It Takes More than a Bridge to Make a Region

The Øresund Contracts as Instruments for Cross-Border R&D Cooperation

Isabelle Collins and Erik ArnoldAEA Toronto

October 2005

Background

• The Øresund link connects Denmark and Sweden across the entrance to the Baltic Sea

• After years of environmental opposition, the two governments decided that the opening of the link in 2000 should be celebrated by 10 cross- border cultural events

• The Øresund Contracts were one of these - intended to bring together the innovation systems of the Copenhagen and Skåne regions

Background

Common Innovation Systems perspective on R&D policy

The potential reachof public policies ...

Framework ConditionsFinancial environment; taxation andincentives; propensity to innovation

and entrepreneurship ; mobility ...

Education andResearch System

Professionaleducation and

training

Higher educationand research

Public sectorresearch

Industrial System

Large companies

Mature SMEs

New, technology-based firms

IntermediariesResearchinstitutesBrokers

Consumers (final demand)Producers (intermediate demand)

Demand

Banking,venture capital

IPR andinformation

Innovation andbusiness support

Standards andnorms

Infrastructure

PoliticalSystem

Government

Governance

RTD policies

Policymakers have responded by using more complex measures

Multiple

Single

MultipleSingle

Development measures MAPs and network measures

Activity promotion or subsidy measures

Linkage or ‘bridging’ measures

Measures

Actors

Tackling both market and systems failures

Multiple

Single

MultipleSingle

Intra-organisational learning, capability development and performance improvement

System strengthening• Within actors• Between actors• Reducing bottlenecks

Point or step change in organisational performance

Inter-organisational learning, network development and strengthening

Measures

Actors

Under political pressure to move quickly, policymakers seized on the Danish Centre Contracts model

Centre Contracts Programme Logic

Group of SMEs

identifies a common problem

A GTS* institute offers to

exploit the solution

University and institute do

research to find a generic

solution under a Centre Contract

Problem solved!

Re-exploitable intellectual

capital provides spillovers

New knowledgeUniversity provides research capability

.. and simply added a regional, cross-border dimension, with each project to have a full set of stakeholders on each side of the Øresund

Increased critical mass

and adequacy of regional knowledge

infrastructure

Increased competitiveness of the Öresund economyIncreased integration of the Öresund region

Overall Objectives

Increase innovation in companies

Obtain externalities through re-

use of intellectual

capital

R&D results meeting

company innovation

needs

New intellectual

capital for the research institutes

Increased knowledge

and innovation networking

Newknowledge

Öresund contracts: joint R&D projects

Goals

Results

Activities

We used multiple methods to tackle the evaluation

Telephone survey

Group interviews

Document analysis

Peer review

Instrument portfolio analysis

Initial findings Final report

Stakeholder reference group

Participant perspective • Increased cross-border networking - especially

extending established networks, as the contracts were launched too quickly to establish new ones

• Provided a unique source of cross-border funding

• Allowed networks with clear objectives to make technological progress, largely developing instrumentalities and other ‘intermediate’ research results rather than products or processes

• Rigid rules requiring reciprocity across the Øresund made networks hard to construct and sometimes too big to be inclusive

• No cultural or language obstacles to cross-border cooperation

Instrument perspective • Network innovation instruments have

strong theoretical justification• The cross-border implementation

created unwieldy, inefficient networks• Swedish institutes were barely present

in Skåne, so their participation was difficult

• Universities play different roles in Sweden and Denmark

• Lack of an equivalent to GTS in Sweden meant spillovers were hard to capture

Regional innovation system perspective • Integration of the Copenhagen and Skåne

regions should strengthen both and is an established policy objective in both countries

• The regions share a strong food and pharma focus

• However, there are few cross-border institutions and those that exist are weak

• Regional governance differs strongly between across the sound

• Øresund contracts were ‘parachuted’ in from the national level, bypassing both the regional networks and regional authorities

• The programme clearly caused additional activity - but with only 6 projects and a 3-year horizon, few noticed the splash

Conclusion

mechanism + context = impact (Pawson and Tilly)

A bridge too far?

Contacts

isabelle.collins@technopolis-group.comerik.arnold@technopolis-group.com

www.technopolis-group.com