Regione Lombardia
Unione Europea
Provincia di Mantova
Provincia di Bergamo
Provincia di Brescia
Provincia di Cremona
Optimization of the Innovation System:
New ways for a Network supporting Small and Medium
Enterprises (SME).
A Bottom-Up Approach for the East Lombardy area
http://www.provincia.mantova.it/ritts/homepage.htm
progrmn@tin.it
RITTS – East Lombardy
The Area

East Lombardy includes the provinces of
Mantua, Brescia, Cremona and Bergamo with
a significantly high number of SMEs

High rates of specialization (Textile-Garment,
Metalworking,
Mechanical
Equipment
Manufacture, Electric Equipment Manifacture)

Population: 2,717,283

Active population: 1,150,000 (42.3%)

Total Firms: 206,037

Manifacturing Industries: 40,839

Employees: 877,167

Manifacturing Employees: 426,830 (48.7%)
RITTS – East Lombardy
The Aims of the Ritts East
Lombardy
a) The revision of local infrastructure systems devoted to the
technological innovation transfer
b) The implementation of a stable network among the following three
levels: a) government and research centres; b) local agencies (within
the industrial clusters) and c) some very innovative district firms
c) The organization of expert innovators inside the local agencies with
a role of mediator between demand and supply
d) The removal of barriers to innovation through a requalification of
communication languages among the institutions
e) Starting pilot project experiences through a chain of reaction which
extends the innovation process to an increasingly high number of
firms
RITTS – East Lombardy
The fragmentary Innovation System
SMEs
Large
firms
SMEs
SMEs
SMEs
SMEs
SMEs
In short, within these
industrial clusters,
the firms do not have
the appropriate
conditions for the
exploitation of
synergy and
cooperation
Regional
Government
Universities
Large
firms
Sectoral
Associations
SMEs
SMEs
Industrial cluster
SMEs
SMEs
SMEs
SMEs
SMEs
SMEs
SMEs
SMEs
Business
Services
Large
firms
SMEs
SMEs
SMEs
SMEs
Chamber of
Commerce
SMEs
Technology
Centers
SMEsSMEs
Technology
Consultants
SMEs
SMEs
SMEs
SMEs
SMEs
RITTS – East Lombardy
Programming Strategic Actions
(Key "Axes" in the East Lombardy)
AP1
Support and coordination Actions for a Network of qualified
Operators in order to optimize the innovation infrastructures
AP2
Development of the Interaction Junctions within the local
districts and the productive specialization areas
AP3
Promotion of Innovative Financial Services supporting the
strategic innovation
AP4
Support for high risk strategic innovation with special public
funds
AP5
Promotion of Training Activities on innovation within the firms
RITTS – East Lombardy
Approach to the Innovation
Transfer
For every District and specialized SME groups
Community building: This is the definition phase. It is useful to
individualize the available subjects and Insitutions leading to the
constitution of the Interaction Junction. Networking activities within
and outside the district are essential.
Constitution of the Interaction Junction: This is the strategic phase. It
is fundamental to individualize the main items: communication and
conversation process, communication languages, supply and demand
of innovation, etc.
Projects catalog: It is the tangible result of the common activities within
the Interaction Junctions among the firms demanding and the
research centre and universities offering innovation.
RITTS – East Lombardy
The "Interaction Junctions"
National Research
Centres (Universities,
Laboratories, etc.)
Optimized flows and interaction
junctions within the industrial
clusters
Local District Agency
(Lumetel, Cril, ecc.)
INTERACTION
JUNCTIONS
Innovative District
Firms
INTERACTION
JUNCTIONS
DISTRICT FIRMS
(INDUSTRIAL CLUSTER)
RITTS – East Lombardy
TOMORROW
TODAY
Current flows of information for
innovation and technology
transfer
The "Interaction Junctions" within the
Ritts East Lombardy
FINAL OBJECTIVES
 Creation of a permanent network among subjects
 Continuous monitoring of the district
- needs
- evolution
- trends
 Feasibility of the projects coming from the Junction
 Project development
 Optimization of the information transfer
RITTS – East Lombardy
Some "Interaction Junctions" within
the Ritts East Lombardy
LINE
SUB-LINE
Public Actions
Public Actions
supporting a
supporting a
not-technological
Strategic Innovation
innovation
INTERACTION
JUNCTION
Hosiery
Actions to
axperiment
strategic innovation
Wood
Public Actions
Public Actions
supporting a
supportino Strategic
"not-technological"
Innovation
innovation
Button
Public actions
supportino strategic
innovation
Agro-food
Promotion of
training activities
concerning
innovation
Home-robotics
PROJECTS
PROPOSER
INTERESTED
SUBJECTS
Development
within the Hosiery
Hosiery Services
district: new
Centre
markets and
e-commerce
Establishment of
the division
Tino Sana s.r.l.
"Research &
Gal Valle
and other wood
Development"
Imagna
district firms
within the firm
Tino Sana S.r.l.
Competitive
diagnosis of the
Button
Button district and Micromega
producers
supporting the
globalization
Grana Padano
Consortium,
Milk quality and
Coldiretti, CIA,
new milking
Biotechnological Agricoltori
systems (robotics Research Centre Association,
milking)
Istituto Sup.
Lattiero
Caseario, etc.
Clever windows
project
Cnr – Icite
Milan
ADVANCEMENT
PRESENTING
PRESENTING
PRESENTING
PRESENTING
DISCUSSION
RITTS – East Lombardy
ACTIONS AND MEASURES COMING OUT
FROM THE RITTS EAST LOMBARDY PROJECT
ACTIONS
1. Support and
coordination
Actions for a
Network of
qualifiedOperato
rs in order to
optimize the
innovation
infrastructures.
MEASURES
A1.1.
A1.2.
A1.3
A1.4.
Establishment and maintenance of the specialized
Network formed by espert animators of the Strategic
Innovation.
Development of programmed spin-off and innovative
start-up (even with firms Incubators).
Development of a check plan to control the
information flows structures.
Continuation of the participation at the European
Innovation Thematic Networks, initially developed by
the Ritts East Lombardy Management Unit.
RITTS – East Lombardy
ACTIONS AND MEASURES COMING OUT
FROM THE RITTS EAST LOMBARDY PROJECT
ACTIONS
2. Development of
the "Interaction
Junctions" within
the local districts
and the productive
specialization
areas.
MEASURES
A2.1.1
A2.1.2
A2.1.3
A2.1.4
A2.1.5
A2.1.6
A2.1.7
A2.1.8
A2.2
Interaction Junction of the Wood district. Bergamo.
Interaction Junction of the Button district. Bergamo.
Interaction Junction of the Agri-food district. Provinces of
Cremona, Mantova and Bergamo.
Interaction Junction of the Diecasting firms. Brescia.
Interaction Junction of the Lumezzane district. Brescia.
Interaction Junction of the Hosiery district. Mantova and
Brescia.
Interaction Junction of the Domotics in the building sector.
Interaction Junction of the Agricoltural Mechanics. Mantova.
Establishment of new Interaction Junctions for creating stable
"innovative projects producers" within the productive
specializations, the districts and the local systems.
RITTS – East Lombardy
ACTIONS AND MEASURES COMING OUT
FROM THE RITTS EAST LOMBARDY PROJECT
ACTIONS
3. Promotion of
Innovative
Financial Services
supporting the
strategic
innovation.
MEASURES
A3.1
A3.2
Starting up an experimental programme of private funds
financing the innovation system (seed capital, private
equity, venture capital, closed funds, etc.).
Public support in the diffusion of the "Business Angels
Network" within the provinces of the East Lombardy.
RITTS – East Lombardy
ACTIONS AND MEASURES COMING OUT
FROM THE RITTS EAST LOMBARDY PROJECT
ACTIONS
4. Support for high
risk strategic
innovation with
special public
funds.
MEASURES
A4.1
A4.2
A4.3
Increasing the public incentives for strategic research
projects carried out by the districts SME in collaboration
with the public/private supply system.
Transfer, partly, risks and threatens during the
experimentation of strategic innovation projects.
Starting up public actions supporting not - technological
innovation (design, international projects, new markets
research, creation of firms network, etc.).
RITTS – East Lombardy
ACTIONS AND MEASURES COMING OUT
FROM THE RITTS EAST LOMBARDY PROJECT
ACTIONS
5. Promotion of
Training Activities
on innovation
within the firms.
MEASURES
A5.1
A5.2
A5.3
Establishment and widening, starting from the
Interaction Junctions, of "On Line Learning
Communities".
Activation of training programmes for District Services
Centres and Development Agencies on Innovation and
technological transfer.
Sensibilization of the financial system on innovation
through special training projects.
RITTS – East Lombardy
Knowledge Management as a reference
variable for innovation
The underlying hypothesis of the East Lombardy Ritts project
views innovation as being increasingly less dependent on
external factors linked to science and technology, and evermore
attributable to the active combination and recombination of
knowledge and to the identification of new solutions within the
company.
To develop new products, today, companies need to develop a
degree of knowledge inside the company to be able to
innovate.
So to be much more important a bottom-up approach to
understand the current process.
RITTS – East Lombardy
Knowledge Management as a reference
variable for innovation
Economic production does not just make use of knowledge generated by
the main knowledge centres (universities, research centres, laboratories
etc.) only available to those who share the codified language or are on
the specialised circuits of technical communication.
For knowledge to be transformed into an economic value, it must be
combined with practical skills and applied experience that can be built
into concrete production systems (on the job). Practice particularly
important within the Italian Industrial Districts and specially those
existing within the Est of Lombardy.
Without this ability to translate and incorporate abstract knowledge inside
organisations, science and technology remain only potential resources.
RITTS – East Lombardy
The Interaction Junctions
(Innovation Exchange Groups)
The innovation nodes in the East Lombardy RITTS project have been
designed and tested as a useful tool for the creation of areas of possible
co-operation between the private and public institutions that perform
R&D activities and the district companies.
The local system does not receive orders from the outside (for example, a
technological change or a regional public policy); it selects those
technological and regulatory innovations that the internal socialproduction structure is able to elaborate and internalise in the district's
industrial processes.
The Innovation Exchange Groups are therefore a structure of intermediate
co-operation placed between R&D production centres and district
companies that analyse changes in the technological landscape in
accordance with codes that define the autonomy and identity of the
district, thus allowing the internal structure of the local district system
to respond to external stimuli on the subject of radical innovations.
RITTS – East Lombardy
Communities of Practice
The Local System assume to be a Community of Companies
linked by common problems and searching, togheter,
common solutions.
These communities are able to become a "Tool of Learning"
as an experience in involving the local subjects (actors).
The Interaction Junctions elaborate Communities of Practice
through common solutions to foster a strategic renewal of
knowledge.
RITTS – East Lombardy
Communities of Practice
Within this scenario, Communities of Practice (i.e. professionals
who practice the same profession) may represent a solution to the
inability of the SME to offer their employees continuous and
customised training, to problems of the placement of qualified
professionals in the districts, and to the limitations of the training
currently on offer which is too standardised and uniform with
respect to requirements.
RITTS – East Lombardy
Communities of Practice
The study foreseen by the Ritts East Lombardy intends to identify
potential areas of testing and intervention to develop and make
better use of professional knowledge in districts to promote the
competitiveness of local systems.
The study will occur in three separate and sequential phases.
• Phase 1: Identification of professional communities
• Phase 2: Analysis of professional communities
• Phase 3: Design and implementation of the technological model for
the community.
The proposers of the study are mainly: the Chamber of Commerce of
Mantova, the Venice International University – Tedis and the district
Services Centres of the Provinces of the Ritts East Lombardy.
RITTS – East Lombardy
Mantova: General Conference on IMTs
The first workshop of the network, where all IRE network members
will be invited, is a general conference on IMTs organized by the
Province of Mantova in co-operation with Politecnico di Milano.
This conference aims to help regional representatives have a general
idea of the IMTs and the selected techniques in particular, to discuss
about the perspectives of on-line diffusion and application of IMTs,
and express their first reaction to the possibilities of joint actions
through the project and later.
The proposed subjects for discussion are:
RITTS – East Lombardy
Mantova: General Conference on IMTs
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Experiences and difficulties from IMT applications in
European regions
The IMTs that seem to have significant applications in the
participating regions
The IMTs that have not applied due to organisational, financial
or local condition difficulties
The possibilities for joint actions in IMT development and use
The possibilities of online diffusion of IMTs
The possibilities of co-operation among all network members or
groups of members in selected application areas.
A Web Portal of European IMT providers and support
organisations.
RITTS – East Lombardy
Mantova: General Conference on IMTs
The proposed experiences from the North of Italy are:
• TeDIS (Venice International University)
•
Center for Studies
Intelligence Systems
Padua University
on
Technologies
in
Distributed
RITTS – East Lombardy