TOOLBOX CLIPPER

TOOLBOX CLIPPER

Creating a Leadership for maritime industries New opportunities in Europe

CLIPPER is an innovative interregional cooperation project that brings together seven pro-active regions to address the negative impact the global economic recession has had on Europe’s maritime sector. This sector is also suffering from growing competition from emerging countries.

The overall aim of the project is to develop better public policies to support the competitiveness of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) working in maritime industries in Europe.

The regional partners involved – made up of experts from regions, universities and private companies – are exploring and implementing new ways of supporting SMEs to improve their industrial performance, the strength of their value chains and clusters, and access to international markets and finance.

In particular, the project is supporting SMEs to develop innovative business strategies focused on diversification and differentiation that help them to create jobs and growth in the Blue Growth sector.

The project is based at regional level because they have the ability to move quickly, utilise the resources needed, and bring together the partners required to improve the competitiveness of SMEs in their traditional activities, particularly in shipyards, while also helping them to become leaders in developing markets such as Marine Renewable Energies.

Regions are also usually the Managing Authorities for structural funds and have the competences required to drive forward economic development in their territories.

CLIPPER’s results, and their long-term use, will provide significant support for public authorities and European institutions, helping to improve their business strategies for maritime industries.

The OECD projects that the global maritime economy will grow at twice the rate of the mainstream economy by 2030. For Europe, this would mean 10.8 million jobs and nearly 1 trillion Euros in turnover. That’s why we need to act to stay competitive on the global market.

Foreword

This production only reflects the author’s views. The INTERREG Europe Programme authorities are not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein..

INDEX

General recommendation p. 6

• AFOM and PEST analysis p. 6

• How to create new public policy scheme : Clipper serious game p. 10

AXE 1 Industrial performance p. 15

AXE 2 Collective performance p. 35

AXE 3 Internationalisation p. 55

AXE 4 Risk sharing p. 75

4 – CLIPPER CLIPPER – 5

CLIPPER partenaires

FIFE

SOUTH WEST FINLAND (SWF)

PAYS DE LA LOIRE (PDL)

ASTURIAS (AST.)

SCHLESWIG HOLSTEIN (SH)

LIGURIA (LIG.)

SPLIT DALMATIE (SD)

CRPM

190km of coastlineThird largest local authority in Scotland, (Population 368,100)11% of Scottish manufacturing turnover generated in Fife (2015)14.8% of those employed in Fife work in ManufacturingRosyth Dockyard, (5.3 km ) completed 2 new aircraft carriers2.5 GW o�shore wind farms consented o� the coast of Fife7MW ORE Catapult largest open access test and demonstrationo�shore wind turbine

1105km of coastlineOver 1.800 companies (ca. 1,5% of all SH s companies);About 42.000 employees (ca. 4,5% of all insurableemployments in the region) ;Turnover of about Euro 9,2 billion p.a. (ca. 10% of SH s GDP).Every 4th German shipping company, every 5th Germanshipyard and Europe s biggest marine national park.

With 330 km of coastline (4,4% of the total Italian coastline), a geographical coverage of only 5.422 km and 1,5 million inhabitants (2,7% of the Italian population) a significant share of SMEs is active in the following sectors: tourism, electrical engineering, mechanics, medicine, robotics, marine and shipbuilding, plant and floriculture, transport and logistics. Blue economy represents 35 600 jobs and €1,8 billion turnover. The Liguria port system includes 3 industrial and commercial ports: Genoa, La Spezia and Savona-Vado. Ligurian maritime tra�c represents the 27.9% of the national maritime tra�c.

Largest Croatian County – 9 473 km of sea6 industrial ports, 10 ports for nautical tourism(sport and recreational), 4 shipyards, 8 docks30 SMEs in shipbuilding industry and 20 SMEsin repair and maintenance. More than 141 SMEsare maritime industry’s suppliersMaritime industry represent 50,3%of manufacturing industry

Baltic Sea coastarchipelago of 20 000 islands – more than 14 000 km of shoreline Population of 458,000 inhabitants – 3rd biggest region in Finland GDP per capita : € 33,836 euro (2013)Leading region of the Finnish maritime industry : host over 50% of all Finnish maritime technology industry companies About 250 companies operating in maritime industry, 20 design agencies, 15 shipping companies and 3 shipyards

450km of coastlineLargest port on French Atlantic coast – 25 000 employeesChantiers de l’Atlantique (12 billions order book for 14 ships till 2026) France leading test location for MRE solutions – 1000 researchers 2 o�shore wind parks – generating capacity of 1000MW by 2020 Leisure marine industry generates 1 billion turnover per year

The Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions brings together more than 150 Regions from 24 States from the European Union and beyond. Representing about 200 million people, the CPMR campaigns in favour of a more balanced development of the European territory. It operates both as a think tank and as a lobby for Regions.

334 km of coastline2 industrial ports: Gij n (solid bulk and EU “core ports” list)Avil s (o�shore structure to international o�shore wind farms) Windar Ltd – 2nd biggest manufacturer of towers for wind turbines in the world (2013-2016 : around 200 towers)Dynamic metal mechanic industry – ArcelorMittal – one of the most important steel factories in Europe (around 20 000t of steel) Test site for materials specialised in steel

FIFE

SOUTH WEST FINLAND (SWF)

PAYS DE LA LOIRE (PDL)

ASTURIAS (AST.)

SCHLESWIG HOLSTEIN (SH)

LIGURIA (LIG.)

SPLIT DALMATIE (SD)

CRPM

190km of coastlineThird largest local authority in Scotland, (Population 368,100)11% of Scottish manufacturing turnover generated in Fife (2015)14.8% of those employed in Fife work in ManufacturingRosyth Dockyard, (5.3 km ) completed 2 new aircraft carriers2.5 GW o�shore wind farms consented o� the coast of Fife7MW ORE Catapult largest open access test and demonstrationo�shore wind turbine

1105km of coastlineOver 1.800 companies (ca. 1,5% of all SH s companies);About 42.000 employees (ca. 4,5% of all insurableemployments in the region) ;Turnover of about Euro 9,2 billion p.a. (ca. 10% of SH s GDP).Every 4th German shipping company, every 5th Germanshipyard and Europe s biggest marine national park.

With 330 km of coastline (4,4% of the total Italian coastline), a geographical coverage of only 5.422 km and 1,5 million inhabitants (2,7% of the Italian population) a significant share of SMEs is active in the following sectors: tourism, electrical engineering, mechanics, medicine, robotics, marine and shipbuilding, plant and floriculture, transport and logistics. Blue economy represents 35 600 jobs and €1,8 billion turnover. The Liguria port system includes 3 industrial and commercial ports: Genoa, La Spezia and Savona-Vado. Ligurian maritime tra�c represents the 27.9% of the national maritime tra�c.

Largest Croatian County – 9 473 km of sea6 industrial ports, 10 ports for nautical tourism(sport and recreational), 4 shipyards, 8 docks30 SMEs in shipbuilding industry and 20 SMEsin repair and maintenance. More than 141 SMEsare maritime industry’s suppliersMaritime industry represent 50,3%of manufacturing industry

Baltic Sea coastarchipelago of 20 000 islands – more than 14 000 km of shoreline Population of 458,000 inhabitants – 3rd biggest region in Finland GDP per capita : € 33,836 euro (2013)Leading region of the Finnish maritime industry : host over 50% of all Finnish maritime technology industry companies About 250 companies operating in maritime industry, 20 design agencies, 15 shipping companies and 3 shipyards

450km of coastlineLargest port on French Atlantic coast – 25 000 employeesChantiers de l’Atlantique (12 billions order book for 14 ships till 2026) France leading test location for MRE solutions – 1000 researchers 2 o�shore wind parks – generating capacity of 1000MW by 2020 Leisure marine industry generates 1 billion turnover per year

The Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions brings together more than 150 Regions from 24 States from the European Union and beyond. Representing about 200 million people, the CPMR campaigns in favour of a more balanced development of the European territory. It operates both as a think tank and as a lobby for Regions.

334 km of coastline2 industrial ports: Gij n (solid bulk and EU “core ports” list)Avil s (o�shore structure to international o�shore wind farms) Windar Ltd – 2nd biggest manufacturer of towers for wind turbines in the world (2013-2016 : around 200 towers)Dynamic metal mechanic industry – ArcelorMittal – one of the most important steel factories in Europe (around 20 000t of steel) Test site for materials specialised in steel


• Favourable geographical location (Atlantic) and impor-tant coast length;

• Important water resources for the development of re-newable energy;

• Sufficient qualified human resources for scientific and technological development;

• Availability of equipment to develop research activities;• Consolidated innovation system;• Outstanding experience in the marine sector;• Use of public sources of funding for Asturian marine

policy;• Specialisation in shipbuilding;• Regional development agents (such as IDEPA) with good

positioning;• Economic promotion agencies in the region with exten-

sive experience and capacity;• Existence of trailblazing companies in the sector;• Strong Marine System.

• Cooperation with other industrial sectors in order to increase and diversify supply;

• Exploitation of “good practices” at the international level in the sector;

• Leveraging of leadership skills;• Opportunities to configure consortiums to partici-

pate in calls;• Experiences highlighted in the development of value

chain and competitiveness poles;• Focus on the development of the Blue Economy and

Renewable Energy;• Favourable public opinion regarding the use of clean

and renewable energies;• Interest in innovation, technification, training and

diversification;• Exploration of available natural resources (e.g. sea)

for clean energy development;• Opportunities to set up cooperation networks thanks

to European support;• External actors of Atlantic Europe and international

organisations supporting the marine sector.

• High level of ageing of the population;• High competition in the marine sector;• Lack of supply and opportunities in the international

market;• Industrial activity is affected by climate change policy;• Inability to cope with administrative and legal barriers

by small entrepreneurs;• Little offer at European level against a large number

of petitioners;• Scarce financial support to the sector, which in turn

prevents taking the first steps towards diversification and development;

• Scarce knowledge by companies, mainly by SMEs, of the programmes and services offered in the region;

• Transfer of multi-national companies to areas with lower operating costs;

• Emigration of qualified human capital from the region;• Reduced public financial support for R&D activities.

• Non-existent entrepreneurial initiative;• Lack of competitiveness vis-a-vis large European mul-

ti-nationals;• Low levels of technological and non-technological

innovation;• Scarce execution of R&D;• Low capacity to implement advanced services and

state-of-the-art technology in the marine and energy sectors;

• Small capacity of SMEs to apply to national and in-ternational calls thanks to a lack of expression of interest;

• Scarce use of the available marine resources;• Inability to use transversal services;• Low differentiated products and low export supply

and export performance;• Poor ability to implement the results obtained from

research activity in practice (e.g. to economic activity);• Increasing number of micro SMEs with a very low level

of competitiveness;• Low collaboration between industry players.

General recommendationSWOT PEST ANALYSISTo better capture what levers of competitiveness a public authority can activate, it is im-portant to understand the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for the regional ecosystem. This analysis should be conducted on four aspects: Political, Economic, Social and Technological.

CLIPPER partners conducted this analysis : STRENGTHS

OPPORTUNITIES

WEAKNESSES

THREATS

ASTURIAS

[P] Coordinator for the European Working Group “Maritime Industry for Blue Growth” that lead to the Clipper project and contributes to Leadership 2020 report;[P] Large regional financial toolbox for SMEs’ sup-port; [E] Diversified industry and big leading companies (Chantiers de l’Atlantique, Beneteau Group, Naval Group, GE …);[E] Structured value chain and clustering;[E] Existing shipyard and port infrastructure; [S] Growing population;[S] Low unemployment rate (in comparison with na-tional average);[T] Prominent scientific and technology orientation (high-tech industries, good R&D potential), deve-loped and differentiated scientific and research landscape with leading research institutions and testing platforms (Central Nantes, Universities, ENSM…);[T] France’s leading multi-function offshore test site for MRE solutions (SEM REV).

[P] Arc Atlantic Commission Presidency;[P] European partnerships;[E] New markets, particularly emerging ones (diversifi-cation: MRE);[E] Participation in EU programmes (Calls, consortiums, funding opportunities…), influence post-2020 program-ming;[S] Plurality of maritime activities (leisure);[T] Industry 4.0;[T] Smart port;[T] Green shipping and low carbon technologies;[T] Smart shipping;[T] Boat deconstruction and recycling.

[P] No new authorisation for wind farms and MRE sites;[P] Growing bureaucracy and flexibility loss; [P] Reduced public funding;[P] Globalisation;[E] Slow infrastructure improvement; [E] Low investment capital; [E] Decreasing importance of traditional shipbuilding; [S] Potential conflict between users;[S] No generation renewal (employees in naval and nautical industries are retiring soon).

[P] Industrial jobs’ image challenges;[P] insufficient knowledge of existing tools, lack of good policy communication;[E] Failure of former ship financers;[E] High personnel costs in international comparison;[E] Insufficient cross-fertilisation; [E] Under-capitalisation and lack of investment from companies;[S] Lack of attractiveness for industrial profession, lack of vocation;[S] Lack of trained personnel; [T] Robotisation not advanced.

STRENGTHS

OPPORTUNITIES

WEAKNESSES

THREATS

PAYS DE LA LOIRE


[P] Beneficial strategic position in Europe; [E] Good reputation; [E] Highly specialised, flexible and dynamic SMEs; [E] Existing harbour infrastructure; [S] Excellent professional education, qualified personnel.

[P] New markets, particularly emerging ones; globali-sation;

[E] Close cooperation within the value chain between shipyards, suppliers and service providers;

[E] Efficient production processes and usage of specific location advantages;

[E] New seminal segments, such as marine technology, specialised shipbuilding;

[E] Improved infrastructure; [T] High potential of environmentally friendly pro-

ducts and technologies; [T] Research, development and innovation advantage,

new technologies; [T] Offering individual and flexible solutions; [T] Interdisciplinary approach, intensive knowledge

transfer from science to SMEs;[T] Prominent scientific and technology orientation

(excellent R&D potential);[T] High technologic know-how.

[P] International competition, trade and subvention policies of other countries, deterioration of politi-cal conditions;

[P] Growing bureaucracy and flexibility loss; [E] Slow infrastructure improvement; [E] Low investment capital; [E] Decreasing importance of traditional shipbuilding; [T] Growing knowledge intensity, losing technological

advantage.

[E] Firm dwarfism; [E] Fragmentation of the production system;[E] High personnel costs in international comparison;[E] Products are too expensive on the international market; [E] Weak cooperation; [E] Difficult financial situation and insufficient financial possibilities; [E] Weak international orientation;[E] Insufficient international marketing strategies;[S] Lack of personnel; [T] Insufficient system integration.

STRENGTHS

OPPORTUNITIES

WEAKNESSES

THREATS

(P) Extensive support for small companies;(P) Apprenticeships and college training with good

connections to industry;(E) One of Scotland’s main manufacturing bases;(E) Good logistics, air, sea, road infrastructure;(E) Active in tourism, food and drink which are develo-

ping new products and contribute to quality of life;(S) Centrally placed to bring in skills from a wide area,

to provide extra staff to be able to undertake larger projects;

(S) Fife workforce at 86.3% above Scottish average (84.1%) level of educational qualification;

(T) Specialised precision skills and installed equipment engineering and welding.

(P) Growing reputation of taking up Scottish govern-ment challenge funds and encouraging new tech-niques in low carbon technologies e.g. Hydrogen micro-grid and transport; and district heating;

(P) Growing decommissioning industry where govern-ment wants to maximise local content;

(E) Oil price stabilising with new fields still being dis-covered in North Sea still need specialised skills;

(E) Ability to fabricate large offshore energy struc-tures;

(T) Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult as focal point for innovation at UK level.

(P) Future investment attracted more by Edinburgh and Dundee;

(E) Some major employers in dockyard activities, oil and gas are still insecure and not growing signifi-cantly;

(E) Poor access to capital for company growth;(T) Low rate of innovation in very small and very

large companies that make up the majority of the workforce.

(P) Renewables rate of growth is slower than expected and over-promising politically has led to scepticism;

(E) Oil and gas industry is cyclical and strongly linked to the North Sea which is past peak production;

(E) Ageing industrial premises and low overall supply;(E) Industry a mix of very large companies and very

small, with very little mid-sized companies that may provide more growth;

(E) Slow growth in large companies which employ most people;

(S) University of St Andrews more arts than science;(T) Low levels of product innovation in manufacturing

sectors;(T) Low level of University-based spinouts.

STRENGTHS

OPPORTUNITIES

WEAKNESSES

THREATS

FIFE LIGURIA


(P) Compact supply chain network;(P) Education and training institutes;(T) Technological competence in some business areas /

Special vessels;(T) Innovative concepts;(T) Project management; (T) Arctic know-how.

(P) Maritime Spatial Planning: new products/services;(E) Growing markets;(E) New fuels, new materials;(T) Digitalisation, automation, Internet of Things;(T) Eco-efficiency, “Cleantech”;(T) Energy saving technologies.

(P) Political Support in the future;(P) R&D funding;(E) Increasing global competition;(E) Supply chain network’s capacity to grow;(E) Lack of workforce (in the future).

(P) Industry’s image challenges;(E) Small domestic markets;(E) Peripheral area;(E) Lack of workforce; (E) Lack of Business knowledge.

STRENGTHS

OPPORTUNITIES

WEAKNESSES

THREATS

SOUTH WEST FINLAND

[P] Beneficial strategic position in Europe; [E] Good reputation; [E] Highly specialised, flexible & dynamic SMEs; [E] Strong international orientation; [E] Existing harbour infrastructure; [S] Excellent professional education, qualified personnel; [T] Prominent scientific and technology orientation (high-

tech industries, good R&D potential), high technologi-cal know-how;

[T] Developed and differentiated scientific and research landscape with leading research institutions.

[P] New markets, particularly emerging ones; globali-sation;

[E] Close cooperation within the value chain between shipyards, suppliers and service providers, efficient production processes and usage of specific loca-tion advantages;

[E] New seminal segments, such as marine techno-logy, specialised shipbuilding, and offshore wind energy;

[E] High potential of supply industry;[E] Improved infrastructure;[T] High potential of environmentally friendly pro-

ducts and technologies;[T] Research, development and innovation advantage,

new technologies;[T] Offering individual and flexible solutions;[T] Interdisciplinary approach, intensive knowledge

transfer from science to SMEs.

[P] International competition, trade and subvention policies of other countries, deterioration of politi-cal conditions;

[P] Growing bureaucracy and flexibility loss;[E] Failing infrastructure improvement;[E] Low investment capital;[E] Decreasing importance of traditional shipbuilding;[S] Emigration of experts from Schleswig-Holstein, de-

creasing education quality;[T] Growing knowledge intensity, losing technological

advantage.

[E] Failure of former ship financers;[E] High personnel costs in international comparison;[E] Products are too expensive on the international market;[E] Weak cooperation;[E] Difficult financial situation and insufficient financial

possibilities;[E] Insufficient international marketing strategies;[S] Lack of personnel;[T] Prolongation of offshore wind building;[T] Insufficient system integration.

STRENGTHS

OPPORTUNITIES

WEAKNESSES

THREATS

SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN


HOW TO CREATE NEW PUBLIC POLICY SCHEME:

CLIPPER SERIOUS GAME

One of CLIPPER’s activities was to develop new tools to support maritime industries SMEs’ competitiveness. To ensure and enhance the partners’ creativity, the lead partner elaborated a tailor-made “serious game”. This creative tool enables participants to think differently. It was developed with the public innovation laboratory of Pays de la Loire Region “LABSOLU”..

INDUSTRIAL PERFORMANCE

AXE 1

AXE 1 INDUSTRIAL PERFORMANCE AXE 1 INDUSTRIAL PERFORMANCE16 – CLIPPER CLIPPER – 17

Good practiceANALYSIS OF REGIONAL MARITIME INDUSTRY RDI NEEDS AND FUTURE COMPETENCE CHALLENGES

TurkuSeas2020 project carried out an analysis (series of interviews and survey) of SWF ma-ritime industry in 2014. As a result, the preparation of TFT and other RDI activities started.

CONTEXT

In 2013, the public actors in Turku Region created a programme of about 30 measures to rescue the regional maritime industry. This programme was however in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis which hit the maritime industry hard and resulted in a very poor perfor-mance of the Turku Shipyard (owned by STX at that time).

IMPLEMENTATION

The TurkuSeas2020 project selected some of the key actions on how to permanently increase the competitiveness of maritime industry in the region. Blue Industry Park and the Turku Fu-ture Technologies University Network were selected as the major development targets and operational priorities to support and increase RDI activities as well as competence develop-ment measures.

The TurkuSeas2020 project played a catalyst, a facilitator and a disseminator role. The pro-ject was active in building connections with main public policy actors throughout Finland and informing about the importance of maritime industry. During its lifetime, TurkuSeas2020 evolved from a crisis project into a growth project when the positive vessels orders in both Rauma and the Turku region demonstrated the need for a significant investment to increase education, attractiveness and develop new, diverse skills.

The project gathered a large amount of information regarding companies’ RDI and training needs, future competence as well as public support and tools.

As result, the understanding of maritime industry and industry’s significance at regional and national level increased. Increasing public awareness was one “unwritten” aim of the project.

The project initiated several activities, some of which are still on-going :

• Summer school campaign and university campus tours;

• Development of the Blue Industry Park;

• Increase in RDI activities in Turku Future Technologies network;

• New solutions and educational paths for higher degrees in technology;

• Development of knowledge and training for maritime and manufacturing growth package;

• Establishing and developing a marine engineering competence centre.

Almost 200 companies took part in the project activities and many companies participated in various events. During the project, activities for the benefit of the Rauma and Turku maritime industries were intensified and these activities will continue in the areas of competence de-velopment and RDI activities.

CLIPPER IMPLICATIONS

One of the objectives of the project was also to enhance international collaboration. The re-gional maritime industry was already characterised by international connections and global networks and most universities were active in international activities. But cooperation acti-vities with public authorities and regional development actors were not very developed and there was a strong need to share the information on maritime development challenges, tools and results with other regions as well. The first steps were taken with the Baltic Sea Region partners, but it was soon understood that Southwest Finland Region should take the whole Europe as a benchmarking area. In this context, the CLIPPER project came at the right time for maritime development functions in Southwest Finland Region.


Good practiceTEM MERI PROGRAMME

CONTEXT

In the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008, the production in the global shipbuilding in-dustry has significantly decreased since 2009. As the crisis also hit the Finnish shipbuilding industry, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment appointed a Task Force in 2013 to give recommendations for the renewal and fostering of the competitiveness of the Finnish ma-rine industry. The Ministry and the Task Force believed that there are promising opportunities for Finnish shipbuilding, although the shipbuilding industry faces global over-capacity and the building of more hi-tech complex ships gradually shifts to lower-cost countries. The Task Force also identified a need for a special development programme targeted to the marine industry. These two proposals of the Task Force were also executed, and two programmes were set up; the Arctic Seas and the TEM-Meri.

IMPLEMENTATION

TEM-Meri (2014-16) was administrated by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment. The programme was completed at the end of 2016. The primary aim of this programme was to strengthen the competitiveness of the Finnish marine industry and to spur the regeneration of the industry. One of the key elements was also strengthening and fostering cooperation among the whole Finnish maritime cluster: marine industry, shipping industry, ports, and port operators. Some of the themes rely on cooperation between companies and research institu-tions, creating new business models for marine industry actors, and recognising new products, services, and markets.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment allocated EUR 4 million to the programme and ten projects were carried out. The funding was only granted to non-profit organisations.

From this implementation, several future opportunities have been identified. These include specialising in Arctic know-how, battery technology and hybrid energy solutions. Novel phe-nomena could be identified, and surprising changes take place, for example, in high added-va-lue products connected to the marine bioeconomy, industrial symbioses or the innovative combination of production and service chains.

Currently cruise ship and passenger-cargo ship markets are creating jobs in Finnish companies. However, offshore, cargo vessel and tanker markets are declining, which has an impact on large Finnish technology suppliers. Stringent environmental regulations mean that customers are now shopping for green vessels, increasing the demand for Finnish technology, digital know-how and experts. In the future, software will play an increasingly important role in ship-ping and shipbuilding because it is one of the solutions to making ships more environmentally friendly.

CLIPPER RECOMMENDATION

To better estimate the kind of public policy both necessary and achievable, a programme like TEM-MERI is a good way to start:

- It creates the conditions for a large number of public authorities to work together with mari-time industries, whereas the focus may often be too “sectoral” (by mission and not economic activity);

- This cooperation between heterogeneous actors leads to the implementation of various ac-tivities and a wide variety of tools from very basic activities like networking and information sharing to concrete action like training initiatives, RDI projects, high level research…;

- It also leads to a deeper understanding of maritime technology, its local significance, challen-ges and future prospects as well as needs in training and RDI development.

CLIPPER partners recommend implementing similar programmes before entering into the creation of any new sector-specific maritime industry support scheme.


INFORMATION AND CONTACT https://turkubusinessregion.com/en/

TURKU FUTURE TECHNOLOGIES (TFT)

CHALLENGES AND OBJECTIVES

The regional studies have shown that Southwest Finland’s technology industry companies (mostly SMEs) have not been active in RDI projects. The low proportion on RDI applications is an example of that. For the last few years the key strategy has been to improve high-tech companies’ development, encourage SMEs to start RDI projects and improve the enter-prise-academia collaboration. The main objective is to connect SMEs research capabilities with technical universities’ researchers and start innovative research projects.

Turku Future Technologies collaboration platform is an accessible and agile cooperation network that tailors a broad-based research excellence to improve competitiveness and growth in technology companies. TFT supports companies’ strategic development projects by speeding up know-how development as well as market entries. It also provides a seamless model of cooperation for researchers and companies, which leads company-driven, multi-disci-plinary and profitable innovation collaboration.

FOR WHOM ?

Region technology industry SME’s are the main target of Turku Future Technologies.

FOR WHICH PROJECT?

Projects are selected by scanning the SMEs RDI possibilities through interviews, collec-ting data and assessing their potential. Then TFT personnel search the right university or university consortium to solve the SMEs challenges.

WHAT KIND OF PUBLIC SUPPORT?

€300,000 / year grant is allocated by City of Turku to TFT.

INFORMATION AND CONTACT https://www.businessfinland.fi/en/for-finnish-customers/services/build-your-network/ended-programs/arctic-seas/

ARCTIC SEAS RDI PROGRAMME


AIn the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, production in the global shipbuilding industry has significantly decreased. The crisis also hit the Finnish maritime technology industry and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment identified a need for special development programmes targeting maritime industry. The main one targeting the industry’s RDI activities was Arctic Seas which was set up in 2013 for the renewal and fostering of the Finnish mari-time industry’s competitiveness. The programme came to an end in 2017.

The main objective was to increase maritime industry related RDI projects. The Arctic Seas programme focused mainly on :

• Cleantech and emissions reduction (low emission fuels);

• Digitalisation (information and data analysis, monitoring, testing, risk management);

• Increasing and optimising productivity (automation and modernisation of equipment).

FOR WHOM ?

Companies supported through this pro-gramme were both traditional maritime com-panies (shipyards, turnkey suppliers, enginee-ring companies, marine suppliers) but also new companies in maritime industry. These “new companies” were encouraged to join re-search consortia to have wider perspectives for research agendas and problem solving.

FOR WHICH PROJECT ?

Projects were selected according to novelty and business potential criteria.

The funded projects included, for example, projects creating solutions to increase en-ergy efficiency by piloting large-scale rotor sails, simulation and optimisation of ship en-ergy flows as well as projects creating tools for enhancing transparency of the environ-mental footprint of shipbuilding activities.


The programme funded some 140 projects. The total volume of the projects came to ap-proximately €75–90 million, of which Tekes funded an average of 45%.

This TEKES public support was either a grant (SMEs) or a loan (bigger companies).


MARITIME ACCELERATOR


Maritime Accelerator is an innovation platform for corporations and start-ups. The lack of RDI and the need for digitalisation lead to the creation of this accelerator.

The objective of this programme is to connect innovative start-ups, SMEs and big maritime indus-try companies together with venture capitals for new maritime innovations. Maritime Accelerator is bringing together globally operating maritime corporations with dynamic and fast-moving start-ups. This three-month accelerator programme leads to concrete business ventures: the goal is to create an innovation ecosystem that generates new business, speeds up heavy industry develop-ment and strengthens the Finnish maritime technology industry.

FOR WHOM ?

In Maritime Accelerator, traditional maritime industry players operating in global markets, such as for example shipyards, design agen-cies and shipping companies search for new ideas and partnerships among smaller growth companies.

FOR WHICH PROJECT ?

Growth companies and start-ups are scree-ned by the Avanto Venture team according to the themes defined by the partners i.e. big industry players (Royal Caribbean, Meyer Turku, Rauma Marine Constructions, Wärt-silä, Foreship, NAPA Group, and CADMATIC).

For instance, for 2019, focus areas include waste management, energy efficiency, ope-rational efficiency and transparency (shipy-ard management), sustainable and new ma-terials, energy usage optimisation, shipyard safety, digital …

WHAT KIND OF PUBLIC SUPPORT ?

Through this programme, big industry players have greater access to the maritime ecosystem and develop concrete business ventures and pilots with hand-picked start-up partners. The start-ups are granted access and visibility into this maritime ecosystem, they have the oppor-tunity to co-create with important industrial players for three months to get new venture clients and access the global customer base of the accelerator.

The accelerator programme is a Public-Private partnership project implemented by the re-gional development company Turku Science Park Ltd with partner Avanto Ventures, which compiled a list of over 500 start-up and growth companies. Among these 500, the best 40 are interviewed by the partners and between 5 and 10 are selected to participate in a three-month Bootcamp, where the potential for cooperation will be validated and lead to long-term partnerships.

INFORMATION AND CONTACT https://maritime.turkubusinessregion.com/

DINAMIC ENTREPRISE


“DINAMIC ENTREPRISES” is a global coaching programme that aims to increase companies’ competitiveness through internal performance, innovation and commercial development.

The main objective is to give SMEs the means to reinforce their competitiveness by a global and long-term (9-month) support in order to consolidate their fundamentals through advice, training, provision of tools and effective and proven methodologies.

In order to do so, the programme offers support in a collective framework:

• To improve their internal performance; • To develop or diversify on a commercial plan;• To innovate (technological or non-technological);• To maintain business and help finding profitability and stability.

FOR WHOM ?

Beneficiaries are SMEs located in the Pays de la Loire Region that have existed for over 2 years. All sectors are eligible, except liberal and regulated professions.

FOR WHICH PROJECT ?

Companies have to demonstrate their wil-lingness to enter the DINAMIC path in order to consolidate their fundamentals and gain competitiveness. This is a voluntary initiative. This helps to ensure that they are maintained over time in the instrument and that they are active in collective times. The objective is to target small companies that can’t find the competitiveness levers by themselves and in particular define concrete and measurable objectives, as well as train human resources internally.


The instrument is managed by Pays de la Loire Chamber of Commerce. Public funding repre-sents nearly 70% of the total cost of the ins-trument. The remainder is due by the company.

The programme consists of a 4-step metho-dology in 9 months :

• Orientation (1.5 months): The SME and its CCIR Advisor target main issues according to its situation and its strategic objectives, and determine the priority axis of develop-ment that they need to work on with the Consultant (internal performance, business development, innovation, boost);

• Diagnosis (2 months): The SME and its Consultant identify its strengths and weak points, and build a 3-year progress plan consistent with its strategic objectives;

• Accompaniment (6 months): The SME im-plements action plans that allow it to reach its objectives and increase the skills of its teams through training;

• Assessment The SME, with the help of its Consultant and its CCI Project Manager, measures the results and initiates the next progress actions.

INFORMATION AND CONTACT https://www.dinamicentreprises.fr/


RESOLUTIONS


Resolutions is a Call for Innovation Design by Pays de la Loire Region to provide local enter-prises access to the most efficient innovative solutions on the market and thus solve their development issues. It is based on open innovation approaches. The purpose of these ap-proaches is to enable enterprises – mainly big companies – to work with innovative start-ups’ agility in order to accelerate their own dynamic of innovation.

This scheme pursues 3 main objectives:

1 – Enable Entrepreneurs to express their development issues differently and transform these issues into innovation opportunities to increase their competitiveness;

2 – Facilitate connections between enterprises and the most innovative Solvers on the market to create new synergies and shared value;

3 – Transpose solutions that work in new sectors, co-develop and invent new solutions together.

FOR WHOM?

• ENTREPRENEURS : Local enterprises (more specifically industrial SMEs and mid-cap bu-sinesses under 2,000 employees) wishing to improve their performance through inno-vation and to experiment a new collabora-tive way to tackle their development issues through open innovation;

• SOLVERS : Innovative actors (from start-up to lab) who can bring new and efficient so-lutions to the innovation opportunities ex-pressed by the Entrepreneurs.

FOR WHICH PROJECT ?

The organisation of the Call for Solutions is delegated to the Regional Development Agency. A project team gathering the Re-gion, competitiveness clusters, clusters and universities concerned by the chosen topic, is formed for each Call for Solution.

Each selection (Entrepreneurs and Solvers) are based on criteria of relevance, realism, and coherence with the selected subject of the Call for Innovation (e.g.: blue growth, industry 4.0, smart building, digitalisation, tourism...) and its objectives. The develop-

ment issue’s characterisation is determinant in each selection phase: it should include a search for differentiation, any form of risk and have a creation of value objective.


Resolution consists of 4 to 6 Calls a year. Each call for solutions has an envelope of €100,000 (5X€20,000) to help the Solvers co-develop their solution. Each winning Sol-ver is awarded a €20,000 grant to finance and develop its solution.

INFORMATION AND CONTACT http://resolutions-paysdelaloire.fr

DIMMEC


DIMECC stands for Digital, Internet, Materials & Engineering Co-Creation. DIMECC is the leading breakthrough-oriented co-creation ecosystem that speeds up time to market. The innovation platform makes leaders and winners meet. This Platform is based on the assumption that the internet is the first truly global platform for the digital economy and will create significant new business, economic, and social opportunities. Digital resources are constantly available online, and for all to use. Increasingly, products and services are not developed by a single company but rather by a network of collaborating companies. This network of companies contributes to the ecosystem through different elements from both established and newly developed products, forming new, even more compelling offerings.

FOR WHOM ?

DIMMEC’s network consists of:

• More than 2,000 RDI professionals;

• 400+ organisations;

• 69 shareholders;

• More than 10 co-creation facilitators.

DIMECC programmes and projects are built and implemented openly together with companies, universities and research institutions. They fol-low the principles of open innovation, co-crea-tion, and agile development.

FOR WHICH PROJECT ?

DIMECC is an effective and efficient co-creation partner for strategic research, development, and innovation activities. It builds ecosystems to create competitiveness for the future and boost their new business creation and new market entries. DIMECC co-creation services guarantee faster time-to-market and increased number of ideas compared to working alone.

DIMECC has a number of international networks where customers can join to boost their inno-vation capacity and business growth. Boosting innovation capacity means both an increased number and variety of high-quality partners and external funding opportunities. Business growth comes through a wider geographical

area of business and new partnerships in the R&D phase.

DIMECC Factory is a co-working facility for DI-MECC’s customers for co-creating and working together.


EU and National support. A great part of the project financing comes from private com-panies

INFORMATION AND CONTACT DIMECC Factories - Korkeakoulunkatu 7, 3rd floor,

33720 Tampere, Finlande - Eteläranta 10, 5th floor,

00130 Helsinki, Finlande - Lemminkäisenkatu 32, Ground floor,

Trivium House, 20520 Turku, Finlande

https://www.dimecc.com


INTERFACE


The Scottish government identified the need to increase the level of SME innovation and to reduce the gap between academic and business-led R&D levels in Scotland. Direct SME take-up from academia is low and it was recognised that a cultural change was required on both sides to increase levels of academic and SME collaboration.

Therefore, Interface’s objective is to encourage business to academic collaboration for eco-nomic and societal benefit: it raises awareness amongst the indigenous business base and works with Scottish SMEs individually or in groups to help identify the appropriate academic institutions and sources of funding that solve problems and develop innovative solutions. To help business offset the cost of academic collaborations, Interface also administer a small grant scheme: The Innovation Voucher Programme.

FOR WHOM?

Interface is designed to support Scottish SMEs’ collaboration with academia and more specifically SMEs with fewer than 50 em-ployees.

FOR WHICH PROJECT ?

Projects must be innovative (a novel/pionee-ring idea) and lead to new products, services, workforce innovation or processes that will benefit the company, the academic institu-tion and the Scottish economy. Only projects which cannot be delivered commercially and require the technical expertise of an acade-mic partner are eligible.


The Interface team is creative in helping companies find the right financial support mechanism and has drawn in funding: each of the collaborative partnerships between business and academic teams brokered by In-terface may result in the businesses paying for the R&D, part funding from public sector grants (such as Innovation Voucher funding, knowledge transfer partnerships etc.), or other mechanisms suggested by the aca-demic partner (e.g. sponsored postgraduate studentship).

INFORMATION AND CONTACT https://Interface-online.org.uk

ORE CATAPULT


The Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult, with its demonstration turbine in Levenmouth, Fife, works with companies and academic research to accelerate industrial development of offshore renewables by harnessing innovation and achieving cost reduction. It provides a sector focal point to understand and reduce barriers to innovation in the sector. The Catapult centres are a network of world-leading facilities, set up by UK Government agency, Innovate UK, and de-signed to transform the UK’s capability for innovation-driven future economic growth.

ORE Catapult is a key part of the UK Industrial Strategy, to accelerate the creation and growth of UK companies in the offshore renewable energy sector. It is tasked with working with com-panies of all sizes and connecting them to the UK’s academic research and development base to increase the level of UK generated productivity in the sector.

FOR WHOM ?

Catapult will work with any company (SMEs, start-up, pre-start-up, …) and researchers who can contribute to the overall objectives of cost reduction, exploitation of research and growth of SMEs.

FOR WHICH PROJECT ?

ORE Catapult operates across the offshore renewable sector :

• Working with OEMs and large industrial companies who make turbines and asso-ciated plant;

• With project developers - to help design and deliver increasingly efficient offshore renewable energy generation;

• Creating innovation opportunities to other layers in the supply chain, to SMEs, and the UK’s academic research base;

• Proactively identifying and supporting ap-plied research and innovation all the way to commercialisation.


Catapult provides engineering expertise and facilities into projects. Government funding covers the assets but additional funding from companies or further funding is required on a project-by-project basis. Catapult will help to find external funding such as VCs or public funding calls.

INFORMATION AND CONTACT https://ore.catapult.org.uk/


NEW : TURKU TECHNOLOGY CAMPUS (Teknologiakampus Turku)


The University of Turku has joined forces with the City of Turku, higher education institutions in the region (Åbo Akademi University, Turku University of Applied Sciences, and Novia Uni-versity), and Turku Science Park Ltd to create a cluster of expertise in technology, the Tech-nology Campus Turku. The parties have drawn up a collaboration agreement that focuses on increasing education and research in technology.

The main objective is to produce more Doctorate in Technology, Master of Science (MSc), Tech-nology, Engineer and Maritime Professionals for the region’s growing future needs. Indeed, the lack of sufficient master’s level technology training and education in Southwest Finland Region has been a huge challenge for companies’ development.

The aim of the Technology Campus is to create a strong and broad concentration of techno-logy expertise in Turku, which promotes the competitiveness of Southwest Finland and the long-term development of companies in the region.

FOR WHOM ?

Technology Industry companies, mainly ma-ritime technology industry either traditional or innovative.

FOR WHICH PROJECT ?

The main tasks of the Technology Campus are for the four universities:

• To combine technology research and trai-ning infrastructures;

• To increase technical training in technology;

• The creation and maintenance of a joint technology research strategy;

• To increase the attractiveness and collabora-tion of the technology industry in the region.


Turku Technology Campus unites universi-ties’ resources to support product develop-ment and innovation in the region. It does not fund activities per say but supports uni-versity/company collaboration and develops education activities in the field of maritime industry technologies. It acts as a cluster of expertise in technology.

INFORMATION AND CONTACT https://turkubusinessregion.com/karkialat/techturku/teknologiakampus-turku/

NEW : BLUE INDUSTRY PARK (BIP)


The Blue Industry Park is a cluster of maritime industrial operators, service business and R&D, to be built to the immediate vicinity of Turku’s shipyard. It aims at becoming a leading concen-tration of production and innovation in the marine and manufacturing industries on a Euro-pean scale. The area will serve companies of all sizes and strengthens the whole industrial clusters ecosystem in Turku’s region.

FOR WHOM ?

The beneficiaries are Finnish maritime and manufacturing industry and university centres and VET providers.

The area offers a first-class framework not only for production, but also for continuous renewal, maintenance and development of excellence for maritime companies.

Objectives: in ten years in BIP area there will be: 100 companies; 10,000 employees; EUR 500 million in investments.

FOR WHICH PROJECT ?

The main objective is to build an innovative maritime technology park for Finnish mari-time industry and cleantech companies and form a business ecosystem with production facilities, university centres and other sup-porting businesses. The aim is for the Blue Industry Park to become the production and innovation cluster for the maritime and manu-facturing industry.

The project will offer various facility including a congress centre, an office and innovations centre, a logistic centre, temporary accom-modation, workshop hotels, engineering workshops, and a research centre.


BIP is a Public-Private partnership project. The concept plan for the Blue Industry Park (BIP), located near the Meyer Turku shipyard, was completed in December 2017. The Blue In-dustry Park area is approximately 55 hectares of land and the construction of the new faci-lities will be implemented in stages between 2019 and 2030.

Companies will benefit from the synergy between businesses and other actors in the region that BIP will provide. Blue Industry Park combines critical mass of resources and ex-pertise with a competitive framework for pro-duction, product development and research. Logistic connections will be made directly by Blue Industry Park companies to global mar-kets along roads, tracks and sea and air routes.

At this point the concept is funded by Turku Science Park and the City of Turku (500M€ in 10-15 years). In the future there will be both public and private funding.

INFORMATION AND CONTACT https://turkubusinessregion.com/en/bip/


NEW : REGIONAL SMEs INSTRUMENT BASED ON S3


The Regional Innovation Smart Specialisation Strategy (RIS3) is a tool used throughout the European Union to improve the effectiveness of public policies for research and innovation. Through their RIS3, Regions have built a strategic framework of actions with the objective of competitive strengthening and employment growth of the regional economic system.

Maritime Industry is one of the Smart Specialisations however it appears (in several CLIPPER Regions) that Maritime industry SMEs do not seize the opportunities enough of ERDF funding through RIS3. Since RIS3 is an integral part of the ERDF ROP, identifying the priority areas of research and innovation to intervene in, is crucial. This CLIPPER proposal would have the aim of ensuring greater orientation to the result of the interventions, in particular those aimed at SMEs research and innovation, notably in maritime industry.

FOR WHOM ?

SMEs whose activities deal with RIS3 in or-der to strengthen as much as possible Regio-nal S3 sectors that are considered a strategic asset, in particular maritime industry.

FOR WHICH PROJECT?

SMEs competitiveness boosting through in-novative projects, internationalisation, trai-ning: S3 makes research and innovation the red thread that connects companies and the regional production system with human capi-tal and the wide knowledge system and high added value products and services.

It would be desirable to set out a working plan aiming at defining at first the objectives to be achieved for the regional economic system as a whole and, at the same time, express synergies with the world of research and that of education and training, and then allocate ERDF and ESF funds to really achieve the proposed objectives.

QUEL TYPE D’AIDES PUBLIQUES ?

ERDF and ESF funds


RECOGNISE THE MARITIME TECHNOLOGY SECTOR AS A STRATEGIC SECTOR FOR EUROPE

Europe is the leading global region in terms of aggregated production value of shipbuil-ding and ship-systems production, even though its level of shipbuilding production (in terms of gross tons and deadweight tons) is low. The European maritime market for spe-cial high-tech and high value ships will come under more and more pressure over time. The market sectors for special high-tech and high value ships will face more competition.

A strong collaboration in Europe is needed to strengthen the competitiveness of Euro-pean maritime technology as a leader in the global industry. Collaboration between public authorities, private sectors, research entities and universities is more crucial than ever.

There is a real and tangible Asian risk with regard to complex ships today; opening the European know-how to the Asian market is a real danger for the European maritime in-dustry. Europe, thanks to its distinctive know-how, has a real protectionism in this area which must be preserved for the durability of the European shipbuilding industry.

Thus, CLIPPER partners recommend creating a consortium of significant maritime re-gions to solve the most relevant technological, educational etc. challenges for European maritime industry in the future. Universities and education institutes have an essential role in building the knowledge and required competences, and cities and regions provide the essential infrastructure and the collaboration network in Europe.

The objective of this consortium would be to enhance the competitiveness of the Euro-pean Maritime Industry sector, secure future RDI activities, upskill the competence of ma-ritime industry workers (including attractiveness issues), protect from the risks of unfair competition.

POLITICAL RECOMMENDATION

STRONG COLLABORATION BETWEEN ACADEMIA AND COMPANIES

The CLIPPER project showed that there is a need for strong collaboration between uni-versity and companies. The high-level RDI should be more strategic and comprehensive. Indeed, SME’s often do not have the funding possibilities, RDI competence and long-term strategies to produce high-level innovation and products.

Development in the maritime sector is particularly based on innovation and the European maritime industry produces world-class technological solutions. A greater appreciation of the maritime industry’s innovation capabilities should help raise it to a completely new level.

Support to European maritime industry and clusters for research and RDI projects help to manufacture vessels that contain the world’s most advanced technology: this should be further developed in the future. The manufacturing is carried out in combination with top-class production efficiency that integrates the technological innovations into its wor-king methods.

Some of the key activities could be :

• To develop and integrate national maritime clusters into the unite communication and cooperation system;

• To investigate technological and production capacities to improve the maritime sector development processes and foster knowledge commercialisation;

• To establish an innovative ICT-based tools to transfer technology and business knowledge to give public authorities, public research organisations and industry a place to meet and coordinate their actions, and develop innovative solutions;

• To implement transnational competence building programmes and RDI programmes to gain the necessary knowledge and establish business cooperation.


COLLECTIVE PERFORMANCE

AXE 2

AXE 2 COLLECTIVE PERFORMANCE AXE 2 COLLECTIVE PERFORMANCE 36 – CLIPPER CLIPPER – 37

Good practiceMAPPING YOUR LOCAL MARITIME VALUE CHAIN

OBJECTIVES

Mapping your local maritime value chain will enable you, as a public authority, to better support your maritime industry SMEs. It will help you to visualise the variety of stakeholders in place and to close the potential gaps in the support system. It is a good exercise before implementing a new policy. It allows you to make a clear diagnosis.

IN THE FRAMEWORK OF CLIPPER

Working on their territorial diagnosis, FAEN (Clipper partner from Asturias, Spain) developed a “value chain chart”. This chart was a compilation of information, a global picture of the Asturian value chain directly or indirectly connected to maritime industries, each block representing a segment of the value chain.

From there, each CLIPPER partner was asked to work on the representation of their value chain by completing a similar chart. Below are some of these charts.

FIFE SOUTHWEST FINLAND

PAYS DE LA LOIRE


ASTURIAN

SPLIT DALMATIA


Good practiceEUROPEAN CLUSTER EXCELLENCE INITIATIVE (ECEI): AN EU COMMISSION INITIATIVE

CONTEXT

Strong management is crucial for cluster organisations for providing professional services to clusters, for assisting companies to access global markets successfully, and for raising their in-novation capacity and competitiveness. To create more world-class clusters across the EU by strengthening cluster excellence, the Enterprise and Industry DG of the European Commission launched the EUROPEAN CLUSTER EXCELLENCE INITIATIVE (ECEI) in 2009 under the umbrel-la of the «Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme». ECEI’s main aim was to create a benchmarking methodology for cluster organisations to improve their internal manage-ment process and the way they offer services and to develop training materials to help cluster managers improve their own managerial capability.

IMPLEMENTATION AND RESULTS

13 partners from 9 European countries, all with large experience in the field of cluster mana-gement and support, created a set of cluster management quality indicators and developed a quality labelling system in order to test and validate this methodology and set it up as an accepted label throughout Europe.

This quality labelling system contemplates three levels of distinction:

• Bronze Label : Basic level of recognition affordable for a relatively incipient cluster organisation.

• Silver Label : Intermediate level aimed at clusters with a certain degree of maturity, which requires having professionalised management structures.

• Gold Label : Highest level of recognition, which is granted to very mature clusters that de-monstrate a highly sophisticated management, high financial solvency and high specialisation in different areas of cluster services, and that are committed to further improve their struc-tures and organisational routines for the benefit of even greater performance.

IMPACTS

According to the data of the EUROPEAN CLUSTER COOPERATION PLATFORM (ECCP), 88 Gold Label clusters, 70 Silver Label clusters, and 260 Bronze Label clusters were registered. These labels gave visibility within the European cluster ecosystem, access to contact networks and easy comparison and benchmarks between clusters with similar levels of recognition.

In addition, the process to obtain a label entails an important internal knowledge for the manage-ment body which appear really valuable to the global cluster strategy in the long run:

• Re-definition/Re-orientation of the cluster management objectives;

• Improve the analytical capabilities of value chains;

• Identification of competitive advantages in innovation and / or market issues;

• Ability to develop a shared vision regarding collaboration with other work groups, value chains…;

• Ability to facilitate the internationalisation of partners, especially SMEs;

• Improvement in the preparation of strategic plans and work plans for cluster development, increa-singly adapted to the real needs of its members.


A specific cooperation project between maritime industry clusters could be a great opportunity to further develop a European Maritime Industry Strategy, as has been done in aeronautics for instance.

MORE INFO

https://www.cluster-analysis.org/benchmarked-clusters


TRACTORES PROGRAMME


The Tractores programme aims at funding differential projects, led by big companies, to face the challenges that the region will address in the medium and long-term in the areas and sec-tors identified in the Regional Innovation Strategy for Smart Specialisation (RIS3) of Asturias.

The Call was designed to encourage cooperation among pivotal or “tractor” companies with regional SMEs and research centres, regional test sites and University RDI groups.

FOR WHOM ?

Beneficiaries are regional consortiums of companies set up by at least three inde-pendent companies including a “tractor” and an SME. Between 10% and 25% must be subcontracted to a research and/or a tech-nological centre.

The applicant for the grant must be a trac-tor. Tractor companies are companies which have the capacity to improve and/or boost the economy of their environment, taking into account their size and/or their ability to create upstream business, between their suppliers or subcontractors, or downstream, among their local customers.

FOR WHICH PROJECT?

Two types of projects can be funded :

• Type A: Industrial Research Projects / Experi-mental Development;

• Type B: Innovation Projects (in organisation or processes).

The implemented projects should be included in the fields of specialisation defined as priori-ties in the RIS3 of Asturias :

• Advanced and sustainable materials;

• New production models;

• Supplies, Network technology;

• Asturias Industrial pole of steel (incl. MRE);

• Agrifood markets;

• Demographic aging and quality of life.


Non-refundable grants between €500,000 and €2,000,000.

Submitted projects are assessed by a Com-mission following a precise criteria list (ac-cordance with technological priorities, origi-nality of the proposal, quality and structure of the consortium, added value, distribution of tasks, efficiency in the allocation of re-sources, knowledge distribution and result dissemination, impacts …).

INFORMATION AND CONTACT Adress : Parque Tecnológico de Asturias, 33428 Llanera, Asturias, España Tel. : +34 985 98 00 20 / [email protected] / www.idepa.es

NEOPOLIA


Neopolia is an association, a network of 6 bu-siness clusters, created and run by Pays de la Loire entrepreneurs in order to strengthen local companies’ diversification and competi-tiveness. Neopolia accompanies principals in their progress dynamics and acts alongside with regional institutions to enable a stable industrial development of the region.

Neopolia’s 3 main objectives are:

• To commercialise collaborative global indus-trial offers;

• To build a business network and strengthen the links with great market players;

• To support structuring industrial project de-velopment.

It aims to federate and allow companies to work together on business issues in order to develop 6 specific industrial sectors gathe-red in clusters: aerospace / maritime and ri-ver projects / maritime renewable energies / nuclear / oil and gas / rail.

FOR WHOM?

Integration into Neopolia and its clusters is done in two successive stages:

Step 1: Join the network - eligibility criteria:

• To be an industrial or industry service com-pany and to carry out an activity related to one of Neopolia’s target markets;

• For companies that do not have a presence in Pays de la Loire, be integrated into one of Neopolia’s six clusters.

Step 2: Become a member of one or more clusters - eligibility criteria:

• Have an activity that complements the glo-bal offer of at least one of Neopolia’s six clusters.

245 companies are part of Neopolia (2017), in all parts of the regional territory.

FOR WHICH PROJECT ?

The 6 business clusters are the concrete ex-pression of Neopolia’s market-oriented ap-proach. It translates the regional companies’ will to federate themselves around a shared strategy and a common industrial offer in order to conquer new markets in France and abroad.


Neopolia has a business provider model:

• It initiates and builds partnerships with key players in its target markets;

• It promotes corporate alliances in different forms: consortium agreement, co-contrac-ting, joint venture….

In 2018, Neopolia created a SAS (Simplified Stock Corporation under French law). It is an additional legal and financial tool available to members to respond to larger collaborative tenders.

INFORMATION AND CONTACT http://www.neopolia.com/Neopolia, 35 av. du Général de Gaulle - CS 70405 - 44602 Saint-Nazaire Cedex - FRANCE Tel. : 33 (0)2 40 17 21 52 , Email : [email protected]


MARITIME CLUSTER NORTHERN GERMANY (MCN)


Close cooperation along the value chain between shipyards, suppliers, and service companies is an important success factor for the future prospects of the maritime industry. As such, divi-sion of labour between companies leads to more efficient production processes and enables exploitation of specific location advantages.

Maritime industry in Schleswig-Holstein is largely represented by very small companies. It is necessary to encourage their cooperation up to promoting company mergers because bigger business units are more competitive on the global market.

FOR WHOM?

Companies and institutions of business, science and politics working in the maritime industry in Northern Germany.

Membership fees start at 250 euros per year. The annual subscription is graded according to the number of employees or turnover.

FOR WHICH PROJECT?

The MCN has defined four fields of action:

• Networking: events, public relations, poten-tial analysis of maritime industry in Northern Germany, trend analyses for the maritime industry, expert groups, regular contacts to companies, agreements with maritime as-sociations, online presence, evaluation and implementation of the yearly political forum, evaluation of strategic partnerships and pro-jects, marketing for the maritime location Northern Germany;

• Innovation projects: dialogue partner for idea providers, observing application calls, identifying potential cooperation projects, development of project partnerships, stren-gthening project ideas of the expert groups, initialisation of feasibility studies, support in project financing planning, matchmaking events;

• Technology and knowledge transfer: knowledge map building, cross-cluster ex-change, technology forums;

• Human Resources: measures for securing skilled personnel, public relations for ma-ritime professions, system competence in education and training, internet portals


MCN is a maritime cluster, its purpose is to: • Provide needs-based and goal-oriented

support for member companies; • Support and monitor projects with high

system complexity;• Strengthen risk-sharing partnerships and

public funds usage; • Exploit tendering chances;• Support knowledge and technology ex-

change;• Strengthen technical system capability

and competence;• Increase expert availability and level of

competence;• Inform about the competences of its

members, foster informal relations….

INFORMATION AND CONTACT Maritimes Cluster Norddeutschland – Geschäftsstelle Schleswig-Holstein, WTSH GmbH, Lorentzendamm 24, 24103 Kiel www.maritimes-cluster.de

SCOTTISH MARITIME CLUSTER (SCM)


AIn the UK, maritime businesses have begun to cooperate more as “Maritime UK”. The Scottish Maritime Cluster has a more regional focus but builds on this trend; it is currently in creation and was set up by a group of leading maritime businesses.

• The Scottish Maritime Cluster is Europe’s largest ship management cluster with leading na-val ship design and maritime colleges;

• Scottish Maritime Cluster economy comprises, 39,300 jobs; £9.3 billion turnover; £3.6 billion gross value added; over 20% of the UK maritime sector; £1.6 billion exports;

• The average job in Scotland’s maritime sector is estimated to have contributed £91,600 in GVA in 2015; compared to a figure for the UK maritime sector of £77,900 and £48,971 across the Scottish economy.

However, it does not have a body that recognises local capability and can coordinate efforts to build its position. SMC will collaborate with the Scottish Chambers of Commerce to engage their members across Scotland who are involved in the sector.

FOR WHOM ?

The sector is defined as shipping, ports, marine and maritime business services and support for petroleum and gas extraction. In particular, the cluster will engage companies developing new areas such as offshore ma-rine energies and highlight innovation ari-sing in SMEs.

FOR WHICH PROJECT ?

The goal of the Scottish Maritime Cluster is pro-motion and facilitation of economic growth in the maritime sector in Scotland.

The aim is to maintain the international posi-tion of the UK maritime sector and deploy in-novation to maintain it. A national strategy has been proposed and companies in the industry are being recruited to support it. The SMC is to be a membership organisation for companies in the maritime sector to interact to support eco-nomic development in this sector specifically in Scotland, as a major geographic concentration of maritime actors in the UK.


The SMC is currently recruiting members and engaging with the Scottish Cham-bers of Commerce and Fife Council to build membership.

Membership is now at 26. It includes de-signers, builders & maintainers; cadets & training, personnel; ferries, naval, offshore, owners; managers, consultants, class, legal and lighthouse authorities.

INFORMATION AND CONTACT http://technocampus-ocean.fr T. 33 (0)2 49 09 90 00 [email protected]


TECHNOCAMPUS OCÉAN (TKO)


By mutualising public and private resources and by putting collaborative innovation at the heart of regional economic development, Technocampus platforms respond to the challen-ges of industrial competitiveness.

Technocampus Ocean is a mutualised technological research platform dedicated to marine structures and metallic materials. It encompasses industrial and academic players that work on developing innovative manufacturing technologies for shipbuilding and MRE. It offers pooled resources, encourages interdisciplinary approaches, collaborative R&D and technolo-gy transfer. It contributes to the excellence of Pays de la Loire region in the field of maritime industry.

Other Technocampus platforms include: Technocampus Composite (a leading platform in the development of innovative technologies for designing and building of larger components in high performance composites), Technocampus Smart Factory (an industrial centre of virtual reality at the forefront of innovation that offers companies ultra-immersive sessions and can integrate complex scenarios) and the new Technocampus Alimentation.

FOR WHOM ?

The Technocampus concept of co-locating a prime contractor and academic researchers offers SMEs and VSEs the opportunity to engage in a programme of innovation and benefit from an optimum level of expert resources, clear foresight of market outlets and project support. TKO gathers techno-logical teams and means from key players of offshore structures and related metallic processes.

FOR WHICH PROJECT ?

Technocampus platforms are key investments for Pays de la Loire Region to magnify local industrial dynamics. The aim is to ensure col-laborative action through the colocation of academic research teams, manufacturers and high-profile service providers in order to faci-litate a 360° project structure and opens the door to world-class expertise. Technocampus Ocean also provides test sites and a collabora-tive environment for SMEs.


Technocampus Ocean offers access to the fol-lowing scientific equipment and technological services: parts design, implementation of me-tallic materials (metal additive manufacturing, moulding, welding, completion...), robotics/co-botics production, modelling and processes si-mulation (process modelling, hydro-dynamics), non-destructive testing metallic materials parts (robotic X tomography...).

INFORMATION AND CONTACT http://technocampus-ocean.fr Tel. 33 (0)2 49 09 90 00 [email protected]

JOVALLENOS INTEGRAL MARITIME SAFETY CENTRE


Jovellanos Integral Maritime Safety Centre is the training centre of the Maritime Rescue and Safety Society, attached to the Ministry of Development through the General Directorate of the Merchant Navy.

The main goal of the Ministry creating this entity was to create a centre equipped with the set of facilities needed to give training courses and related activities in the field of mari-time sector. This Educational Centre gives a comprehensive training in the thematic areas of safety and security, especially aimed at all the activities related to the maritime sector.

FOR WHOM?

The management and operation of the centre is ruled by a team of highly qualified technicians and specialists with a long back-ground in maritime sector.

Jovellanos Centre gives companies the trai-ning they need to better perform and to obtain legal certifications. In some cases, ha-ving specific types of training courses allow companies to participate in new and more complex projects.

FOR WHICH PROJECT ?

The specific goals pursued by this educational resource are to:

• Train according to the applicable regulations and to the needs of the recipients;

• Transmit the necessary knowledge to apply tasks entrusted in the workplace safely and successfully;

• Reduce, through training, lives and environ-ment damages, avoiding risks and accidents;

• Increase the use of new technologies in the field of safety and environmental training;

• Guarantee the application of the quality sys-tem in the design and development of trai-ning activities.


The Jovellanos centre is an accredited centre offering training to different sectors on secu-rity aspects. There is a catalogue of courses and organised bespoke training programmes available upon request.

The Centre also gives technical assistance for the execution of port infrastructure work: ma-noeuvrability tests of ships in port, estuaries and rivers, technical assistance to environmen-tal projects related to marine pollution, survival at sea and new technologies.

INFORMATION AND CONTACT Centro Jovallenos Address : Camín del Centro de Salvamen-to nº 279. 33393 Gijón, Asturias, España Tel : +34 985 15 98 00 / Email : [email protected] / www.centrojovellanos.es


NEW: IDEAL CALL FOR MARITIME INDUSTRY PROJECTS


In a context of increased need for competitiveness, innovation and collaboration remain strategic levers for many actors. Thus, CLIPPER partners seek to facilitate access to innova-tion for the largest number of companies, and to develop skills and resources on their regional territory that will enable companies to carry out innovation projects in the field of maritime industries. Maritime industries are at the crossroads of a multitude of sectors: digital, energy, transport, construction, industry, etc. Cross-fertilisation appears to be indispensable for inno-vation and for the development of maritime industrial sectors for both large groups and SMEs which must diversify, innovate and forge solid partnerships in order to remain competitive.

FOR WHOM ?

Maritime industry SMEs involved in a collabo-rative project are the main target of this Call. The sector should be specified in the Terms of Reference of the Call: it can be limited to a specific aspect of maritime industries, to blue growth in general or be multi-sector and include maritime industry (for example: industry 4.0...).

FOR WHICH PROJECT ?

This Call should target SMEs involved in a multi-actor project: SMEs, start-ups, large companies, technology centres, university, lab, etc. The aim of this type of Call is to en-courage collaborative projects, preferably with cross-fertilisation. The project should aim at developing innovative maritime products / services / processes that can have an impact in terms of business creation and therefore employment, while being in line with the ob-jectives of the regional maritime strategy.

The project should be approved by regional maritime experts (e.g.: competitiveness clus-ter label).

WHAT KIND OF PUBLIC SUPPORT? The selection criteria must be transparent and presented in the Terms of Reference.

The Selection Committee, composed of the financers (Regional Authorities), representa-tive of SMEs and representative of local ma-ritime clusters, meets to assess the projects submitted.

Before selecting the laureates, this Com-mittee must assess the 3 aspects of the project:

1. Administrative: does the project meet the criteria detailed in the terms of reference (size, sector, etc.)?

2. Technical: the idea is evaluated by profes-sionals of the field;

3. Financial: are the commercial part and bu-siness plan realistic and achievable?

Once these assessments are done, the Se-lection Committee can decide which project to finance and the amount that should be allocated.

Depending on the need of the project and risk assessment, the public support could either be a grant or a loan. The mobilisation of EU funding (ERDF) should be considered (especially while preparing the operation programme).

The form of the public support should de-pend on the project:

• For a grant: smaller project, start-ups, innova-tion. The assessment should be quite agile, and the grant represents a smaller amount;

• For a loan: agreements with commercial banks may be asked. As loans represent a larger amount, the screening process should go through various committees;

• ERDF funding: a project pipeline is needed notably through the help of regional agen-cies and clusters to further develop the projects and provide expert advice. ERDF funding enables to provide large amounts, but often call for a long and time-consu-ming process.


NEW: JOINT CLUSTER INITIATIVES (post-2020)


The European Commission, in the framework of its future Single Market programme (which should notably replace COSME), wants to support clusters through a new tool: The Joint Cluster Initiatives.

The objective is to go beyond current cluster collaboration schemes: “INNOSUP” (which allows clusters and other intermediaries to collaborate to finance SMEs (cascade funding), currently funded by H2020) and “Cluster Go International” (which aims at developing joint strategies for internationalisation (outside Europe) of clusters, currently funded by COSME).

FOR WHOM ?

These Calls for Projects should support cluster organisations or business network organisa-tions involved in supporting the enhancement of collaboration, networking and learning to stimulate innovative activities. They should be established in an EU Member State and parti-cipate in a cross-European partnership action.

FOR WHICH PROJECT ?

These Calls to create future Joint Cluster Ini-tiatives should aim at strengthening cluster management excellence and facilitating ex-changes and strategic partnering between clusters and specialised eco-systems across Europe. The aim is to foster cluster excellence capacity-building and to promote cross-cluster learning in order to help cluster organisations and their members to acquire the necessary skills and take actions to explore and take up new solutions.

Joint Cluster Initiatives should notably focus on:

• SMEs’ internationalisation and mobility;

• SMEs’ innovation support (and smart speciali-sation strategies);

• SMEs’ skills development;

• SMEs’ scaling up.

In order to have a real European added value, these initiatives should be sector specific and target strategic sectors defined by the EU as priorities: Maritime industries is one of them.


A 150M€ budget should be allocated to joint cluster initiatives for the 2021/2027 period (subject to the validation of the European Par-liament and European Council).

Around 3 to 5 million euros should be allo-cated per project and part of this grant should go directly to SMEs through cascade funding. A cross European Call for Projects between cluster could be an interesting tool to finance.

INFORMATIONS ET CONTACT EU Cluster Portal : http://ec.europa.eu/growth/smes/cluster European Strategic Cluster Partnerships : www.clustercollaboration.eu/eu-cluster-partnerships European Cluster Collaboration Platform (ECCP): http://www.clustercollaboration.eu

NEW: STAFF EXCHANGES


Close cooperation along the value chain and networking are key for SMEs’ competitiveness: Clusters, associations, and networks are a particularly important political instrument aimed at uniting maritime SMEs. To be able to compete with large players on the market and possess sufficient market power, SMEs rely on a strong network and cooperation with each other.

In this context, the aim of staff exchanges is to foster cluster excellence capacity-building and to promote cross-cluster learning in order to help cluster organisations and their members to acquire the necessary skills and take actions to explore and take up new solutions.

FOR WHOM ?

Cluster organisation, local authorities, SMEs, universities... any type of organisation eager to discover new practices to support SMEs competitiveness and willing to share them with its local eco-system. .

FOR WHICH PROJECT ?

Staff exchanges consist of a bilateral ex-change between 2 different organisations, preferably from different regions (even bet-ter, country).

It pursues 3 main goals:

• Observe habits, constraints, and general context of other organisations to facilitate future partnership and operational coope-ration;

• Have a user centre approach to conceive new public policies;

• Discover new public policies and evaluate the potential adaptability of such policies in other local contexts.


Covering of travel and accommodation costs for a 2 to 4-day exchange.

The exchange should also be prepared in ad-vance with the help of Regional Authorities from both sides.

This activity was successfully tested during the CLIPPER project.

INFORMATION AND CONTACT https://www.interregeurope.eu/clipper/ link to the video: here


MULTI-USER CONFLICT MANAGEMENT

ISSUE AT STAKE

Maritime projects are heterogeneous and evolve in a shared limited and restricted space. New activities often have difficulties to emerge and find their space in this context characterised by the multiplicity of users. Strategic planning is necessary to allow multi-user conflict management. Such strategic planning provides a shared prospective vision of both coastal areas and maritime domain’s occupation and use:

• On coastal areas, the main challenge is to reconcile the consequences of demogra-phic attractiveness with the preservation of sensitive natural areas.

• Concerning the maritime domain, the challenge is the search for harmonious and adaptable cohabitation over time: fishing, aquaculture, yachting, sailing, seaside ac-tivities, extractions of materials, marine renewable energies, protected areas, mari-time transport, nautical access...

RECOMMANDATIONS

Analysing and Mapping

The analysis of the multiplicity of uses of the maritime area requires the understan-ding of each use in all its components and associated impacts, such as the regulatory framework, social expectations, economic issues, environmental impacts. These activi-ties include aggregate extraction areas, pilling zones (zones of sludge rejection from port dredging), submarine cable runs, maritime transport of freight and passengers, fishing, etc.

Factoring and analysing these different uses will make it possible to visualise and map the levels of constraints to which the maritime area is subjected by differentiating zones of lesser constraints from zones subject to high pressure.

Cross-referencing of heritage data and uses zoning should enable the elaboration and implementation of a maritime area mapping. This tool, the first step towards greater inter-stakeholder consultation, will lay the foundations for cooperation in order to regu-late the uses of maritime space. The networking of the different stakeholders will allow a uses’ approach at the level of a coherent maritime facade.

> The effort should focus on the diagnosis of initial state, in order to produce in time all the necessary knowledge to appreciate in a fine and objective way the possibilities of cohabitation between the different uses.

Other mapping actions could be developed to regulate multi-user conflict, these could include :

POLITICAL RECOMENDATION• Divide the uses into various time slots rather than space;

• Restricted use: not more than X number of users / years for a given sector;

• Dual use development in the design of the project/product.

Consultation methods

Beyond the welcome association of Local Authorities in the preliminary debate proce-dures often led by the State, a deep reflection about stakeholders’ consultation would be worthwhile. This reflection should lean on the acquired experience in order to be bet-ter equipped in terms of consultations organisation, subjects’ technicality learning, and conflicts resolution.

CONCRETE SECTOR EXAMPLES

Marine renewable energies

National authorities should be aware of the difficulties encountered in all maritime planning processes, which are essential for the definition of suitable areas for new wind farms at sea. This approach often upsets many habits and positions acquired.

As such, and in particular so that fisheries does not have the impression of being the only adjustment variable, all the easements defined to date deserve to be re-examined (traffic, defence, safety, environment, etc.) to provide sufficient latitude to accommodate this new heavy and crucial industry.

A restricted and protected zone is defined around each turbine, this could be an opportunity to promote dual use project such as fish farming for instance.

Sailing and nautical boating

New technologies such as hydrofoil or connected/autonomous boats call for specific safety regulations, training and awareness campaign to prevent dangerous accidents.

Cruise and sustainable tourism

Cruise ships are floating cities. The energy consumption of the ship has a tremendous im-pact both at sea and in the port. This should be considered from ship design and concep-tion to cruise touristic programme. Indeed, the mass tourism created by these gigantic ships is poured out into smaller coastal areas that can less and less absorb it like Venice or Santorin for instance. Sustainable tourism development supposes a better multi-user management and is necessary for the survival of the sea and the maritime economy.

INTERNATIONALISATION

AXE 3

AXE 3 INTERNATIONALISATION AXE 3 INTERNATIONALISATION 56 – CLIPPER CLIPPER – 57

Good practiceMATCHMAKING EVENTS

THE EXAMPLE OF BLUE INVEST

(Source website : https://blue-invest-2018.b2match.io)

Blue Invest is a matchmaking event that brings together innovators and the financial community to boost the economic potential of the ocean while protecting its marine resources. The objec-tive is to take advantage of this potential by enabling the meeting of technology and creativity with finance.

The event consists of a pitching contest for innovators, conferences, bilateral meeting with in-vestors, and networking activities. It brings together innovators, clients, investors, support ser-vice providers and policy makers in the maritime sector.

Blue Invest aims to promote and favour the development of projects that can have a positive impact on the health of the ocean and boost its economic potential.

WHY ATTEND ?

INNOVATORS

• Showcase their project;

• Connect with investors and create new bu-siness contacts;

• Find a partner ready to turn a project into a great business opportunity;

• Get insights, tips & tricks from financial players and accelerators.

INVESTORS:

• Be the first to spot promising start-ups or scale-ups;

• See and meet tomorrow’s innovation;

• Share their experience.

FOR WHOM ?

• Blue economy innovators who want to pit-ch to Europe;

• Business, especially SMEs, start-ups and scale-ups;

• Business accelerators;

• Public and private financial institutions in-vesting or willing to invest in the blue eco-nomy;

• Maritime clusters.


Blue Invest can be considered a good prac-tice since it gathers “technological ideas hol-ders” and “investors” with the same purpose: to foster innovation. This is a good occasion to create a direct dialogue and the most pragmatic and proactive possible. Blue Invest helps ideas to come out and to be noticed by investors, it’s a good showcase.

Good practiceINTERNATIONAL CLUSTER COLLABORATION (Source website : https://www.clustercollaboration.eu)

The European Strategic Cluster Partnerships have been launched by the European Commission through financial incentives (under COSME programme) to encourage clusters from Europe to in-tensify collaboration across regions and sectors. These EU cluster partnerships are expected to pool resources and knowledge with a view to work concretely together on joint strategies. The objective is to undertake actions in the common interest of their SME members. The ultimate goal of this action is to boost economic growth and competitiveness in Europe. The European Strategic Cluster Partnerships are labelled by the European Commission, DG Growth following specific COSME Calls.

The European Cluster Collaboration Platform is a service facility aiming to provide cluster orga-nisations with modern tools.

These tools help :

• make efficient use of networking instru-ments (search/find potential partners and opportunities);

• develop collaboration trans-nationally (within Europe) and internationally (beyond Europe);

• support the emergence of new value chains through cross-sectorial cooperation;

• access the latest quality information on clus-ter development;

• improve their performance and increase their – as well as their members’ - competitiveness.

The services include :

• a dynamic mapping of over 1,000 profiled cluster organisations worldwide;

• the largest information hub for clusters offe-ring latest news/events/open calls to a broad community via the ECCP Weekly Digest;

• matchmaking events supporting the deve-lopment of cooperation between clusters in Europe and beyond;

• a database on regional, national, internatio-nal and sectoral cluster networks;

• a partner search facility, where cluster or-ganisations can exchange their offers and demands;

• dedicated pages supporting international cooperation including profiles of selected countries of strategic interest and related European international support services.

Being at the service of cluster organisations, with a unique offer of facilities and tools to create a favourable environment for collabo-ration to emerge and develop, ECCP aims to become the leading European hub for inter-national cluster cooperation, building cluster bridges between Europe and the world.


The International Cluster Collaboration Plat-form is a really useful tool fostering Cluster Internationalisation through cooperation on common topics and purposes. Clusters of different European Regions can then share ac-tivities and initiatives and feel part of a com-munity. Best practices and experiences are shared, fostering also innovation.


Good practiceFAIRS AND EXHIBITIONS

Internationalisation is a key topic for companies and those who export are generally stronger and more stable that those who do not: they grow faster, have more employees and innovate more. Economic actors, in particular SMEs, must be aware of the advantages and chances of export success as it constitutes a strategic issue for maritime industries notably.

In the context of maritime industries, there are many fairs where companies can exhibit or just visit to start or complete their conquest of the international market. Among those, CLIPPER partners were particularly interested in the following :

NaviGate 2020

NaviGate is an international fair for professio-nals, organised at the Turku Fair and Congress Centre (Finland). The last event in May 2018 brought together around 200 companies showcasing their expertise. The exhibition attracted 1,271 visitors and in total almost 2,500 professionals met face to face.

The Finnish maritime industry is founded on world-class expertise and innovations. The event is an important meeting place that of-fers participants the opportunity to network and create new contacts and reinforce existing ones. The programme features themes that are currently the industry’s hottest topics. In the fair halls and conference rooms, NaviGate introduces visitors to, amongst other things, cruise ship building, Arctic know-how, mari-time logistics and new and renewable sources of energy.

Euronaval

Organised under the joint patronage of the French Ministry of Defence and Secretariat of State for the Sea, Euronaval is one of the most important events in the naval and maritime industry calendar. Euronaval has traditionally covered missions ranging from naval sove-reignty to state actions at sea and maritime

safety and security; including the enforce-ment of public order at sea, marine, maritime and fisheries policing and maritime and coas-tal surveillance. Euronaval is also a leading event for naval drone (UXV) manufacturers and satellite applications, including commu-nications, navigation, weather, defence and security.

Sea Future

SEAFUTURE is one of the most prestigious events – exhibition & business convention – in the naval, shipbuilding and maritime sector with the unique feature of dual use, both in the civil and military sectors.

SEAFUTURE is the HUB able to create bu-siness connections, synergies among national and international big players, SMEs, universi-ties and research institutes, innovative start-up, technology clusters, marine and maritime technology clusters, Italian Navy, foreign na-vies and institutional stakeholders.

SEAFUTURE fosters international partnerships both for R&D Projects and Bu-siness. During the exhibition, several semi-nars and training sessions are held, as well as B2B among companies and navies from all over the world. They exchange technology, experiences and know how.


FINNISH MARITIME AND OFFSHORE PROGRAMME (Turku)


Marine industry has become one of the most internationalised and global business branches in the Finnish economy. The Maritime and Offshore from Finland programme was intended for Finnish companies operating in the field of shipbuilding, offshore and various marine tech-nologies and construction. It was a Finpro growth programme supported by the Ministry of Employment and Economy and implemented in cooperation with other Finnish actors.

The objectives of this programme for businesses were : • The development of internationalisation competences; • To favour networking and collaboration between companies;• Find out shipyards and vessel types suitable for Finnish supply on target markets; • Marketing and visibility;• To take part in shipbuilding and offshore fairs worldwide.

FOR WHOM ?

This programme was designed for system suppliers, engineering companies, subcontrac-tors of shipyards, leading Finnish shipyards, all export companies in the marine branch, de-sign companies, SMEs and big companies. The main point in the programme is that companies together have easier access to international market areas; since their services and products complete each other, they can propose a com-prehensive joint offer.

In the beginning of the programme the empha-sis was on offshore technology industry and the new business potential in Norway and Rus-sia. Due to the oil price raise and some political issues, the programme eventually focused on traditional maritime markets later.

FOR WHICH PROJECT ?

The programme provides more visibility for Finnish marine industry expertise and ac-quires industry investments in Finland. It pro-motes internationalisation, environment, mar-kets abroad, labour force in Finland, transfer of information, etc.

This programme was the first nation-wide programme which encouraged maritime com-panies to participate actively in global confe-rences and trade fairs (e.g. fact finding, inter-national training programmes, visits, expert exchange programmes).

There were six major target markets in the programme: Germany, Norway, Russia, France, USA and China and other target markets were: Japan, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Singapore, the Netherlands, South Africa.


Supporting the companies to take part in in-ternational trade fairs, matchmaking events and high-level business events.

Through this programme, Finpro created the conditions for companies to analyse the op-portunities of internationalisation in their own strategic process in different business areas and markets.

INFORMATION AND CONTACT PROGRAM DIRECTOR ULLA LAINIO [email protected]

INTERNATIONAL PROMOTION AND MARKET DIVERSIFICATION PROGRAMMES (Asturies)


To support Asturian companies wishing to increase their exports or diversify the tar-get markets for their products and services, IDEPA (the Asturian Development Agency) created a specific Call to regulate the subsi-dies allocation. Three different programmes were funded through this Call:

• PINT Programme - International projects of international promotion;

• COOPERA Programme - International pro-motion projects in cooperation;

• TCEX Programme - Hiring specialised tech-nicians in foreign trade.

These programmes give companies the op-portunity to explore new markets that is an effective way to increase competitiveness. Depending on the specific programme, com-panies also have the opportunity to work in cooperation with other companies. As a re-sult, new business opportunities may arise from the experience.

FOR WHOM ?

The target audience of this grant are the companies, with at least one operating unit located in Asturias. They must have an in-terest in participating in international pro-motion projects with the goal of increasing their exportations or diversifying markets for products and services.

Self-employed entrepreneurs, big companies, small and medium enterprises, can obtain these grants. Different levels of aids are allo-cated for each type of beneficiary.

FOR WHICH PROJECT ?

The projects must be technically, economi-cally and financially feasible, being coherent with the profile of activity, trajectory and ca-pacity of the applicant, as well as with the qualitative and quantitative objectives that may arise.

• PINT Programme: external promotion ac-tions carried out by the applicant compa-nies on an individual basis in order to in-crease their exports and / or differentiate their markets;

• COOPERA Programme: external promotion actions carried out in cooperation between several companies in order to increase the exports of all the participants;

• TCEX Programme: full-time contract of a technician specialised in foreign trade.

Each of these programmes has its own rules for both access and funding and companies can access more than one in the same period.


Grants are allocated to internalisation projects depending on the programme.

The minimum amount for a project to be eli-gible is set in each Call and cannot be less than 2,000 euros. The grant covers up to 50% of eligible costs with a €30,000 maximum (PINT and COOPERA Programmes). Through the TCEX Programme, SMEs can benefit from a grant up 50% of eligible costs with €15,000 maximum (40% for big companies).

INFORMATION AND CONTACTInstituto de Desarrollo Económico del Principado de Asturias IDEPA Parque Tecnológico de Asturias. 33428 Llanera Tel. : 985 98 00 20 Email : [email protected] / www.idepa.es


VOUCHER FOR INTERNATIONALISATION


SMEs need to enter new markets to increase their income, know-how and technology to be more competitive. To do so, this voucher supports the internationalisation processes of the beneficiaries, through market analysis and research activities, identification and acquisition of new customers, legal, organisational, contractual and fiscal assistance and transfer of spe-cialised skills in the field of business internationalisation.

FOR WHOM ?

This tool is design for SMEs wishing to export and internationalise.

FOR WHICH PROJECT ?

The intervention consists of a non-repayable contribution in the form of vouchers, in fa-vour of all SMEs that intend to look at markets abroad through a specialised figure capable of studying, designing and managing processes and programs on foreign markets. In particular, the voucher targets the following action :

• Support for internationalisation process starting;

• Identification of new customers and sup-pliers;

• Widening of the internationalisation process;

• Starting of the Internationalisation Process;

• Personnel training with new specific skills;

• Increased capacity to detect funding oppor-tunities for internationalisation and relevant access modes;

• Increase of foreign customer numbers and the number of markets for export;

• Increase of the income and profit margin de-riving from the international market.


The Temporary Export Manager (TEM) is fi-nanced through this voucher to provide the beneficiary company with studies, to design and manage process and programmes on fo-reign markets, by giving his expert advice.

Two types of benefits:

Early stage voucher: 10,000 euros for a ser-vice contract of at least 13,000 euros net of VAT.

Advanced stage voucher: 15,000 euros for a service contract of at least 25,000 euros net of VAT.

Funds cover from 6 months to 1 year of TEM activities for each beneficiary SME

INFORMATION AND CONTACT Ministero Dello Sviluppo EconomicoDirezione Genreale Per Le Politiche Di Internazionalizzazione E La Promozione Degli ScambiEmail : [email protected]

VOLUNTEERS FOR INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE (VIE)


The VIE system is a national system that has existed since 2000. The dedicated regional financial support, known as «VIE Pays de la Loire», was approved by the Regional Council on 16 December 2005 via a partnership agree-ment with Pays de la Loire Chamber of Com-merce and Industry. It aimed at promoting the use of VIE in order to reinforce the presence of Pays de la Loire companies in foreign markets.

The VIE aims at enabling companies to ac-quire the dedicated human resources that are lacking for a large number of SMEs.

The VIE is a national system managed by Bu-siness France that allows French companies to entrust a young person up to 28 years with a mission abroad often with strong commercial responsibilities: marketing, identification of customers or partners, support for an agent, setting up partnership contracts, first steps that could end with a sales contract, etc.

Prior to the development of a commercial network in a foreign country, the use of a VIE makes it possible to test the market at a lower cost and over a defined period.

FOR WHOM ?

Companies can benefit from a VIE if their in-dustrial production site or qualified services to industrial production in Pays de la Loire employs:

• Less than 20 employees;

• Less than 250 employees whose activity is part of a sector of excellence of the region (maritime industry for instance);

• Between 250 and 1,000 employees, whose activity is part of a sector of excellence of the territory and whose Head Office is in Pays de la Loire.

The 2019 regional support aims at financing the implementation of 60 commercial VIEs.

FOR WHICH PROJECT ?

Eligible VIE missions must be commercial or technical sales support and contribute to the launch of a new product or an existing product launch on a new market abroad.

The use of the national VIE system meets a si-gnificant need identified by Business France. It is a pivot companies’ export structuring in that it allows either to sustain the business flow in the target countries, or to lay the foundations of a subsidiary establishment abroad. It is a secure and flexible HR solution, which makes it pos-sible to benefit from fiscal measures and finan-cial aid (possible integration into a BPI France prospecting insurance).

The VIE Pays de la Loire is the only regional sys-tem that allows to finance 100% of the benefits of VIE the first year of its establishment. It is a strong marker of enterprises’ internationalisa-tion programme of the Region


The amount of the fixed allowances (exclu-ding taxes) of the VIE is fixed by Business France according to the countries of assign-ment of the VIE. The amount of regional sup-port covers all (100%) of these allowances for a maximum of 12 months.

Budget: 1.5 million euros in 2019

INFORMATION AND CONTACT CCI International des Pays de la Loire :+33 2 40 44 61 96 www.international.paysdelaloire.cci.fr


ERASMUS FOR ENTREPRENEURS


The Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs Programme, launched in 2008 by the European Commis-sion, contributes to improving their know-how and fosters cross-border transfers of knowledge and experience between entrepreneurs. New entrepreneurs gather and exchange knowledge and business ideas with an experienced entrepreneur, with whom they stay and collaborate for a period of 1 to 6 months. The stay is partly financed by the European Commission.

The specific objectives of the programme are:

• On-the-job-training for new entrepreneurs in SMEs elsewhere in the EU in order to facilitate a successful start and development of their business ideas;

• Exchanges of experience and information between entrepreneurs on obstacles and challenges to starting up and developing their businesses;

• To enhance market access and identification of potential partners for new and established businesses in other EU countries;

• Networking by building on knowledge and experience from other European countries.

FOR WHOM ?

Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs helps provi-de aspiring European entrepreneurs with the skills necessary to start and/or successfully run a small business spending time in an en-terprise in another EU country. It is dedicated to SME executives.

FOR WHICH PROJECT ?

The exchange of experience takes place du-ring a stay of the new entrepreneur on the premises of an experienced entrepreneur. This experienced entrepreneur helps the new entrepreneur to acquire the skills nee-ded to run a small firm. The host benefits from fresh perspectives on his/her business and gets the opportunity to cooperate with foreign partners or learn about new markets.


Total budget for the period 2017-2020 is 8,860,000 euros (about €20,000 in the period 2008–2020). The programme started in 2008 and it has been scheduled up to now, to finish in 2020. It will be refunded in the new funding programme.

Monthly reimbursement for each entrepreneur ranges between 530 and 1,100 euros depen-ding on the hosting country.

Usually the organisation of an exchange lasts 9-10 months.

Step 1: The Contact point is contacted by the New Entrepreneur;

Step 2: The Local Contact Point helps the New Entrepreneur to prepare his business plan;

Step 3: The 6 months matching is organised.

INFORMATION AND CONTACT https://www.erasmus-entrepreneurs.eu/ (programme website)

ERASMUS FOR CLUSTERS


The objective of this policy instrument is to strengthen cluster management excellence and facili-tate exchanges and strategic partnering between clusters. The Erasmus for Clusters Pilot Mobility Scheme is a measure that helps to enhance collaboration, networking and learning for cluster or-ganisations and their members, notably SMEs. The aim is to help them to explore and take up new solutions and develop strategic plans for a better cooperation at European and international level.

The programme aims to foster SME competitiveness and assist companies to successfully access global markets by exploiting the innovation and growth potential that clusters can offer.

This measure expects to raise the competitiveness of European clusters and to contribute to the implementation of smart specialisation strategies in the regions. It also aims to boost innovation in European value chains

FOR WHOM ?

The participation in the Erasmus for Cluster Pilot Mobility Scheme is open to all cluster orga-nisations, technology centres and SMEs that are active in an EU cluster – beyond the direct beneficiaries. Priority may be given to cluster organisations, where a reversed mobility is fore-seen, i.e. where visiting cluster organisations also become a host.

FOR WHICH PROJECT ?

This action supports the development of inter-regional sectoral and cross-sec-toral cluster cooperation projects and partnerships across Europe. It fosters cluster excellence capacity building, pro-fessionalisation of specialised and cus-tomised SME support, and strengthens ties between European ecosystems. It al-lows cluster organisations to undertake, amongst others, the following tasks:

• Enhancing cluster managers’ skills towards added-value SME support services;

• Supporting the development of a com-prehensive cluster strategy for individual clusters, including activities to strengthen interregional collaboration and partnership development across EU value chains;

• Organising twinning, collaboration, networ-king and learning activities and cooperation projects. The activities can cover efforts to boost internationalisation, market research, technology/knowledge transfer and pro-mote SME’s uptake of innovation, creativity and resource-efficient solutions. It can thus include, for instance workshops, study trips and training and education activities for cluster organisations teaming up in Euro-pean cluster partnerships and for technolo-gy centres and SMEs of their cluster;

• Supporting the implementation of the Erasmus for Clusters pilot mobility scheme (mandatory) that shall cover promotion, recruitment, matching and follow-up of short-term visits or exchanges as well as payment of the lump sum contribution to participants



This scheme offers the possibility for partici-pants to spend a minimum of three working days and up to a maximum of a month in a cluster.

75% of cluster partnerships and manage-ment costs are funded by the programme as well as 100% for financial support to third parties (i.e. visiting cluster managers, representatives of technology centres and SMEs active in clusters) participating in the Erasmus for Clusters mobility pilot scheme, with an overall total maximum rate of co-fi-nancing of 90%. Max: 1,100€ per participant (for a month).

INFORMATION AND CONTACT https://www.clustercollaboration.eu/tags/erasmus-clusters

ENTERPRISE EUROPE NETWORK (EEN)


The Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) is a key instrument in the EU’s strategy to boost growth and jobs, helping companies to innovate and to growth internationally.

EEN is the world’s largest support network for SMEs with international ambitions. Co-funded by the European Union’s COSME and Horizon 2020 programmes, the Network’s aim is to help businesses innovate and grow internationally.

FOR WHOM ?

Main beneficiaries are SMEs which need to enter new markets to increase their income, know-how and technology in order to be more competitive.

FOR WHICH PROJECT ?

The Enterprise Europe Network offers three broad ranges of services to SMEs: • International partnerships;• Advice for international growth;• Support for business innovation


Total funding of over 2.3 billion euros (period 2014-2020).

EEN is funded in the COSME framework, the EU Programme for Competitiveness of Enter-prises and SMEs. The network includes more than 600 offices in more than 60 countries with 3,000 local experts.

EEN doesn’t finance SMEs, it only provides services. For funding SMEs can apply for other COSME EU Programme Calls and instruments

INFORMATION AND CONTACT https://een.ec.europa.eu/ (programme website)

https://een.ec.europa.eu/about/branches (website to find local contact points)


NEW : INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE (tool developed with the serious game)


Strategic alliances are an effective way for a business to build a secondary market or to test a collaborative partnership with another company. Finding the right ally requires finding a company that shares a common vision and mission, or that otherwise buys into a company’s core values. A global strategic alliance works well for core business expansion and utilising existing geographic markets, an acquisition works better for immediate penetration to new geographic territories.

Some specific advantages of a global strategic alliance are :

• Get instant market access, or at least speed up your entry into a new market;• Exploit new opportunities to strengthen the position in a market where a company already

has a foothold;• Increase sales; • Gain new skills and technologies;• Develop new products at a profit; • Share fixed costs and resources;• Enlarge distribution channels;• Broaden business and political contact base;• Gain greater knowledge of international customs and culture;• Enhance image in the world marketplace.

FOR WHOM ?

Many companies make conscious decisions to form partnerships with complementary or even competing companies that can offer them market share in countries they have been struggling to break into for years. By using their complementary strengths and expertise, these potential competitors thus ensure their mutual survival in the new glo-bal mobile ecosystem and marketplace.

FOR WHICH PROJECT ?

A global strategic alliance is usually establi-shed when a company wishes to edge into a related business or new geographic market. Alliances are typically formed between two or more corporations, each based in their home country, for a specified period of time. Their purpose is to share in the ownership of a

newly formed venture and maximise competi-tive advantages in their combined territories.


Funds are private and of the companies in-volved. The cost of a global strategic alliance is usually shared equitably among the cor-porations involved and is generally the least expensive way for all concerned to form a partnership.

EXAMPLE OF STRATEGIC ALLIANCES IN THE MARITIME INDUSTRYCKYH and Evergreen Marine (CKYHE):

CKYHE, formed in April 2014, was set up to rival and/or compete with the likes of P3 Network Alliance (Maersk, Mediterranean Shipping and CMA CGM) as well as the G6 alliance (Orient Overseas Container Line, NYK, Hapag-Lloyd, Hyundia Merchant Marine, MOL and APL) and to exploit services for their vessels on the trade routes of North Europe, Asia and the Mediter-ranean. The CKYH alliance of COSCO, K-Line, Yang Ming and Hanjin, incorporating Evergreen Marine line under its fold is believed to be able to jointly control the greater share of the Asian market. The general belief was that this alliance would be near impossible and forecasters foresaw a short-lived alliance in the eventuality. But contrary to expectations, the alliance remains quite successful and one theory is that managers took time to carry out a strategic and organisational fit assessment; they were able to find common grounds, assign roles and responsibilities (set ground rules) and identify potential areas of failure; the other was that all the partners were of similar cultural background which made it seamless to work effectively together.


NEW: COACHING FOR INTERNATIONALISATION


The primary objective is to develop the in-ternationalisation of maritime technology companies by:

• Making better use of national and interna-tional funding opportunities for RDI. This can be achieved by development organi-sations, including the determined develop-ment of the internationalisation capacity of centres of excellence and clusters and the promotion of networking both nationally and internationally;

• Creating and developing new innovation and development environments, including participating organisations (technology centres, etc.);

• Providing, organising and creating the conditions for companies to analyse the op-portunities of internationalisation in their own strategic process in different business areas and markets;

• Promoting the internationalisation of mari-time clusters operating environment, mar-kets abroad, labour force, transfer of infor-mation, etc.;

• Participating actively in global conferences and trade fairs (e.g. fact-finding, interna-tional training programmes, visits, expert exchange programmes).

FOR WHOM ?

The project should involve SMEs dealing with maritime technologies and pursuing the aim to enter new international markets to in-crease their possibilities.

FOR WHICH PROJECT ?

• Develop and integrate national maritime clusters into European clusters;

• Investigate and understand the technologi-cal and production capacities for improving the maritime sector development processes and foster knowledge commercialisation;

• Establish an innovative ICT-based tool to transfer technology and business knowledge to give public authorities, public research organisations and industry a place to meet and coordinate their actions and de-velop innovative solutions;

• Implement an international competence building programme to gain the necessary knowledge and establish business coopera-tion.

Expected outcomes

• Companies have created business and clus-ter-specific internationalisation strategies;

• Companies have access to international networks, and they have understanding of international business concepts (contacts, meetings, common business concepts);

• Companies are active in international pro-jects and information exchange;

• Permanent operating models created for the operating environment at national level;

• Personnel are coached for an international and changing environment.


EU and National Funds


DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES TO INCREASE SMEs AWARNESS

Growing also means overcoming one’s own horizons, to look at markets beyond the national border. Outside our country there are great opportunities for SMEs to deve-lop and cultivate their business. This does not mean moving abroad or relocating but opening up to internationalisation.

What does it mean ?

Building clusters, business networks and creating partnerships with companies already located abroad can foster process innovation, local settlement and business support. At the same time, opening up the export market makes it possible to reach new areas of the world that are potentially interested in the product. To support the production of a particular country is necessary for SMEs to export their skills to the outside by looking at emerging markets with appropriate strategies of commercial expansion without distorting values and competitive assets. SMEs will therefore be called upon to solve a series of problems, such as :

• Guarantee a direct supervision. Localise offices and sales network in a strategic way within the market they want to cover, to satisfy customers in other parts of the world;

• Adapt the product to the new market. This does not mean distorting the product or the core business, but going to meet new potential targets, adapting the offer and the dedicated communication, to the specific demand;

• Maintain their identity. The value of SMEs is contained in their history, made of sacrifice, dedication and innovation. A story to be preserved and communicated - with suitable tools - even in new markets;

• Promote the production of a particular country. Exporting the «company model” abroad, with products, services and organisational systems, influencing foreign mar-kets through the protection of the territory.


Within a context that is still too fragmented, there are still only a few SMEs facing international markets. In Italy, for example, according to Unioncamere, although more than 70,000 companies have products and strategies suitable to cross national bor-ders; the majority has not yet made this decision.

CLIPPER partners’ recommendation is therefore that institutions should consider dissemination initiatives to increase SMEs awareness towards the importance of internationalisation.


INTERNATIONALISATION CONTACT POINTS

It is estimated that there are many companies whose products and business strate-gies would be ready to cross national borders. However, these companies have not yet decided to take the path of internationalisation.

In some countries, internationalisation contact points have been set up, but many companies still do not know them. The potential services are excellent, as are infor-mation platforms, containing data and advice.

The internationalisation contact points are a necessary innovation to encourage the establishment and growth of SMEs abroad. The service should guarantee, through a team of experts, answers to the companies’ questions, develop economic plans, pro-vide them with documents and certifications.

These are some of the services already active :

• Certification services for foreign countries : information on regulations and pro-visions pertaining to the documents needed to export, international conventions, certificates, visas and all documents for foreign countries, as well as the issue of certificates / documents necessary for the company;

• First orientation : on countries and markets, economic sectors, international regu-lations, analysis on export propensity, market trends;

• Information on assistance : on formalities to open an import-export company, phases of an international commercial operation, information on the principles of international marketing, analysis on the exportability of products;

• Specialised assistance : on certification, customs, tax and insurance procedures; international regulations; dissemination of programmes and calendars; incorporation of companies abroad, international contracts; international and community funding.


Our recommendation for policymakers would be to foster a greater capillarity of inter-nationalisation contact points, allowing them to be able to carry out massive commu-nication campaigns, as well as to put into action even training actions, maybe through ERDF and ESF dedicated funds.


RISK SHARING

AXE 4

AXE 4 PARTAGE DU RISQUE 76 – CLIPPER

Good practiceMAPPING THE LOCAL FINANCING PLACE

CONTEXT

Companies wishing to grow more than incrementally usually require external sources of funds if they cannot be internally generated. This is particularly the case if funds are required for innovation or for market development. Since the financial crash, this has been particularly difficult for SMEs, especially if they lack asset backing or a long track record. The public sector has recognised the need to support this type of activity to support economic growth. The private sector has also seen a proliferation of activity seeking to participate in commercial opportunity through the emergence of angel investors and crowd platforms. For SMEs, which tend to be time and resources constrained, it is firstly difficult to find these funds which are also dynamic and often only available for a limited time.

OBJECTIVES

Since SMEs often have limited resources (time, HR, network), guidance through this confu-sing financial landscape is of enormous value as it can reduce time in finding the right source of funds and then can be useful to support the application for funds to increase the success rate.

EXAMPLE

There are so many sources of funds that all have their own characteristics and eligibility crite-ria that, subject to financial standing, there is almost always a match. This illustration shows investment sources for clean tech in Scotland ranging from individual private investors to in-ternational private Equity and global corporations.


In the framework of CLIPPER, some partners partially mapped their investment funds offer, or other financing tools. This work enabled the partners to identify potential gaps or overloaded offers that may make the funding opportunity unclear for non-expert SMEs. This mapping work is a good way to develop a user-centred approach to SME funding and thus better allo-cate resources and communication.

CLIPPER – 77

AXE 4 RISK SHARING AXE 4 RISK SHARING78 – CLIPPER CLIPPER – 79

Good practiceANONYMISED DATA - SPARTA

CONTEXTE

As offshore wind developed, NAREC, the UK New and Renewable Energy Centre, was set up in Blyth in the North East of England in 2002. It developed first of their kind facilities to test Turbine blades, foundations, and other elements involved in making offshore wind turbines. Offshore turbines are considerably more complex, being much larger and having to operate in a much more hostile environment for longer periods of time with lower maintenance, and much costlier than onshore turbines. As these new structures were innovative the financing cost was high with a risk premium of up to 30% being asked for by investors. Competing com-panies were secretive about the performance of their own products which meant that sector data for the whole sector was not available.

NAREC established a scheme with manufacturers to permit limited, anonymised data to be available to the insurance industry whose underwriters were then better able to price the risk which, over time, with more data available, reduced the cost of capital and accelerated the rate of offshore wind developments. This has now evolved under ORE- Catapult (see separate note) to an industry scheme where extensive information on key componentry is gathered and shared with the industry as SPARTA (System Performance, Availability and Re-liability Trend Analysis).

OBJECTIVE

SPARTA provides data that leads to improvements in the availability, reliability and perfor-mance of offshore wind assets, which will drive efficiency improvements, cost reduction, sector innovation, investment and development. This enables participating owner/operators to identify operational improvements and cost reduction opportunities at both company and sector-wide levels.

APPLICATIONS

This shared data originally applied to wind farms offshore the UK, but it has contributed to technical innovations in offshore wind turbine technology that is now being applied across the globe and is an example of Data Driven Innovation.

In 2014, NAREC merged with the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult. As part of Catapult, it now focusses on helping to de-risk the development and commercialisation of offshore re-newable energy.


In the early stages of the development of technologies such as Marine Renewable Energies, there is often a reluctance to share information due to commercial sensitivity. The lack of infor-mation does not allow funders to develop a true perspective as their view of risk depends on the data to which they have access. By creating a means to share data anonymously investors gain a view over the whole sector and can more easily define the risk profile and improve ease of access to finance.

The recommendation is that other countries should contribute data to this pool. With more transparency on risk the whole sector could more easily secure funding.

INFORMATION AND CONTACT

https://ore.catapult.org.uk/stories/sparta/


BUSINESS LOAN SCOTLAND


Following the financial crisis in 2008, the availability of finance for SME lending was seriously curtailed: a Scottish regional data survey in 2014 showed net negative £1,740 million bank lending to SMEs in Scotland. A market failure exists because banks’ decision to lend is based on collateral and track record, rather than the economic viability of the business. This means some businesses with viable business propositions that lack a track record or collateral are prevented from raising the finance they require to grow. Research has estimated that there are around 4,500 “financially viable” SMEs that faced problems when trying to access bank financing. This is equivalent to a financing gap of £470 million. Business Loans Scotland as a Scotland-wide loan fund would sit the above market failure and act alongside other financial instruments such as Scottish Investment Bank.

The aim is to ensure that good, commercially viable proposals from SMEs do not fail from a lack of access to finance. Additionally, it aims to encourage and support the creation, development and growth of businesses, supporting the potential for expansion of trade both within and outside Scotland.

FOR WHOM ?

Business Loan Scotland supports the following :

• Limited companies;

• Partnerships including Limited Liabi-lity Partnerships (LLP’s) with 4 or more partners;

• Partnerships including Limited Liabi-lity Partnerships (LLP’s) with 3 or fewer partners (loans over £25,000 only);

• Sole Traders (loans over £25,000 only);

• Businesses may operate as a Social Enter-prise or Co-operative.

Additionally, applicant businesses should demonstrate that they have explored all available funding options including personal funds and borrowings, bank funding (inclu-ding factoring and asset finance) and the potential for equity from venture capitalists.

FOR WHICH PROJECT ?

Loans may be used for :

• Working capital;• Purchase of plant and equipment;• Purchase of business property.


Business Loan Scotland allows SMEs to borrow from £25,000 up to £100,000. For loans up to £50,000, these are typically un-secured requiring no personal guarantees. However, guarantees or security against default are required.

The interest rate is fixed at 6% with an up to 5 years’ repayment period, and there are no additional fees or charges. The applica-tion is online, and the applicant receives a decision in 2 weeks.

On-going support, advice and training from Business Gateway and local authority eco-nomic development teams, are also avai-lable to applicants along with the support from dedicated loan fund officers.

INFORMATION AND CONTACT Business Loan Scotland London Road Centre – London Road, Kilmarnock, KA3 7BUhttps://www.bls.scot/our-loan

CO-INVESTMENT FUND (SCOTTISH INVESTMENT BANK)


Many companies, especially those with high technology content, require many funding rounds before achieving full viability. As most young companies have been invested in by private indivi-duals or small specialist funds, as companies grow and require increasingly large funding rounds this results in decreasing liquidity and a “Funding Gap”.

Innovative SMEs and many academic spinouts in Scotland are mainly funded by syndicates of angel investors. It is usual that multiple rounds are required and, as funds are from private indivi-duals, the tendency is to minimise the size of each funding round to mitigate risk.

The aim of this co-investment fund is to work with private sector partners to increase capacity and capability in the venture capital market in order to increase the supply of early stage equity funding going to Scottish based SMEs having high growth potential.

FOR WHOM ?

The main focus is on young and growing SMEs who are facing the challenges of the “Funding Gap”. These companies tend to have identified willing investors but are still some way short of the investment they need to fully achieve their potential. The scheme also aimed to demonstrate that in-vestment in these types of company could be successful and hence attract in more venture capital.

FOR WHICH PROJECT ?

Investment can be made in companies from start-up, early-stage to expanding bu-sinesses seeking to develop products and/or markets..


Scottish Co-Investment Fund invests through the Scottish Investment Banks alongside and on the same terms as one or more of 29 ac-credited private sector investment partners. The Scottish Co-investment Fund can contri-bute from £10,000 to £1.5m on a £ for £ ba-sis in investments with partners with a total value of up to £10m and with the Scottish Investment Bank contribution not exceeding 50% of the deal value.

Agreement was reached with the EU that ERDF funds could match investment which was put forward by an approved and reco-gnised angel syndicate. These syndicates, unlike other investment funds take a hands-on approach to investment and are fully res-ponsible for the investment decision as it is their own money at risk.

INFORMATION AND CONTACT www.scottish-enterprise.com/support-for-businesses/fun-ding-and-grants/accessing-fi-nance-and-attracting-investment/scottish-co-investment-fund


SCHLESWIG HOLSTEIN SME FUND


For SMEs, it is quite difficult to get access to financial markets. Private equity holding companies primarily invest in larger compa-nies with high credit ratings. Furthermore, they concentrate their activities on compa-ratively higher investment volumes than pu-blic providers. In the case small of financial investments, the transaction costs for these companies are too high. In addition, private equity holding companies tend to avoid re-gions that are seen as peripheral and struc-turally weak.

This SME fund provides economic equity ca-pital for SMEs. This enables SMEs to improve the company rating at banks and leads to better conditions at the capital market. Thus, the initial situation for the acquisition of bor-rowed capital can be improved

FOR WHOM ?

The investment fund aims to strengthen the local economy by improving access capital for SMEs especially innovative SMEs with growth potential who are constrained by poor access to capital. The focus is on enter-prises with 5-100 employees. The company should have at least a sufficient credit rating. Companies in difficulty are excluded.

FOR WHICH PROJECT ?

The investment fund is designed to support:

• Business expansion and consolidation (this also implies the application of new products or processes in the operational production process.);

• Company establishment and growth;

• Company succession and restructuring.

The allocation of equity capital is linked to the economic viability of a financing concept presented by the enterprise. In the context of case-by-case reviews, economic criteria are taken into account, of course, but aspects like the superordinate objectives (e.g.: contribu-ting to the regional innovation strategy of the country) are also taken into consideration.


The overall budget of the investment funds for SMEs is approximately €43M (2014-2020).

The average amount of the investment is €200k to €300k. In exceptional cases, in-vestments of up to €1M are also possible.

This fund is organised in cooperation between the Land (state) Schleswig-Hols-tein, the IB.SH (Development Bank of Schleswig-Holstein) and the MBG SH (Medium-sized holding company Schleswig-Holstein Ltd) as a private partner.

ERDF-capital covers 50 % of the total bud-get. The other part is equally distributed between the IB.SH and the MBG SH.

INFORMATION AND CONTACT https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/regional-innovation-monitor/sup-port-measure/investment-fund-sme-schleswig-holstein

LIGURCAPITAL


LIGURCAPITAL was founded in 1989, with mixed public/private capital, for the purpose of taking equity investments in companies located in the Liguria Region, through the use of its own funds and European funds entrusted by the Liguria Region.

Especially, since 2016, it manages a venture capital financial instrument to support the growth and development of Ligurian small and medium enterprises.

FOR WHOM ?

LIGURCAPITAL is a venture capital firm spe-cialising in seed/start-up, early venture and growth capital financing to small and me-dium-sized enterprises located in the region of Liguria (Northern Italy.

FOR WHICH PROJECT ?

The firm prefers to invest in companies deve-loping a new product or process and new en-vironmental technologies. It generally takes a minority equity stake and exits its invest-ments after five years, through sale to the management or to another company.

LIGURCAPITAL takes temporary and minority stakes in Ligurian SMEs to contribute to the implementation of development and com-pany consolidation programmes that involve the introduction of process innovations, pro-ducts or new technologies for environmental protection.


The minimum investment threshold of the public resources of the instrument is 50,000 euros for each beneficiary company. Each in-vestment of the fund must be matched by the joint investment of one or more independent private investors, for an amount equal to at least 50% of the risk financing granted to the company (60% for SMEs which need an initial investment for risk financing that is more than 50% of their average annual turnover over the last five years).

LIGURCAPITAL intervenes using mainly Euro-pean funds from Liguria Region which current-ly manages three Risk Capital funds.

In the course of its activity, LIGURCAPITAL car-ried out over 300 interventions, including ven-ture capital and equity loans, investing over 45 million resources (rotation rate of about 1.8), contributing to the realisation of investments for over 100 million euros in the territory.

INFORMATION AND CONTACT https://www.ligurcapital.it/


PAYS DE LA LOIRE GARANTIE


The informational asymmetry between ban-kers and companies, and between the cha-racteristics of certain development phases, makes it necessary for funding institutions to seek security for those loans considered as the most high-risk: of all the financial ins-truments available, guarantees provide the most effective lever for convincing banks to accept risk.

The goal of this fund is to facilitate access to bank credits through a guarantee that can reach up to 70% (35% through the National Investment Bank (BPI) and 35% through the Region).

In addition to traditional questions of bu-siness creation, transmission or takeover, or development, it can be mobilised to gua-rantee financial structure reinforcement ope-rations for VSEs and SMEs, and to facilitate SMEs’ collective offers to tenders from their principals. It allows sharing the risk with the banks and thus limits the personal gua-rantees of the project holders.

FOR WHOM ?

Pays de la Loire Garantie can benefit SMEs and VSEs (meeting the European definition) in any sector, excluding financial interme-diation activities, promotional activities and real estate rentals (except real estate lin-ked to an enterprise development project), agricultural activities achieving less than 750,000 euros turnover.

FOR WHICH PROJECT ?

Pays de la Loire Garantie can be mobilised in the context of:

• Business creation; • Business transfer; • Acquisition and development of new equip-

ment; • International development of companies; • To strengthen the financial structure and

the cash position of the companies; • To support innovation.


The Region funds the Pays de la Loire Garan-tie Fund and has entrusted the management to BPI.

The guarantee is requested by the bank direc-tly to BPI, which decides whether or not to mo-bilise the Pays de la Loire Garantie Fund accor-ding to the level of coverage requested by the bank. In that case, BPI requests the Region’s agreement to mobilise the Pays de la Loire Ga-rantie fund.

The following financial aid may be eligible for guarantee:

• Long-term and medium-term loans (including treasury-enhancing loans), including personal loans to executives for equity and develop-ment contracts;

• Property and equipment leasing, leasebacks, financial leases, excluding simple leases;

• Bank guarantees linked to a vendor-credit.

The guarantee covers all development stages of the company.

INFORMATION AND CONTACT https://www.interregeurope.eu/policylearning/good-practices/item/2725/pays-de-la-loire-garantie/

NEW : INSURANCE TO MANAGE RISK IN MARITIME INNOVATION (Tool developed with the serious game)


Innovation, by definition, will always be risky. Eventually the areas of risks will emerge in the early stages of commercialisation. However, reaching this stage requires investors, and they will want to know the level of risk they are accepting.

With digitisation and increasingly sophisticated simulation there are an increasing number of means by which an innovation can be assessed either virtually or by process analysis to identify, segment and evaluate where risk lies. By clarifying and mitigating or eliminating risk elements, a project can become more investible.

Classification societies can work with professional risk assessors in the insurance industry to price risk and provide cover for investors to insure against specific risk in a project. This can then thus reduce the cost of capital by reducing the “risk” premium and make an innovation more investible.

FOR WHOM ?

Classification societies were originally set up to determine the potential seaworthiness of a vessel for insurers. This skill and experience set has now become a means to support the development of innovative Offshore Renewable Energies by integrating data sources as part of Industry 4.0. If this is complemented by an advanced simulation facility, then an innovative offshore device can achieve not only a risk and insurance rating, but it can also benefit in its design stage from the experience of agencies. The largest Classification societies are DNV-GL, Lloyd’s Register, Bureau Veritas and the American Bureau of Shipping.

FOR WHICH PROJECT ?

In offshore renewables, several technologies are emerging that might benefit from the stan-dards approach to mitigate risk and improve insurability for investors. For example, wave and tidal devices and floating offshore wind platforms are not yet seen as “proven” technologies, however many elements are already known and there is a large amount of data accumulated at the European Marine Energy Centre and by the ORE Catapult at its testing centres.

In addition, componentry can be identified which has a demonstrated reliability profile. Dry testing and accelerated life trials can develop further data that can feedback into design optimisation.



Public Authorities should certainly finance test sites that help new technologies into the mar-ketplace and through effective demonstration can reduce perceived risk. Where public funds have supported test sites there should be an agreement to share data to help reduce finan-cing costs by reducing risk perception. In addition, new technologies often incorporate com-ponents or systems that have been proven in other applications. A systems approach to the assessment of innovation would help to narrow down areas of significant risk. The adoption of a standard approach to maritime risk in connection to Blue Growth could improve the success rate of new ventures.

For example, public support has come from EU and UK national sources for EMEC and for ORE Catapult. When data is made more widely available, risk can be better quantified. In addition, as digitisation is at the heart of Industry 4.0, the role of a simulator to aggregate multiple data sources and to effectively communicate the interaction will be of increasing value. St Andrews University is planning a small-scale simulator on its Eden Campus in Fife as part of their Innovation hub.



Combining the principle of co-investment with modern technology platform funds creates an access mechanism which is less bureaucratic and faster and therefore more liable to be taken up by SMEs. To illustrate market failure, the amount of ERDF monies can be reduced if there is good private sector support; and monies need not be released at all if there is sufficient private sector support, or no private sector sup-port. It is noted however, that raising funds through these is not easy and requires a campaign that includes active engagement with social media and is not appropriate for all companies.

Examples demonstrate that public funds can be made available along the full spec-trum of grants (see Crowdfund Angus Community grant with EMFF) though guarantee to loan (Lending Crowd with Scottish Investment Bank) and equity (Seedrs). In addi-tion, these platforms can raise funds Europe-wide for both investors and companies (e.g.: UK, Portugal and Netherlands companies raising money on Seedrs).

The policy recommendation is therefore to make ERDF funds available through a sui-table platform to make them more effective in reaching the strategic aims and deliver them more efficiently alongside the private sector.

ERDF SHARING IN INNOVATIVE FINANCE

ISSUE AT STAKE

There are numerous ways in which ERDF funds have attempted to provide support for SME growth or innovation. Most require financial support to be matched, at least to a degree, by private sector input. In order to match strategic objectives “funds” have been established with specific remits. Over time this has led to a very cluttered fun-ding map as they can be set up by local, regional, or national bodies. In addition, the funds must pass a market failure test to demonstrate that private funds are not avai-lable. In practice this has created a cluttered landscape that is not easy for SMEs to access and tends to be bureaucratic and time consuming and thus avoided by SMEs.

It is well established that smaller, younger SMEs without assets or the ability to pro-vide guarantees find it difficult to raise funds, either equity or debt for growth. Es-pecially if they are innovative or entering new markets and may be perceived as “too risky”. It is however precisely these types of companies that can potentially contri-bute the most to economic growth and adjustment. Equally, there is a growing inte-rest related to the growth of social media and Dragon’s Den for individuals to invest in young companies. This has been significantly due to reality television programmes, such as Dragon’s Den in the UK, where innovators have been seen pitching their ideas to actual investors and following their successes, and failures.

ERDF compatibility

Situations that are difficult to fund include early stage without track record, new products and new markets and other intangibles such as research and marketing expenditure in-vestment. All these are permitted use of ERDF funds, so the issue is not the availability of funds but improving access to these funds for appropriate SMEs.

Crowdfunding opportunities and co-investment

In the private sector, Crowd Funds have emerged to help hard to fund projects such as those for community benefit and for micro-businesses. The original premise was that a small amount from many investors could allow these projects to be funded. The positive side effect is that very sophisticated alternative financial platforms have evolved with the power of technology to become more efficient and, through forms of artificial intel-ligence, help match company projects with the right investors be it private or public. The concept of co-investment was developed in Scotland. Through an auditable process it is not necessary to follow an individual approval for each application. As long as the intro-ducing angel syndicate or fund is approved and has a valid set of criteria then the funds provide by ERDF are automatically released.


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