coordinating efficiently the innovation support system

As in a number of French regions, the Brittany innovation support system is characterised by a multiplicity of technology transfer and innovation support organisations, about 90: regional centres for innovation and technology transfer (CRITT), technical centres, technopoles, incubators, ‘poles of competitiveness’, innovation departments of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry, etc., distributed across the regional territory.

BDI is now coordinating the Réseau Bretagne Innovation (RBI), a network that includes a majority of these organisations. Coordination focuses in particular on the methodology and exploitation of visits/audits of SMEs. The BDI coordination is generally considered as operating satisfactorily. The ambition, not yet fulfilled, is to provide a ‘quasi one-stop shop’ in the future.

However, it must be reminded that the evaluation of the regional policy of ‘poles of competitiveness’ has put in evidence that the creation of the ‘poles’ had created some competition with older organisations. Moreover, coordination with Bretagne Valorisation, an organisation in charge of commercialisation of research for universities and higher education institutions (today within UEB), could probably be further strengthened.

Efficient coordination of a large number of technology transfer and innovation support organisations, whatever the success achieved, always remains a work in progress.

Governance challenge 3: Better exploiting the presence of higher education and R&D across the regional territory through ‘concertation’ between UEB and the Region

As already stated, universities, schools of engineers and research centres are present across the regional territory with four main geographical ‘sites’, which has undoubtedly positive effects.

However, there is room for improvement. In so far as the regional authorities support the actions of the PRES UEB and the Regional Council is on the Board of UEB, the Region should push actions aimed at raising the level of research in mid-size ‘sites’, defining clear priorities (research, educational programmes) in each ‘site’, and strengthening the links between higher education institutions and the ‘poles of competitiveness’ in terms of training. Another place for pushing for such actions could also be the COSI.


3. Innovation Policy Instruments and Orientations

3.1 The regional innovation policy mix

A large majority of measures are co-funded by the Region and the State through the CPER and/or co-funded by the Region, the State and the EU through the ERDF OP. Other measures are co-funded by the Region and OSEO, such as measures supporting innovative projects of SMEs. There are a few measures are funded by the Region alone.

Governance measures and horizontal research & innovation policies:

As already indicated, the SRI proposes measures aimed at improving strategic and operational innovation governance, through the role of the regional development agency and the setting up of the COSI at strategic level, and the role of the regional innovation agency at operational level. Another key measure was the merger between the regional development agency and the regional innovation agency, which gave birth to a single agency, Bretagne Development Innovation (BDI).

This is complemented by a measure aimed at establishing a monitoring and evaluation instrument of the regional innovation system, considered by BDI as key for the future of the innovation governance system.

Horizontal measures concern:

• support to actions of ‘animation’ carried out by the entities in charge of business-R&D partnerships;

• support to commercialisation of R&D, and to transfer and diffusion of technologies by ‘intermediary’ organisations;

• support to the setting up of the UEB (regional PRES) and to its actions; opportunity/feasibility studies concerning innovative financial instruments aimed at supporting SMEs;

• support to collective actions of diffusion of innovation in very small enterprises;

• support to hiring of innovation specialists in SMEs.

Support to actions of ‘animation’ is coordinated by BDI through the network RBI, which is grouping about 60 technology transfer and innovation support organisations with 142 advisers covering all relevant fields of competences including non-technological innovation. A grant, the PRDI, ‘Prestation régionale de diffusion de l’innovation’ (consultancy service for the diffusion of innovation) helps SMEs to fund the first step of an innovative project.

Research and Technologies:

Measures are concentrated on specific fields or sectors. Concerning research, the priority topics are ICT, sea-related sciences & technologies, life sciences & health, agricultural sciences and nutrition, plus environmental sciences in relation with agriculture. Three of them correspond to the ‘poles of competitiveness’ Images & Réseaux, Mer Bretagne and Valorial. Life sciences & health are considered as a field to be supported for strengthening Brittany’s research in a field considered as strategic for the future. Concerning innovation in industry, the priority sectors are electronics and ICT, automotive and mechanical industries, health and biotechnologies, shipbuilding, agrofood, and technology-oriented services. These sectors correspond to all four ‘poles of competitiveness’; including this times the pole IDforCAR. Health and biotechnologies are again considered as a promising sector in which it is necessary to invest: as a result, a specific regional cluster, CAPBIOTEK, was created very recently.


Specific and particularly important examples of measures focused on priority fields are:

• support to research: technological platforms open to use by industry, infrastructures and facilities; research programmes; measures aimed at attracting foreign academics and researchers – a large part of these measures are implemented by universities and research organisations;

• support to innovative projects regard: collaborative (business-public research) R&D projects developed within the ‘poles of competitiveness’ or in other clusters; support to emerging innovative projects detected in public and private research labs through a ‘Maturation Fund’ (ALPI); grants or reimbursable grants for R&D projects of SMEs (products, services, processes), and for projects on non-technological innovation of SMEs, funded through a partnership between the Region and OSEO (ARPI); specific support to SMEs’ innovative projects in the field of ICT use in non-ICT sectors through an annual call for proposals.

Human Resources (education and skills):

There are very few measures concerning this area. Within the general ERDF OP measure supporting UEB and its actions, specific sub-measures support the internationalisation of the higher educational system (hiring of foreign academics/researchers, creation of an international ‘doctoral college’ coordinating all PhD programmes and supporting PhD students search for jobs).

Promote and sustain the creation and growth of innovative enterprises:

Region Brittany supports the regional incubator Emergys, which has among its partners local authorities, OSEO, the State administrations in charge of research and industry, various ‘intermediary’ organisations, and seed/venture-capital funds. Beside the incubator, there is a measure (CrEInnov) funding feasibility studies and consultancy services for projects of creation of innovative businesses (on a time span ranging from the pre-creation period to three years after the creation of the company); it also funds entrepreneurship-training sessions (collective and individual). Direct beneficiaries are the regional ‘technopoles’ (science parks), which provide services and training to future entrepreneurs. Future entrepreneurs can also benefit from ‘loans on trust’ (PHAR: Prêt d’honneur pour l’amorçage régional) when they create their company, i.e. during a high-risk phase of the business cycle; they also benefit of coaching services provided by the network ‘Entreprendre Bretagne’. Finally, the Region is currently creating a seed-fund to address a need identified in the SRI.

Markets and innovation culture:

The ALPI (Aide au lancement de projets innovants) measure supports through a reimbursable grant the hiring of staff in charge of marketing by an innovative SME, which had no previous in-house marketing resources.

The ERDF OP measure aimed at “Promoting research skills and professions” includes, with respect to the young, the support to scientific and technical culture.


Table 3-1 Overview of the regional innovation policy mix

Governance & horizontal research and innovation policies

Research and Technologies

Human Resources

Creation and growth of innovative enterprises

Markets and innovation culture

Structuring and developing the regional innovation system

1.2.1 Strategic Research policies

1.2.2 Innovation strategies

2.1. 3 Research & Technology Organisation

2.2.3 R&D Cooperation

- 4.3.1 Support to innovative start-ups incl. gazelles

-

Supporting research in order to foster technological development

2.1.2 Public Research Organisation

2.1.4 Research Infrastructure

3.2.3 Mobility of researchers

3.1.3 Stimulation of PhDs

5.1.1 Support to the creation of favourable innovation climate

Supporting entrepreneurship, promoting innovation and favouring eco-management initiatives

1.3.2 Horizontal measures in support of financing

1.3.3 Other horizontal policies

2.2.3 R&D Cooperation

2.3.1 Direct support of business R&D

3.1.3 Stimulation of PhDs

3.2.1 Recruitment of researchers

4.3.2 Support to risk capital

4.2.1 Support to innovation management and advisory services

5.2.1 Funding in the diffusion of innovative technologies, products and services

Source: Own assessment.

The largest part of the budgets dedicated to RTDI – combination of regional and national public funding, and ERDF – goes to R&D infrastructure (in particular technical platforms), R&D programmes, and UEB actions (about €220m in the ERDF OP for the period 2007-2013). Support to technology transfer, ‘intermediary’ organisations, creation and development of innovative businesses come second far behind (a total of about €67m in the ERDF OP for the period 2007-2013). The third block of the budgets goes to joint actions aimed at supporting innovative actions in SMEs and diffusion of innovation in very small enterprises (a total of about €40m in the ERDF OP for the period 2007-2013).

As in a large number of French regions, a significant part of the RTDI policy is dedicated to supporting poles of competitiveness (governance and management) and collaborative (business-research) R&D projects within or outside of poles of competitiveness. This support results from contributions of the three budgetary blocks indicated above (e.g.: technical platforms for the first and most important block).

Research organisations / UEB and SMEs are the two target groups as final beneficiaries of the measures. However, it must be noted that, if an important part of funding goes to research organisations and universities, the largest part by far of funding dedicated to support RTDI in SMEs is channelled through the network of ‘intermediary’ organisations – Centres régionaux d’innovation et de transfert de technologie (CRITT), technical centres, ‘technopoles’, incubators, etc. – which are part of the Brittany’s innovation network.

Some shifts are currently considered through the implementation of the SRI, in so far as the SRI is viewed as a ‘living and evolving’ document, such as: less funding on research stricto sensu and more on technological development and innovation; more funding going directly to the final beneficiaries, i.e. SMEs (especially through support to ‘poles of competitiveness’); improving the targeting of sectors within a perspective of ‘re-industrialisation’, taking account in particular of emerging sectors as marine energies, eco-construction, etc.; more attention paid to non-technological innovation (design, marketing, human resources; emphasis on financial engineering.


Moreover, at policy strategic level, Brittany is considering a reshaping of its already ‘old’ SRDE in relation with the SRI. The SRI would thus propose a batch of ‘operational objectives’ to be taken into account for regional economic development:

• sensitising the public and the young to innovation;

• sensitising businesses (innovation and partnerships);

• favouring exchange between higher education and the regional economic fabric;

• strengthening the in-house competences of businesses;

• supporting economic intelligence and technological watch;

• supporting efficiently the innovating projects of firms (apart from business-R&D collaborative projects);

• supporting business networks and inter-enterprise collaborations; supporting collaborative business-public research projects;

• supporting the creation of innovative enterprises;

• supporting the internationalisation of enterprises and of the other actors of innovation; developing the attractiveness of Brittany;

• developing and organising the observation of results achieved by the innovation support system in order to improve it.


Table 3-2 Existing regional innovation support measures

Title Duration Policy priorities Budget Organisation responsible More information

Elaboration of the Regional Innovation Scheme

2007-2008 1.2.1. Strategic research policies

1.2.2. Innovation strategies

Regional public funding Regional Council http://www.europe-en-france.gouv.fr/Des-programmes-pour-qui-pour-quoi/Trouver-une-aide/Programmes-regionaux-pluri-regionaux-et-nationaux/Le-FEDER-en-Bretagne-PO

Elaboration of a monitoring and evaluation instrument of the regional innovation system

2007-2013 1.1.3. Policy advisory services Regional public funding

ERDF

Regional Council http://www.bretagne.fr/internet/upload/docs/application/pdf/2010-01/document_du_mise_en_oeuvre_du_programme_feder.pdf

RBI (Brittany Innovation Network) and PRDI)

2000-... 4.2.1. Support to innovation management and advisory services

4.2.2. Support to organisational innovation

Regional public funding

OSEO

BDI

Regional support to innovative projects of innovative enterprises (ARPI)

2009-... 2.3.1. Direct support of business R&D (grants and loans)

4.1.1. Support to sectoral innovation in manufacturing

Regional public funding: €1m (2009)

OSEO: €1m (2009)

Regional Council and OSEO (partnership)

http://www.bretagne.fr/internet/jcms/preprod_46917/aide-regionale-aux-projets-industriels-innovants-arpii

Support to the recruitment of marketing and commercial staff in young innovative enterprises (ALPI)

2009-... 4.3.1. Support to innovative start-ups

3.3.2. Recruitment of skilled personnel in enterprises

Regional public funding: €0.72m (2010)

Regional Council http://www.bretagne.fr/internet/jcms/preprod_46911/aide-au-lancement-de-projets-innovants-alpi

Regional start-up loan on trust (PHAR)

2010-... 4.3.1. Support to innovative start-ups

3.3.1. Direct support of business R&D (grants and loans)

4.2.1. Support to innovation management and advisory services

Regional public funding: €0.266 (2010, 2011)

CDC: €0.266m (2010, 2011)

Regional Council in partnership with CDC (Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations)

http://www.bretagne.fr/internet/jcms/preprod_71720/pret-d-honneur-pour-l-amorcage-regional-phar-bretagne



Pre-seed fund (‘Fonds de maturation’)

2009-2013 2.3.1. Direct support of business R&D (grants and loans)

2.3.2. Knowledge transfer

Regional public funding: €0.6m p.a.

ERDF: €0.6m p.a.

Regional Council http://www.bretagne.fr/internet/jcms/preprod_32609/fonds-de-maturation

Support to poles of competitiveness

2006-... 2.2.2. Knowledge transfer

2.2.3. R&D Cooperation

Regional public funding: €15.15m (2010)

National public funding: €35.6m p.a.

Regional Council and State administration

http://www.bretagne.fr/internet/upload/docs/application/pdf/2010-01/bp_2010_m02.pdf

Support to valorisation, transfer and diffusion of technologies (and Resourcing Fund)

2009-2013 2.2.1. Support infrastructure


2.2.2. Knowledge transfer

Regional public funding: €6.5m p.a.

ERDF: €6.5m p.a.


Support to creation and development of young technology-based enterprises (regional incubator Emergys and CrEInnov)

2007-2013 4.2.1. Support to innovation management and advisory services

4.3.1. Support to innovative start-ups


ERDF


http://www.bretagne.fr/internet/jcms/preprod_46875/soutien-a-la-creation-d-entreprises-innovantes

Support to research programmes and projects strengthening technical platforms and networks of competences

2007-2013 2.1.2. Public research organisations

2.1.3. Research and technology organisations

2.1.4. Research infrastructures


National public funding (CPER)

ERDF


http://www.bretagne.fr/internet/upload/docs/application/pdf/2010-01/document_du_mise_en_oeuvre_du_programme_feder.pdf

Support to hosting foreign academics and researchers

2007-2013 2.1.1. Policy measures concerning excellence, relevance and management of research in universities


ERDF




Support to the setting-up and actions of UEB

2007-2013 2.1.1. Policy measures concerning excellence, relevance and management of research in universities


ERDF


Promotion of research professions

2007-2013 3.1.1. Awareness creation and science education


ERDF


Support to collective actions (including support to poles of competitiveness, except for collaborative R&D projects)

2007-2013 1.3.1. Cluster framework policies

4.2.1. Support to innovation management and advisory services


ERDF


Studies of opportunity and feasibility concerning innovative financial instruments

2007-2013 1.3.2. Horizontal measures in support of financing


ERDF


Actions supporting the diffusion of innovation

2007-2013 4.2.1. Support to innovation management and advisory services

4.2.2. Support to organisational innovation


ERDF


Recruitment of innovation specialists in SMEs

2007-2013 3.3.2. Recruitment of skilled personnel in enterprises


ERDF




Support to sea-related R&D and synergies between actors (collective actions)





National public funding (CPER)

ERDF


Developing research & innovation in agriculture and the agrofood sector




Regional public funding: €9.46m (2007-2013)

National public funding (CPER): €8.5m (2007-2013)

ERDF: €0.65m (2007-2013)

EARDF: €1.8m (2007-2013)

Other: €1.25m (2007-2013)


http://www.bretagne.pref.gouv.fr/Strategies-et-projets/Contrat-de-projets-Etat-Region/Le-contrat-de-projets-Etat-Region-de-Bretagne-2007-2013

Source: Own assessment.


The three most important regional innovation policy measures are the following:

1. The organisation and coordination of the network RBI by the regional agency BDI and the actions of RBI to the benefit of SMEs funded by the PRDI – This measure allows for extending the number of SMEs making a first step toward innovation by bringing them an appropriate answer to their concerns. It also reflects the effort made in terms of operational governance of the regional innovation system.

2. The recent measures in the field of access to finance (financial engineering) with the Fonds de maturation (pre-seed fund) and the creation of a seed-capital fund – These measures address the gaps identified in access to finance in the SRI and contribute to support the diversification of the regional economic fabric.

3. The support to ‘poles of competitiveness’ which is renewing the more classical support to industrial filières and addresses to a significant extent the issue of smart specialisation and diversification of the regional economic fabric.

3.2 Appraisal of regional innovation policies

An evaluation of the regional policy of support to ‘poles of competitiveness’ was carried out in 2008. The poles, selected at national level in 2005 following a call for proposals, benefit from national, ERDF and regional funding through various channels. A major feature of the Brittany’s RTDI policy is the importance of the funding of poles by a grouping of regional and local authorities, known as B15. Regional support concerns the governance and managing bodies of the poles as well as collaborative R&D projects (especially to the benefit of SMEs). The regional ‘poles policy’ is, as already stressed, an important component of the regional innovation policy mix (drawing money from different measures), and it is complementary of the national policy, although policy objectives are different (for the State: competitiveness of the industry; for the region: regional development).

It is thus interesting to summarise the conclusions of the 2008 evaluation, all the more since it is so far the only evaluation of this type carried out in a French region. Globally, the regional policy has ‘boosted’ the sectors concerned and their capacity of innovation:

• development of innovative SMEs with new competences and sometimes new markets;

• partnerships SMEs-large groups-research;

• effective involvement of research organizations and schools of engineers (and recruitment of researchers).

On the negative side, the strategic coordination between the State administration and the regional authorities is considered as weak, the monitoring of the policy is almost exclusively financial (accountancy), beneficiary SMEs view the regional support more as a source of additional funding than a fully-fledged innovation policy, and it is difficult to involve in collaborative R&D projects the SMEs which are ‘far away from research’.

The mid-term evaluation of CPER and ERDF OP 2007-2013 (2010) also brings some elements of appraisal of the regional innovation policies, through revealing contrasting views of research and innovation projects. Research projects are ‘top down’ multi-annual large-scale projects, involving a multiplicity of actors, which are advancing at a rather fast pace and are producing ‘structuring’ effects such as the building up of stable networks; the funding of research projects suffers however from some lack of flexibility which hampers the funding of emerging research topics – an important issue in the regional context as already emphasized. Innovation projects are ‘bottom up’ (resulting from calls for proposals), more modest or small in size; they involve actors (SMEs and ‘intermediary’ organizations) scattered all over the regional territory; their taking up is often delayed, in particular because of financial engineering problems.


In complement to both evaluations, it is important to note again that the innovation policy mix privileges research to some extent and channels innovation funding to SMEs mainly through support to ‘intermediary’ organisations (it is estimated that 70% of RTDI funding goes directly to final beneficiaries, i.e. enterprises and research, but this figure includes the national credit impôt recherche, which introduces a very strong bias).

A gap has been identified in the SRI concerning the range of financial instruments allowing for covering the different life cycles of an enterprise, in particular for what regards seed money. This gap is currently addressed by the creation of a seed fund.

On the whole, the policy mix addresses only partially the three challenges identified in § 1.3:

• Diversification: a large part of funding (if not measures) is still concentrated on the major regional sectors; however, the creation of the regional cluster CAPBIOTEK and the support to small bottom-up cluster initiatives show this challenge is being addressed.

• Internationalisation / Opening up: this challenge is only addressed at a modest level; there is some lack of coordination between organisations supporting internationalisation of SMEs, but the creation of BDI should help to make progress; the opening up of the academic and research community is in the hands of UEB and the Region can only provide incentives – which it does.

• Making higher education and research more flexible and adaptable to change: this is again in the hands of UEB (and, within it, of its departments) and public research organisations (the latter with their decision centres at national level); the recent reform of universities which are gaining much more autonomy should contribute to better address this challenge.

3.3 Good practice case

Within the present context of the evolution of the Brittany’s regional innovation system, the setting-up of a monitoring and evaluation instrument of the implementation of the SRI by BDI constitutes a good practice. The measure has been launched following the elaboration of the SRI in 2008. Regional policy-makers have soon viewed the SRI as a ‘living’ document, the contents of which had to evolve in relation to the changes that would affect the regional innovation system and its components. In order to take account of this perspective, it was necessary to set up a ‘steering’ instrument, which would allow for re-orienting the regional innovation policy and its governance system as far as needed.

The monitoring and evaluation instrument will be fully operational in 2012.

The instrument has three ‘floors’:

• Monitoring / evaluation of the innovation support system;

• ‘Steering’ of the SRI: monitoring of its implementation; evaluation of results and impacts; monitoring of the ‘SRI budget’ (overall RTDI support measures);

• ‘Index’: i.e. ‘macroscopic’ scoreboard with indicators related to the operational objectives of the SRI, allowing for identifying trends and positioning Brittany among French and European regions.

On the top of the instrument, there will be a periodic external evaluation of the SRI. The details concerning this evaluation have not yet been decided.


It is of course impossible to assess the effects and the impacts of this measure at the moment. However, it is rather innovative in the French landscape as it is comprehensive and intends to take account of a consolidated ‘SRI budget’, a challenging task due to the complexity of co-funding in France. Moreover, monitoring and evaluation instruments have been mainly applied so far to ERDF OPs (and to some extent to CPER: mainly evaluations) and they remain rather often formal and without effective impact on public policies – or they are focused on a specific measure and do not contemplate the entire range of innovation support.

At least it has had a first effect in giving legitimacy to the recently created agency BDI (merger of the regional development agency and regional innovation agency) that is in charge of setting it up. It will also be a key instrument of the regional governance system: on operational level, in helping BDI to assess the results of RBI (that it is coordinating) and its members; on strategic level, in feeding the COSI and regional policy-makers with relevant information which will help them to re-orient and/or the SRI as far as necessary.

3.4 Portfolio of innovation support measures

In a country, which remains rather centralised as France, the national innovation policy mix has necessarily a strong influence on the innovation public policy carried out on regional level.

The present French national policy mix is the result of about ten years of reforms, which main objectives are:

• improving the taxation environment: tax break on RTDI business expenditure (CIR: credit impôt recherche);

• supporting innovation-driven clusters with the national programme ‘poles of competitiveness’ (Pôles de compétitivité);

• giving priority to funding research on a project basis (calls for proposals of the National Research Agency and Fonds unique interministériel (FUI), the latter for collaborative R&D projects coming out from poles);

• opening up universities and research to business and society with support to academic spin-offs, development of industry-research partnerships, etc.;

• catching up with the best university systems: larger autonomy for universities and reorganisation of their governance system, development of evaluation tools, introduction of competition;

• increased support to higher education and research infrastructure and equipment with the national programme ‘Investments for the Future’ (PIA: Programme Investissements d’Avenir).

The national policy is mainly ‘translated’ into regional policy through the multi-annual programming agreements between the State and the Region (CPER), and the ERDF OPs based on co-funding. CPERs are often complemented by a partnership between OSEO and the Region, in particular regarding access of businesses to innovation support services and access to finance (guarantees).

Due to of the general ‘co-funding’ practice, there is a rather general consistency between the innovation policies carried out at regional level and the national innovation policy However, this consistency can be questioned with respect to three issues:

• the CIR, as a tax break, is a fully national measure and as such ‘blind’ with respect to the various regional contexts, while being in financial terms by far the most important innovation support measure (€4b per year);


• regions may have some problems with the national priorities of OSEO Innovation, which are often considered by French regional policy-makers as privileging ‘breakthrough’ innovation and enterprises with more than 50 employees to the detriment of incremental innovation and smaller companies;

• the 2009 SRI co-funded by ERDF may be on a collision course with the National Research & Innovation Strategy (SNRI), in fact mainly focused on defining research priorities, published in November 2009, since there was no coordination between the two exercises; however, recent State initiatives intend to mitigate the risk.

Complementarities and synergies are clear between the national and regional policies with respect to all State objectives except the taxation environment. The opinion among some Brittany regional policy-makers is that the base of the CIR should be enlarged. The national policy of pôles de compétitivité is positively assessed, but they fear to pay for a majority of them if the national government reduces its support.

With respect to ERDF funding, Brittany is in a specific situation. Whereas Axis 1 of the ERDF OP is dedicated to research, innovation and competitiveness in practically all French regions, Brittany constitutes an exception since the Axis 1 of its ERDF OP regards accessibility and attractiveness with a large share of the funding dedicated to a high-speed rail link (ERDF funding: €100m out of a total of ERDF €132.15m for Axis 1). Axis 2 is intended to “improve competitiveness and economic performance through innovation and knowledge” and benefits from an ERDF allocation of €103.95m, practically equivalent to that of the high-speed rail link. ERDF funds forms only 29.9% of total of Axis 2 (ERDF + national public and private contributions: €347.95m), which is much lower than in a majority of French regions (e.g.: Rhône-Alpes: 45%).

3.5 Towards smart specialisation policies

Support to pôles de compétitivité is a key part of the regional innovation policy mix, and of its synergies with the national innovation policy. As a matter of principle, the national poles, which result from a national selection, reflect to some extent a smart specialisation.

On the other hand, Brittany is starting a policy supporting ‘regional’ clusters or poles (as have done for instance Rhône-Alpes or Lorraine for a decade), with the biotechnologies cluster CAPBIOTEK and some small ‘grappes d’entreprises’. In its programming documents (CPER, ERDF OP), it has limited to prioritise research fields and industrial sectors which are targeted by the RTDI policy:

• Research fields: ICT, sea-related sciences & technologies, life sciences & health, agricultural sciences and nutrition, plus environmental sciences in relation with agriculture

• Industrial sectors: electronics and ICT, automotive and mechanical industries, health and biotechnologies, shipbuilding, agrofood, and technology-oriented services

These priority fields and sectors correspond for a large part to the perimeter of the ‘poles of competitiveness’: Valorial (agrofood), Mer Bretagne (all sea-related sectors from shipbuilding to biotechnologies), Images & Réseaux (ICT and electronics), IDforCar (automotive industry).


Currently, there is no real debate about smart specialisation as such. However, there has been a debate on the diversification of the regional economic fabric when the SRDE was prepared (2005-6): it was considered that the regional economic fabric relied too much on its four main sectors (agrofood, electronics and ICT, automotive industry and shipbuilding) and that putting more emphasis on ‘emerging’ sectors as health and biotechnologies, environmental technologies ... was a necessity. However, two years later, the SRI (2008) did not address the issue of smart specialisation and support to emerging and dynamic groups of businesses. Today, while the elaboration of a future scheme merging the SRDE and the SRI is contemplated, the theme of ‘re-industrialisation’ is debated, and there is a consciousness among regional policy-makers that targets should be defined, such as in particular: marine energies, eco-construction, and again health and biotechnologies.

As already indicated, a specific study was carried out in 2008 by the Mission BRETAGNE BIOTECH 2015 on ‘Biotechnologies as an Engine for Growth in Brittany’ which made reference to ‘lead markets’ and to the opportunities that a biotech strategy could offer to the regional economy (in particular: bio-production of molecules, convergence ICT-biotechnologies, development of knowledge-intensive services). A regional biotech cluster, CAPBIOTEK, has been set up very recently and brings a signal in favour of a policy supporting regional clusters.

In parallel, some emerging clusters have benefited from the national label ‘grappes d’entreprises’ and are supported by the Region, in the following fields: packaging, culture and heritage, dental prosthesis, green food, new materials from agriculture, mobile engines for maintenance of infrastructure. The two last ones seem to be at the same time the most innovative and resulting from a bottom up approach.

The existing measures intended at supporting innovative projects detected in public and private research labs should help to go in this direction. The same applies to the SRI operational objective concerning economic intelligence, provided that precise targets are decided by regional policy-makers and innovation stakeholders.

3.6 Possible future orientations and opportunities

As already explained (§1.1), Brittany is probably one of the French regions, which have changed the most deeply, in the last decades. From a region poorly industrialised and characterised by family farming on a small scale and emigration until the 1950’s, it has turned into a dynamic region with low unemployment (compared to the French average), a performing agriculture, some strong industrial sectors, and important higher education and RTDI resources.

However, this positive picture is contrasted by different facts and trends: agriculture is based on a highly productive model which is presently questioned and it is facing serious environmental concerns; a significant part of industry is dependent on large groups external to the regions, and is strongly exposed to international competition; Brittany is losing ground in terms of the share of its GDP dedicated to RTDI and private research remains heavily concentrated in the ICT and electronics sector, where large groups are reducing their R&D budget; there are still too few innovative SMEs; the emigration of young graduates remains important.

With regard to these problems and challenges, the responses brought by the regional innovation policies seem appropriate with respect to:

• the efforts made for enlarging the number of SMEs entering into a process of innovation, with the actions carried out by RBI, and coordinated by BDI;

• the recent measures taken in the field of access to finance for innovative projects and new innovative enterprises, with the Fonds de maturation (pre-seed) and the new seed-capital fund;

• the support to ‘poles of competitiveness’, and in particular the effort made to channel regional funding (B15) mainly on SMEs.


Beyond these three groups of measures, smart specialisation appears as a strong opportunity for diversifying for diversifying and opening up the regional economic fabric.

A very good signal is given by the very recent creation of the regional cluster CAPBIOTEK in the field of biotechnologies4. While it is too early to assess any result, some interesting lessons can be drawn from the conditions of creation of this research-driven cluster:

• the creation of the cluster follows a diagnostic and foresight study on opportunities for developing the biotech sector in Brittany;

• the cluster relies on regional research potential in the field of biotechnologies associating various disciplines such as biology (including marine biology), chemistry, health research, etc.;

• the cluster intends to build bridges between biotech and ICT research (a Brittany stronghold);

• it also intends to develop knowledge-intensive services, so far not very much present in Brittany.

It would be thus very interesting to explore other opportunities of developing and structuring a few other regional research-driven or innovation-driven clusters, apart from / or in relation with the few ‘grappes d’entreprises’ recently selected through a national contest – which are in principle bottom-up initiatives without necessary involvement of R&D (in fact, most grappes have an innovation dimension). New materials (coming from agro-resources in particular) and ‘niches’ of the mechanical industry appear as the most promising. It would also be interesting to explore the possible synergies to support between the ‘poles of competitiveness’, through possible ‘niches’ at the crossroads of different R&D fields5.

In complement, the regional innovation policies should strongly support: the development of knowledge-intensive services and more prioritisation of research themes and higher education programmes in relation to objectives of smart specialisation and support to regional research-driven or innovation-driven clusters. This requires a re-orientation of a significant part of the RTDI budget from the ‘classical’ support to large research programmes, equipment and infrastructure toward support to bottom-up initiatives and emerging fields.

Finally, beyond the highly positive measure supporting the creation of a monitoring and evaluation instrument, the Region should further develop actions supporting strategic intelligence and foresight studies with a large component of benchmarking at European and international level. Strategic intelligence, foresight and opening up to foreign experience would definitely strengthen the role of the innovation governance system at strategic level through providing it relevant material for defining future orientations.

4 www.capbiotek.fr 5 As Basse-Normandie is doing with its “champs porteurs d’innovation” (innovation niche fields).


Appendix A Bibliography

Chambres de Commerce et d’Industrie de Bretagne (2006), Schéma sectoriel Intelligence économique et Innovation du Réseau des Chambres de Commerce et d’Industrie de Bretagne. Available at: http://www.bretagne.cci.fr/files/crci_bretagne/ innover/SCHEMA-SECTORIEL.pdf

EDATER, Technopolis Group (2010), Évaluation à mi-parcours du Contrat de Projet Etat-Région et du Programme opérationnel FEDER 2007-2013 (Préfecture de la Région Bretagne et Conseil régional de Bretagne).

ITD-Eu, Technopolis Group (Matthieu Lacave, Yann Cadiou) (2008), Évaluation de la politique régionale des pôles de compétitivité (Conseil régional de Bretagne). Available at: http://www.bretagne.fr/internet/upload/docs/application/pdf/2008-11/evalpdc_prerapportfinal_volume_1_22092008-1.pdf

Ministère de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche (2011), STRATER Diagnostic Bretagne Enseignement supérieur – Recherche – Innovation. Available at: http://media.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr/file/Strategie_territoriale/62/0/ STRATER_BRETAGNE_176620.pdf

Mission Bretagne BIOTECH 2015, CRITT Santé Bretagne (J. de Certaines, A.-Cl. Lefebvre, F. Rortais, F. Simon) (2008), Les biotechnologies, moteur de croissance pour la Bretagne. Available at: http://www.bretagne.fr/internet/ upload/docs/application/pdf/2008-11/les_biotechnologies_moteur_de_croissance_ pour_la_bretagne_-_mission_bretagne_biotech_2015.pdf

Préfecture de la Région Bretagne –Conseil régional de Bretagne (2007), Contrat de Projet État-Région 2007-2013. Available at: http://www.bretagne.pref.gouv.fr/ Strategies-et-projets/Contrat-de-projets-Etat-Region/Le-contrat-de-projets-Etat-Region-de-Bretagne-2007-2013

Préfecture de la Région Bretagne – Commission européenne – Région Bretagne (2007), Programme opérationnel FEDER Bretagne 2007-2013. Amarrer la Bretagne à l’Europe élargie, valoriser ses atouts spécifiques et favoriser les synergies pour renforcer durablement sa cohésion territoriale et sa compétitivité. Available at: http://www.bretagne.fr/internet/upload/docs/application/pdf/2009-01/po_feder_07-12-2007.pdf

Préfecture de la Région Bretagne – Commission européenne – Région Bretagne (2008), Document de mise en œuvre du Programme opérationnel FEDER Bretagne 2007-2013. Available at: http://www.bretagne.fr/internet/upload/docs/ application/pdf/2010-01/document_du_mise_en_oeuvre_du_programme_feder.pdf Préfecture de la Région Bretagne – Commission européenne – Région Bretagne (2011), Rapport annuel d’exécution 2010 du Programme opérationnel FEDER Bretagne 2007-2013.

Région Bretagne (2006), Stratégie régionale de développement économique. Available at: http://www.bretagne-innovation.tm.fr/Actualites/Un-schema-regional-de-developpement-economique-pour-la-Bretagne

Région Bretagne, Agence économique de Bretagne, Bretagne Innovation – Préfecture de la Région Bretagne (2008), Schéma régional de l’innovation. Available at: http://www.bretagne-innovation.tm.fr/Donnees-cles2/Etudes-et-enquetes2/Schema-regional-de-l-innovation-en-Bretagne

Technopolis Group (Mathieu Doussineau, Cécile Vergas) (2008), Analyse de la participation de la Région Bretagne au 6ème PCRD (2002-2006) (Conseil régional de Bretagne). Available at: http://www.bretagne-innovation.tm.fr/Donnees-cles2/Etudes-et-enquetes2/Analyse-de-la-participation-de-la-region-Bretagne-dans-le-6eme-PCRD


Appendix B Stakeholders consulted

1. Frédéric Rode, Director, Bretagne Développement Innovation (3 November 2011).

2. Sylvie Huguet, in charge of the follow-up of the Regional Innovation Scheme (SRI), Bretagne Développement Innovation (4 and 7 November 2011).


Appendix C RIM Repository information

Baseline regional profile

FRANCE OUEST Region BritannyNUTS Code FR52

Regional Profile

In t roduct ion

Brit tany is a peninsular region located in the north-eastern part of France. Theregion is home to 5% of the French population. Despite the predominance of theservices sector in employment, the regional share of employment in agriculture isfour points higher than the national average. RDTI activities are concentrated inthe by the naval, telecommunications, automobile and food industries.

Repository

Suppor t measures

Assistance to competi t iveness clustersAssistance to the viability of innovating projects Support to the recruitment of marketing and commercial s taff in youngtechnology-based enterpr isesRegional start-up loan (PHAR)Resourcing FundPre - seed fund

Policy documents

Britanny Regional Innovation StrategyBritanny Regional Economic Development PlanBritanny Operat ional Programme 2007 - 2013

Organisat ions

Bretagne Developpement InnovationRegional Council of BritannyOSEO - Britanny Regional DirectionBrittany Innovation

http://www.rim-europa.eu/index.cfm?q=p.baseline&r=FR

http://www.rim-europa.eu/index.cfm?q=p.baseline&r=FR5

http://www.rim-europa.eu/index.cfm?q=p.support&n=12852&r=FR52







http://www.rim-europa.eu/index.cfm?q=p.policy&n=12772&r=FR52



http://www.rim-europa.eu/index.cfm?q=p.organisation&n=15422&r=FR52




Economy

Between 2000 and 2008, Brittany accounted for an average of 4% of the annualFrench GDP ( Euros ta t). In terms of economic weight at the national scale, theregion is a small player. This is also illustrated by the fact that Brittany is wellbehind the top three regions contributing to national GDP: Ile-de-France with27%, Rhône-Alpes with 9% and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur with 7%.

Brittany hosts approximately 5% of the French population (2008 figures) andaccounted for 5% of national employment between 2000 and 2008. I tsunemployment rate stands at 6.7% which is well below the national rate standingat 9% and to the European rate standing at 8.5% ( Euros ta t).

The regional economy is mostly oriented towards service activities as reflected bythe fact that 67% of regional employment is service-related (vs. 70% at the nationallevel). Despite the predominance of the services sector, the regional share ofemployment in agriculture is considerably higher than the national average (4% vs.8% at the regional level).

Industry accounts for 25% of regional employment, which is equal to the nationalaverage (24%). The Regional Economic Development Plan (2006) states that thefood, automobile, shipbuilding and ICT sectors account for nearly 60% ofindustr ial employment. The scheme also points out that each of these sectors iscurrently facing considerable challenges and needs to undergo a process ofrestructuration. For instance, despite being one of the region's longstandingeconomic sectors, naval activities have sharply decreased over previous years.

As is the case at national level, the region is characterised by a strong presence ofvery-small enterprises. As pointed out by the Regional Innovation Strategy (RIS)issued in 2008, small businesses with less than 10 employees represent 90% of thetotal number of regional enterprises (13% in France - INSEE).

Research, Development & Innovation

Between 2000 and 2008 the region only dedicated on average 1.57% of its GDP toGERD, compared to 2.1% at the national level and 1.9% at European level ( Euros ta t).

Despite a 2.1% annual growth rate between 2000 and 2008, the GERD in Brittanyhas grown less than in the rest of the country during the same period (3.% - Euros ta tEuros ta t) or than in the 27 European Member States (4.2%- Euros ta t). In addition,private capital dedicated to investment and start-up is exceptionally low,compared to other European regions (Regional Innovation Strategy, 2008).

Regarding private R&D efforts, the regional BERD represents 0.99% of GDP, whichis considerably lower than the national average (1.3%). Still, Brittany's businessescontributed to approximately two thirds (63%) of regional gross expenditure onR&D between 2000 and 2008, making the region the f if th-most important at thenational level in terms of private contribution to GERD.

http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/eurostat/home/


http://www.insee.fr





Altogether, the regional contribution to the national GERD (3.02%) and BERD(3.02%) are below the regional contribution to the national GDP (4.07% - Euros ta t).

To illustrate the region's RTDI capacities, it is worth noting the existence of ahighly skilled population within the labour force, and a considerable trainingoffer . As a result , employment in high-tech industr ies and knowledge-intensiveservices represents more than 5% of total employment, placing the region withinthe national average ( Euros ta t).

Research and innovation activit ies are oriented towards regional key industries,namely the naval, telecommunications, automotive and food industries. Eventhough R&D activities in the health and the environment fields have grownsignificantly over previous years, RTDI activities are characterised by a lack ofdiversity. Private R&D is mainly focused on telecommunications and electronics,with limited participation in the service sector. As a result, a wide range ofregional EPO fillings concerns electrical engineering and ICT.

Finally, the regional innovation system is characterised by the existence of aTechnologic Development Network (RDT), which allows federate 90 organisationsgathering most of the innovation actors in the region. The RIs recognises value ofsuch a network in offering quali ty support to enterprises and SMEs conductinginnovat ion projects

Governance

There are two types of innovation policies at the regional scale:

Policies designed and implemented at regional level; 1 .Policies designed at national level and implemented both at regional andnational level , but having great influence on funding and support providedto the regional innovation system.

2 .

The Regional Council, together with the OSEO regional direction, are the mainproviders of funding and support for innovation activit ies in the region. TheRegional Council was also one of the main contributors to the definition of theregional innovation strategy. It does so through the Regional Innovation Strategy(RIS). Indeed, the Council is the leading local authority for measures related toinnovation.

The central government is represented through:

The Regional delegation for research and technology transfer (DRRT) of theMinistry for research and higher education, responsible for implementing theNational Strategy for Research and Innovation (2009) and national policiesfostering innovation at the regional level;The Regional Direction for Enterprises, Competition, Consumption, Labourand Employment (DIRECCTE) represents the Ministries of Economy, Industryand employment; and of Labour, Social Relations, Family, Solidarity andCities in charge of implementing the national competitiveness cluster policy;The General Secretariat for Regional Affairs of the Brittany Prefecture (SGAR)



which administers the regional ERDF OP. It is worth noting that for the2007-2013 period, the Regional Council is responsible for managing OPmeasures related to innovation through a general grant from the regionalPrefecture.

The RIS designed a governance model for the management of innovation that iscurrently under construction. The COSI workgroup, composed representatives ofthe Regional Council , the State, the private sector, intermediary structures andpublic research; is in charge of coordinating this new system. The Regional Councilis in charge of coordinating the funding coming from other sources (State, EU,OSEO, B15) in cooperation with the COSI. Brittany Innovation is in charge of theoperational governance of the SRI through the organisation of a network ofregional actors.

Policy

Existing policies and measures implemented within the region are mainly orientedtowards:

Collaborative R&D projects (competitiveness clusters, PRES, regionalcollaborative projects, etc.)

1 .

Direct support to business R&D through grants or loans (OSEO schemes,PHAR Bretagne, ARPII…) and indirect support organised at national level(Research Tax Credit, Young Innovative Company)

2 .

Support to technology transfer ( through Regional Centres for Innovation andTechnology Transfer - CRITT, technology platforms, etc.)

3 .

Support to the creat ion and development of technology-based enterprises(National competit ion for creation of new technology-based firms, Boursecréateur, CEInnov, etc.)

4 .

Based on the need to increase support for the s tar t -up and development phasesof innovative business creation, two additional measures will be implemented inorder to complete the pol icy toolbox: a s tar t -up fund and a pre-seed fund,planned by the RIS.

Based on the actions included in the RIS, it is possible to distinguish emergingpolicy trends. Regional innovation policies notably seek to diversify the sources ofregional innovation potential , as well as to development internationalpartnerships and communicat ion act ions on the regional economy at internat ionalscale. Additional recent initiatives include:

The monitoring of innovation policies at regional level with the creation of aregional index of innovation

1 .

The development of innovation culture through the reinforcement ofinnovation management within SMEs (innov'acteur)

2 .

The support to European project engineering.

http://www.bretagne-innovation.tm.fr/

Support measure

FRANCE OUEST Region BretagneNUTS Code FR52

Support Measure

Title of measure

Assistance to competi t iveness clusters

Full title

Accompagnement des pôles de compéti t ivi té

Duration

From: 2005 To: 2005

Policy objectives

1.3.1. Cluster framework policies2.2.3. R&D cooperation2.3.1. Direct support of business R&D (grants and loans)2.2.2. Knowledge Transfer

Presentation of the measure

As in other French regions hosting competitiveness clusters, Brittany's RegionalCouncil has implemented a support mechanism for projects carr ied out within theframework of these clusters. The particularity of this region however, is that allpublic funding for competi t iveness clusters is channelled and managed by theRegional Council . Indeed, regional and sub-regional authorit ies sign an agreementdelegating this responsibility to the Regional Council. Britanny currently hostsfour competi t iveness clusters operating on the basis of collaboration betweenregional enterprises, research units, training centres. The objective of thismeasure is thus to encourage innovat ion and economic development through thistype of collaboration between economic actors. Beneficiaries may include thegovernance structures responsible for organizing clusters, or the actors involvedin collaborative projects between public and private research institutions. In total,approximately €40m have been invested since the creation of the region'scompetit iveness clusters. Projects may be selected either upon regional andnational calls for projects , or upon spontaneous applications.



Keywords

Science-industry cooperat ionClusterKnowledge transfer

Budget, source and type of funding

Currency: EUR

Source of funding 2 0 0 6 2 0 0 7 2 0 0 8National public funds 35,600,000 35,600,000 35,600,000Regional public funds 9,600,000 9,600,000 9,600,000EU Structural fundsPrivate fundsOthe r 3,300,000 3,300,000 3,300,000Form of funding provided

Gran t s

Policy learning

Extent to which the measure can be considered as a success andworthy of policy learning

There is evidence of an impact of the measure based on verifiable indicators or anevaluation (e.g. sales generated from new products, jobs created, etc.)

Evaluation report(s)

evalpdc_prerapportf inal_volume_1_22092008-12.pdf

Evaluation report links

Evaluation of the regional policy for competitiveness clusters

Evidence of outcomes based on evaluation and other evidence

One of the main factors explaining the success of this measure is the fact thatpublic intervention on is well coordinated and centralised. This is i l lustrated bythe fact that the Regional Council coordinates the financial support provided at

http://www.rim-europa.eu/index.cfm?q=p.file&r=0b0fa84ef84e15e507641294c7a72f39

http://www.bretagne.fr/internet/upload/docs/application/pdf/2008-11/evalpdc_prerapportfinal_volume_1_22092008-1.pdf

the fact that the Regional Council coordinates the financial support provided atthe regional and sub-regional level and acts as a single public representativebefore beneficiaries. In addition, the Regional Council works in close collaborationwith the central government in order to provide financing for competit ivenessclusters. This relation is characterised by a high degree of trust and mutualunderstanding. On the downside, beneficiaries consider the f inancing procedureto be too slow and complex. In addition there is a lack of monitoring and trackingmechanisms allowing to verify the impact of financed projects on regionaleconomic development .

Do's and Don'ts

Establishing close collaboration mechanisms with additional stakeholders(sub-regional and national) and funders is key to ensuring adequate distr ibutionof funding and selection of projects.

This measure is recommended as an example of regional goodpractice to policy-makers from other regions:

Yes

Organisation(s) responsible

Regional Council of Britanny

Support measure


Support Measure

Title of measure

Assistance to the viability of innovating projects

Full title

Aide à la faisabilité des projets innovants (AFPI)

http://www.rim-europa.eu/index.cfm?q=p.organisation&n=12755



Duration

From: 2009 To: No fixed end date

Policy objectives

2.3.1. Direct support of business R&D (grants and loans)4.1.1. Support to sectoral innovation in manufacturing


The Britanny Regional Council has established a partnership with the OSEO agencycreating a common fund to f inance high-potential innovating projects in f iveregional priori ty sectors: nutri t ion, food production and processes, mechanics,automation, ICT and telecommunications. Part of the funds are used to f inancethe "viability" stages of innovating projects. This particular measure aims toreduce the risks entailed during the init ial stages of innovating projectdevelopment, and to increase their rate of success. Selected projects may receivefunding to cover up to 50% of eligible expenses. The maximum allocation is set at€50,000 for a single project. In 2009, 53 projects were financed by this measure.

Keywords

Early stage-financing


Currency: EUR

Source of funding 2 0 0 9National public funds 1,000,000Regional public funds 1,000,000EU Structural fundsPrivate fundsOthe rForm of funding provided

Gran t s

Policy learning


There has been a positive response by beneficiaries to the measure (e.g.over-subscribed in terms of requested versus available budget) but i t is too early

to judge resul ts or impact


It is too early to make this type of assessment.

Do's and Don'ts

Establishing partnerships with additional stakeholders (in this case OSEO)contr ibutes to bet ter managing and promoting such measures among potent ia lbeneficiaires. This also contributes to increasing the funds available to supportprojets and avoid overlapping actions on behalf of regional actors.


Yes



Support measure


Support Measure

Title of measure

Support to the recruitment of marketing and commercial s taff in youngtechnology-based enterpr ises

Full title

Aide au Lancement de Projets Innovants (ALPI)

Duration




From: 2009 To: No fixed end date

Policy objectives

4.3.1. Support to innovative start ups incl Gazelles2.3.1. Direct support of business R&D (grants and loans)3.3.2. Recruitment of skilled personnel in enterprises


The measure is administered by the Regional Council and is intended to supportyoung innovative enterprises at early stages of their development. I t is addressedto enterprises engaged in high-potential or international markets . Instead ofdirectly supporting technology development activit ies, this mechanism providesassistance to recrui t human resources to develop marketing and commercialactivities. The measure aims to stimulate commercial activities and growth ofyoung innovative enterprises by offering financial support to cover fees l inked toa new posit ion in marketing or commercial promotion. Such posit ions should notalready exist in the enterprise and recruits should be employed on a permanentbasis . This represents a rather innovative approach to innovating businesssupport. Enterprises receive a subsided loan, which is equal to the first-year ofpersonnel fees of new recruits . Related costs such as equipment and businesstrips are eligible (only up to 20% of the paid salary). All in all, the loan does notexceed €91,500 over a seven-year period. The measure targets young innovativeSMEs up to three years old.

Keywords

Smal l and medium-sized enterpr isesEarly stage-financing


Currency: EUR

Source of funding 2 0 0 9 2 0 1 0National public fundsRegional public funds 720,000 720,000EU Structural fundsPrivate fundsOthe r

Form of funding provided

Subsidised loans (including interest allowances)

Policy learning


There has been a positive response by beneficiaries to the measure (e.g.over-subscribed in terms of requested versus available budget) but i t is too earlyto judge resul ts or impact



Do's and Don'ts



Yes



Support measure


Support Measure

Title of measure

Regional start-up loan (PHAR)




Full title

Prêt d’honneur pour l’amorçage régional (PHAR)

Duration

From: 2010 To: 2010

Policy objectives

4.3.1. Support to innovative start ups incl Gazelles2.3.1. Direct support of business R&D (grants and loans)4.2.1. Support to innovation management and advisory services


The need to provide entrepreneurs with the necessary equity funds to carry outtheir innovating enterprise projects is what led the Regional Council, incollaboration with the Caisse de Dépôts et Consignations, to adopt this measure.The need for some type of support mechanism during the early s tages ofinnovating enterprise development clearly appeared in the regional diagnosisestablished by the Regional Innovation Strategy (RIS, 2008). This mechanismintends to increase the chances of survival of innovating start-ups by providing alow-cost source of f inancing during the six months prior to their creation, andduring the initial year of their existence (18 months). This allows these enterprisesto gain credibili ty in order to attract other potential investors. Most of thebeneficiaries are identified by the region's innovation networks ( Emergys,technopoles, chambers of commerce) prior to receiving support. Beneficiaries mayreceive up to €45,000 in the form of a zero interest loan, which must be paid offduring a five year period. In addition to receiving financial support, selectedprojects also benefit from the coaching services of the Entreprendre Bretagnebusiness network. Every year approximately 15 projects are selected.

Keywords

S t a r t - u p s / s p i n - o f f sEarly stage-financingEntrepreneurship


Currency: EUR

Source of funding 2 0 1 0 2 0 1 1 2 0 1 2National public funds 266,000 266,000 266,000Regional public funds 266,000 266,000 266,000

http://www.caissedesdepots.fr/

http://www.incubateur-emergys.fr/

http://www.reseau-entreprendre-bretagne.fr/association/fr/s01_home/s01p01_home.php

EU Structural fundsPrivate fundsOthe rForm of funding provided

Subsidised loans (including interest allowances)

Policy learning


It is too early to judge the success of the measure (e.g results of first call forproposals sti l l not known).


Despite i ts recent implementation, one of the main advantages of the PHAR is thefact that i t blends financial and counselling assistance into a single mechanism.Indeed, selected projects not only benefit from the financial assistance under theform of a subsidised loan, but also obtain counsell ing services and assistanceduring their init ial stages of existence form a network of experienced personalit iesform the business sector .

Do's and Don'ts

Regional representatives were unable to provide information on this topic.


Yes



Support measure





Support Measure

Title of measure

Resourcing Fund

Full title

Fonds de Resourcement

Duration

From: 2009 To: 2013

Policy objectives

2.2.3. R&D cooperation2.3.1. Direct support of business R&D (grants and loans)2.2.2. Knowledge Transfer


The Regional Innovation Strategy (RIS) reasserted the priority given todevelopment of partnerships between public research and the socio-economicworld. Based on the RIS, a resourcing fund was launched in 2009 with theobjective of supporting pre-competit ive collaborative research projects l inkingacademic public research and enterprises. The resourcing fund is addressed totechnical centres, which are technological research structures supportingindustries and enterprises in a given field. Based on the need to meet centres 'scientif ic and technological resourcing needs, the fund intends to create deeperconnections between academic research and enterprises. Technical centres mayspontaneously submit projects to the Regional Council (no calls for projects areorganised, compared to the pre-seed fund). Four projects received assistance in2009. One of these was a project carried out by the Maupertuis Inst i tute a imed a tdeveloping new captors for laser welding processes. Direct beneficiaries of thismechanism are the region's technical centres and technologic platforms. Finalbeneficiaries however, are research laboratories and enterprises implied in thefunded projects .

Keywords

Science-industry cooperat ionKnowledge transferPubl ic-pr ivate par tnership

http://www.institutmaupertuis.fr/


Currency: EUR

Source of funding 2 0 0 9 2 0 1 0 2 0 1 1 2 0 1 2 2 0 1 3National public fundsRegional public funds 6,500,000 6,500,000 6,500,000 6,500,000 6,500,000EU Structural funds 6,500,000 6,500,000 6,500,000 6,500,000 6,500,000Private fundsOthe rForm of funding provided

Gran t s

Policy learning




One of the reasons contributing to the success of this measure is the fact that i twas buil t upon a shared assessment of the major barr iers to innovating projectdevelopment in the region. Indeed, this measure answers to a need identif ied bypublic decision-makers and authorities (RIS, REDP), as well as by local economicactors. This only goes to highlight the importance of establishing a careful andshared diagnosis of regional needs, as well as building consensus around policypriorit ies among stakeholders, before policy actions are implemented.

Do's and Don'ts

Regional representatives did not provide information on this topic.


Yes




Support measure


Support Measure

Title of measure

Pre - seed fund

Full title

Fonds de matura t ion

Duration

From: 2009 To: 2013

Policy objectives

2.3.1. Direct support of business R&D (grants and loans)2.2.2. Knowledge Transfer


The Regional Innovation Strategy (RIS) noted a lack of financing support forinnovat ion at pre-seed s tages. The pre-seed capi tal fund fosters the developmentof merging technologies. Grants are delivered to validate technologies andsupport projects between the init ial research and the creation of an innovativeactivity stages, ei ther through technology transfer or through enterprises creation.After the issuing of two calls for projects in 2009, 50 projects were submitted, and23 received grants. The pre-seed capital fund finances activit ies designed tovalidate merging technologies and their use. For example, the National Centre forScientific Research (CNRS) has received funding to carry out a project whichconsists in verifying the proof of concept of AIDS treatment administration onmice. The objective is to transfer the corresponding technology to an enterpriseable to conduct pre-clinical and clinical studies on a new AIDS medical treatment.Beneficiaries are Breton public laboratories, enterprises, technical centres andprivate laboratories. The delivered grant should not exceed €80,000 for a projectthat las ts a maximum of 18 months .



Keywords

Early stage-financingNew technology-based f i rms


Currency: EUR

Source of funding 2 0 0 9 2 0 1 0 2 0 1 1 2 0 1 2National public fundsRegional public funds 600,000 600,000 600,000 600,000EU Structural funds 600,000 600,000 600,000 600,000Private fundsOthe rForm of funding provided

Gran t s

Policy learning




One of the reasons contributing to the success of this measure is the fact that i twas buil t upon a shared assessment of the major barr iers to innovating projectdevelopment in the region. Indeed, this measure answers to a need identif ied bypublic decision-makers and authorities (RIS, Regional Scheme for EconomicDevelopment), as well as by local economic actors. This only goes to highlight theimportance of establishing a careful and shared diagnosis of regional needs, aswell as building consensus around policy priori t ies among stakeholders, beforepolicy actions are implemented.

Do's and Don'ts

Regional representatives did not provide information on this topic.


N o



Policy document


Policy Document

Britanny Regional Innovation Strategy

Schéma regional de l'innovation (SRI)

Organisation responsible


Conten t

The elaboration of the Regional Innovation Strategy (RIS) corresponds to anincentive of the European Commission addressed to all French regions, aimed atestablishing a clear diagnosis of innovation conditions for the creation of ERDFoperational programmes. Brittany was the first region to adopt a RIS in 2008. Itwas drafted through the work of f ive working groups gathering togetherrepresentatives from the socio-economic sector. In l ine with Europeanrecommendations, the RIS acts as a common basis gathering all public aimed atsupport ing innovation. The document identif ies the main strengths andchallenges of the regional innovation system, and implements a the develops aframework for the system's strategic and operational governance (with theparticipation of Bretagne Innovation). Actions suggested in the RIS are based uponsix main actions dealing with the following objectives: structure innovation actors,develop the culture and management of innovation, create a regional innovationindex, support transversal collaborative projects, launch seed capital andstar t -ups funds and support the European projects engineer ing.





Year of publication

2 0 0 8

Link to website

Link: h t tp : / /www.bretagne- innovat ion. tm.f r /upload/ur l / f ichier /6177 . . .

Policy document


Policy Document

Britanny Regional Economic Development Plan

Schéma Régional de Développment Economique - Bretagne



Conten t

This document contains the main strategic act ions and orientat ions guiding theRegional Council 's policy intervention in the field of economic development. Itaims at defining a common strategy of intervention, improving public policies 'performance and strengthening collaborative work methods within the region. Thedocument is based on a diagnosis on the region's economy, produced by theRegional Council and four working groups gathering a wide number of economicdevelopment actors. Innovation is not the main focus of the document. However,this dimension is embedded in many of the strategic orientat ions included in thedocument (enterprise competi t iveness, entrepreneurship development, regionalattractiveness at the national and international level, creation of the regionaleconomic development agen, etc.) . The document recognises that , even thoughtthe Region benefits from a strong level of innovation dynamism in certain fieldssuch as the marit ime industry, there is st i l l a need to increase the proportion of

http://www.bretagne-innovation.tm.fr/upload/url/fichier/6177fichier.pdf




enterprises (especially SMEs) involved in innovation activities.

Year of publication

2 0 0 6

Link to website

Link: h t tp : / /www.bre tagne . f r / in te rne t /up load/docs /appl ica t ion /pdf / . . .

Policy document


Policy Document

Britanny Operat ional Programme 2007 - 2013

Programme Opérat ionel 'Bretagne ' - 2007 - 2013



Conten t

The Regional Operational Programme (ROP) establishes the main guidelines forthe use of funding provided by the European Union under the European RegionalDevelopment Fund (ERDF) in the region. One of the four priority axes of theprogramme is "to increase regional competi t iveness and economic performancethrough innovation and knowledge". This priority axis sets concrete objectivesand actions to promote research, development and innovation as the driving forcebehind growth and productivity in the region. Some of these measures include:structure and develop the regional innovation system; support for research andtechnology development; and strengthen the innovation cul ture and promote ofeco-management. The ROP is based on the principle that the region needs tostructure i ts innovation system in order to facil i tate access to innovation supportstructures and to spread benefi ts brought about by innovation (especial ly for the

http://www.bretagne.fr/internet/upload/docs/application/pdf/2009-04/strategie_regionale_de_developpement_economique.pdf




structures and to spread benefi ts brought about by innovation (especial ly for theSMEs). It also aims at fostering innovation within the private sector and as such, itpromotes economic intell igence, intellectual propriety and internationalisationprocess throughout regional enterprises .

Year of publication

2 0 0 7

Link to website

Link: h t tp : / /www.bre tagne .pref .gouv. f r / sec t ions /europe/europe/po/d . . .

Organisation


Organisation

Bretagne Developpement Innovation

Link: h t tp : / /www.bdi . f r /

Mission

To improve attractiveness and competit iveness of Brit tany with commoninit iat ives and share with economical development actors. We support our actionson a regional strategy (SRDE) defined by Regional Council institution.

Activities

Services : full , free and confidential assistance and advice at every step of theinves tment process

Advice to support the location decision : general information on Brittany, i tseconomy, i ts sectors, set up and operating costs, incentives…

Advisory services in recruitments and training (in partnership with our localpartners and the ANPE-French national agency for employment)

Support with site selection, form of establishment in Brittany : sites,buildings; industrial partnerships, technology partnerships;financing/incentives…

http://www.bretagne.pref.gouv.fr/sections/europe/europe/po/downloadFile/file/PO_FEDER_Version_allegee_2.6SFCdu_07-12-2007.pdf



http://www.bdi.fr/

http://www.region-bretagne.fr/

f inancing/incentives…

Ongoing support : introduction to the sectors and regional networks

A mobilization from local partners : the Agency is leading a regional and localpartner 's network made up of 14 local development agencies and towns

Organisation


Organisation


Conseil Régional Bretagne

Link: h t tp : / /www.bretagne. f r / in ternet / jcms/JB080225_11542/engl ish?por ta l=c_17529

Les Longs Champs, 1 bis route de Fougères Rennes,3 5 0 0 0

Mission

The Department for higher education, innovation and research (DESIR) is asubdivision of the Division for economy, employment, higher education andresearch of the Regional Council of Brittany. It is responsible for implementing theRegional Council 's innovation policy.

The Department administers f inancial support dedicated to innovative activit iesand innovative enterprises. In addition, i t designs strategic orientation regardingthe regional innovation system, such as the Regional Innovation Strategy (RIS).

For the 2007-2013 period, the Brittany Regional council (though the DESIR) hasbeen made responsible for the administration of the ERDF Operational Programmeand structural funds dedicated to innovation within the Region. This was done sothrough a special delegation of responsibil i t ies from the national government tothe regional authority.

Activities

The Department is responsible for implementing the regional innovation strategy,as well as regional financial support mechanisms for innovative activities andinnovative enterprises such as:



http://www.bretagne.fr/internet/jcms/JB080225_11542/english?portal=c_17529

Financial support to individual innovative projects and technology transfer;Support to collaborative projects within the four regional competit ivenessclusters .

For this purpose, the Regional Council works in close collaboration with OSEO.These two actors s igned a partnership in 2009 aimed at s trengtheningco-operat ion and increasing the co-financing measures in favour of innovation(such as the Regional Support for technology-based industrial products - ARPII).

Organisation


Organisation

OSEO - Britanny Regional Direction

OSEO - Direction Régional Bretagne

Link: h t tp : / /www.oseo . f r /

6 place de Bretagne Rennes,35044

Mission

The OSEO Brittany regional direction is the regional office of OSEO, placed underthe supervision of the ministry in charge of industry, the ministry in charge ofSMEs and the ministry in charge of research. The OSEO group, created in 2005,has four main fields of activity including innovation, enterprise growth,internationalisation, and enterprise succession and transfer. In the field ofinnovation, OSEO is one of the main actors providing financing opportunities andsupport, as well as technical, scientific, financial and marketing counseling toenterprises wishing to carry out innovative projects. The agency providesassistance by sharing the financial r isks generated by such projects withenterprises, through a diversi ty of mechanisms such as subventions, loan orguarantee schemes. OSEO also offers counseling on project setup andmanagement throughout the whole innovation cycle, from the feasibil i ty unti l thecommercial izat ion phases of the project .

Activities



http://www.oseo.fr/

OSEO's innovation support mechanisms can be regrouped into three categories:financial support, bank loans and counselling services. Financial support includesall mechanisms for innovation aimed at sharing the risks created by R&D projectsand improving SME access to private financing. This usually comes under the formof direct subventions. Examples include support mechanisms for collaborationprojects between clusters, the creation of innovative businesses, strategicindustr ial innovation projects , technology transfer and youth and innovationprojects .

The second group of mechanisms is designed to improve access to bank loans inorder to finance operational cycles, increase cash flows and capital volumes, andguarantee the risks taken by banking and financial partners. Examples includeinnovation development contracts (guarantee-free loans in order to f inanceintangible assets needed for an innovation project) , innovation guarantee funds,and biotech guarantees aimed at improving SME access to biotechnology.

The last group of instruments offers support through counsel ing and expert isefor SME carrying out an innovation project. Assistance is provided in order to findthe necessary partners to build transnational technological projects, carry outcert if icat ion procedures to improve access to public funds and networking amongpotent ial project par tners .

The Regional direction is composed of one central direction and four regionaldelegations (Ille-et-Villaine, Côtes-d'Armor, Finistère and Morbihan). It is reportedon OSEO's website that in 2009, OSEO Brittany has supported 4,000 projects and3,600 enterprises, with an increase of almost 25 % compared to 2008. OSEO andthe Regional Council signed a partnership in 2009 aimed at strengtheningco-operat ion and increase the co-f inancing measures in favour of innovation(such as the Regional Support for technology-based industrial products - ARPII).

Organisation


Organisation

Brittany Innovation

Bretagne Innovation

Link: h t tp : / /www.bre tagne- innovat ion . tm. f r /eng/

18 place de la Gare



http://www.bretagne-innovation.tm.fr/eng/

Rennes,35069

Mission

Bretagne Innovation (BI) is the regional innovation agency. It is located under theumbrel la of the regional economic development agency. Bretagne Innovation hastwo specific missions:

supporting SMEs in their innovation projects;help the region in participating in European projects.

Activities

BI is reponsible for carrying out the following activities:

Bretagne Innovation Internet news service and web platform provide newsand information on national and European programme calls , conferences,trade fairs and other newsworthy events. BI makes available studies andpublications through its website. It also organises several events involving theBreton innovation network such as the Breton innovation week. A quarterlyfull colour magazine containing testimonials, special reports and practicalinformation is also published.Regional government funds are managed by BI and go into specific measuresfor businesses. This includes a financial mechanism for SMEs to benefit fromadvice and skills from external consultants. Another scheme run by BI for theRegional Council the aid for final year students who introduce new skills intocompanies, which take them on during a placement. BI also organises trainingseminars and part icipates in trade fairs and other similar events. BI is part of the Enterprise Europe Network and deals with facilitatingtechnological partnerships in Europe. It also takes part to several Europeanprojects .Observation and benchmarking: BI plays an advisory role in the elaboration ofregional policy regarding innovation and has actively worked on the Strategicframe agreement for innovation. BI is in charge of the following-up andmonitoring of the action plan included in the strategic frame. BI alsopart icipates to EU projects in order to perform benchmark with otherEuropean regions.

http://www.agence-eco-bretagne.com/


Appendix D Statistical data

Indicator Bretagne

(FR52) Bretagne

(FR52) Bretagne

(FR52) EU27

2000 or around Previous year Most recent Most recent

GDP per capita (PPP) 18900 23500 23300 25100

2000 2007 2008 2008

Change in GDP per capita 3.61 4.12 2.65 3.73

2000-03 2006-07 2005-08 2005-08

Unemployment rate 5.45 5.45 5.3 6.98

2000-03 2006-09 2007-10 2007-10

Change in unemployment rate -1.30 0.30 0.15 -0.30

2000-03 2006-09 2007-10 2007-10

Tertiary education 0.23 0.31 0.32 0.30

2000 2009 2010 2010

Government R&D expenditure 0.28 0.23 0.23 0.24

2000 2004 2004 2008

Non-R&D innovation exp. -- -- -- 0.41

-- -- -- 2006

Patents per man population 89.6 129.1 130.6 115.1

2000 2005 2006 2006

Business R&D expenditure 1.11 0.99 0.99 1.21

2000 2004 2004 2008

Higher education R&D expenditure 0.33 0.35 0.35 0.44

2000 2004 2004 2008

Source: Euro stat and Community Innovation Survey.

Technopolis Belgium Avenue de Tervuren 12 B-1040 Brussels Belgium T +32 2 737 74 40 F +32 2 727 74 49 E [email protected] www.technopolis-group.com

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