Nye stier på Agder - VRI programmets Samhandlingsprosjekt på Agder

Project Title: New paths in Agder - Program For Regional R&D and Innovation (VRI) Project Number: 233650 Introduction: The project has been part of The Norwegian Research Council's program "Programme for Regional R&D and innovation" in the period 2014-2016. The VRI program is NRC 10-year main support mechanism for research and innovation in Norwegian regions. VRI Agder Samhandlingsprosjekt has as main objective to contribute to developing sustained cooperation arenas in the grants system in Agder, and strategic knowledge in the counties so Agder`s industry increases its capacity for research-based innovation in and beyond VRI III period. Samhandlingsprosjektet VRI Agder has had four priority areas: ICT, Culture and creative industries, Energy and Technology and Emerging industries. Participants in the consortium are Agderforskning, Teknova, University of Agder, and Innoventus Sør AS. Funding institutions are Aust-Agder and Vest-Agder counties, Sørlandets Kompetansefond, Aust-Agder utviklings- og kompetansefond, Innovation Norway and the Norwegian Research Council. From 2014-2016 110 VRI-projects was initiated. About fifty of these projects are Bedriftsprosjekter, others are DIalog and Mobility. It is established cooperation with almost fifty different R&D environments in the period 2014-2016, a few of these are regional, and 41 are national or international universities and research institutes. The organization and the operational actors in VRI Agder are experienced players in the program. There have been no changes in the composition of the consortium in the period. Gender balance in the organization (steering committee, consortium, project management and competence brokers) have throughout the project period been good respectively; 44% women (2014), 66% (2015) and 56% (2016). The objective of developing sustained cooperation arenas in the grants system and strategic knowledge in the counties: Autumn 2013 VRI Agder took, in cooperation with the two counties, initiative to start working on smart specialization through formal dialogue with the S3 platform, a learning forum was organized in 2014 under VRI Agder regionally. Work on smart specialization was in 2014/2015 connected to the work of the Regional Plan for Innovation and Sustainable Value Creation (VINN-planen), and the region is registered in the EU platform (Ref.: s3platform). The counties have in 2016 initiated an analysis of Smart Specialization of the region. In 2014 the counties ensured knowledge transfer and strategic human resource development through leading VRI Agder Samhandlingsprosjekt. Aust-Agder county saw this as an opportunity to strategically ensure that knowledge came back to the county when their 10-year involvement in VRI-Agder concluded in 2016. As part of this sought Aust-Agder County Council a Public Ph. d project (Offentlig Ph.D) on the theme: Human resource development and service innovation under changing conditions: how can Aust-Agder county meet future challenges such as regional development by learning from VRI? Reflection and the project period summarized: An overriding goal for the Agder region is to contribute to greater innovation in the industry structure. The reason for this is that parts of the regional economy in Agder strengthens primarily where it is already strong. This was also the reason VRI Agder in this latest VRI period established a new priority for Emerging industries. The program should contribute to value creation by offering "low threshold" research assistance to businesses with challenges in product and service areas not covered by the other priority areas. Experiences from "Wild Card" in VRI II showed that starting something new is not necessarily always easy. It has been challenging to start up a new priority, but we have managed to fill up the portfolio with projects we believe is a step in the direction of "renewal". A large part of the projects, cooperate with international research environments. The other priority areas have had good access to projects and have a diverse and exciting portfolio. There have been several cross-over projects and all the competence brokers have contributed to Emerging industries. During the period, several of the companies in the cluster organization USUS developed maturity for collaborative R&D. VRI Agder has worked strategically with this cluster organization aiming to boost the industry's ability to collaborate between industry and R&D.

VRI-satsingen i Agder gjennomføres i samarbeid mellom Aust-Agder og Vest- Agder. Fylkestingene i Aust-Agder og Vest-Agder har vedtatt en felles regionplan; Regionplan Agder 2020 som erstatter tidligere fylkesplaner, og hvor det er satt felles mål for reg ionen frem mot 2020. Agder har vært en region i både VRI 1 og VRI 2 og VRI-programmet har vært med på å styrke samarbeidet om nærings- og innovasjonspolitikk mellom de to fylkeskommunene. Vi foreslår at VRI-programmet på Agder skal bidra til fornyelse (pa th renewal) gjennom mer forskningsbasert innovasjonsaktivitet i de tre innsatsområdene som var med i med i VRI 1 og 2. I de to første periodene bidro VRI Agder til etablering av de tre Arenaprosjektene Eyde, USUS og Digin. VRI 3 vil fortsette med de samme innsatsområdene og med Arena-klyngene, og NCE NODE-klyngen, som målgrupper. Virkemidler skal imidlertid i større grad rettes inn mot små- og mellomstore bedrifter i innsatsområdene, og mobiliserende gjennom å rekruttere virksomheter som ikke tidligere ha r vært engasjert i FoU-arbeid. VRI Agder ønsker å tilrettelegge for path creation ved å etablere et nytt innsatsområde for framvoksende, forskningsbasert næringsliv. VRI 3 vil imidlertid øke innsatsen mot små og mellomstore bedrifter i innsatsområdene. D ette kan være bedrifter som særlig har behov for å øke sin kunnskap i og innsats innenfor forskningsbasert innovasjon De to Agderfylkene har betydelig erfaring med partnerskapsbasert regional FoU-arbeid. VRI 3 er for Aust- og Vest-Agder fylkeskommune en m ulighet til å videreføre, bygge videre på og utvikle det regionale partnerskapet og FoU-samarbeidet. I VRI 3 prosjektet på Agder vil det initieres prosesser som medfører at sentrale elementer fra VRI strategisk integreres i det felles regionplanarbeidet. Aust- og Vest-Agder fylkeskommune ønsker gjennom arbeidet med VRI 3 også å styrke Regionplan Agder 2020 prosessene og organisasjonen i forhold til innovasjonsarbeid og strategi.