Transcript Smartlink Ltd.

Business needs to be
informed on innovation.
But how to do it?
Andrzej Szoszkiewicz
Smartlink Ltd.
Regions for Economic Change
Brussels, 7 March 2007
SMARTLINK: What we do
• Information and publishing:
- Internet:
Funduszeonline.pl – the most comprehensive
Polish database on funding,
Winnova.pl – expertise and innovation portal
GUIDE – the grants resource for Europe,
Open 4 Business – sources of funding for
SMEs on local and regional portals
- Print:
books
magazines
folders promoting projects and programmes
• Research
• Advising regional and local governments
A picture of a Polish company
• 1.8 mln enterprises, out of the total number of 3.4 mln
registered companies, are in fact conducting their
business activity. In comparison to 1990 the number of
SMEs increased by almost 330%
• Majority of enterprises (95%) are micro-enterprises
(fewer than 10 employees)
• The average size of Polish SMEs is smaller than in the
EU, employing about 3.3 people
• Low profitability: the gross profitability index was at
the level of 1% in 2001.
• Polish SMEs operate mainly on local markets: only
about 14 thousand of firms are involved in exports.
R&D expenditures
The innovative capacity of the economy can be
estimated on the basis of the R&D
expenditures in relation to GDP. In 1999 it was
0.9% to drop down to the level of 0.56% in
2004.
In terms of the R&D expenditures per capita
Poland amounted to 64.2 USD (as per the
purchasing power parity), much less than EU
average being 418.2 USD.
Business needs to be informed on
innovation. But how to do it?
• Speak the same language – employ
business journalists
• Be reliable
• Be comprehensive
• Be regional with European ambitions
• Use different media
• Promote networking
Winnova.pl – new attitude
WIELKOPOLSKA FOR INNOVATION
www.winnova.pl
The project is being realised within the framework of
IROP Measure 2.6 and co-financed by the European
Social Fund and Polish public funds.
It is implemented through co-operation and
partnership of Smartlink Ltd. and the Adam
Mickiewicz University Foundation – Poznań Science
and Technology Park.
It is the biggest information project on innovation in
Poland comprising online and printed information and
conferences.
Winnova.pl
1. Comprehensive: the project comprises all
relevant information and data bases related to
innovation, knowledge and technology transfer, best
practices and project financing.
2. Up to date: the project will not stop with the
establishing of the portal alone, but will continue to
be updated and expanded on a continuous basis.
3. Maintaining contact with users on a regular
basis: alongside the actual content of the portal,
we will use a number of tools to facilitate direct
contact with users. These include newsletters,
alerts, a dedicated forum, a technology fair.
Winnova.pl
4. Modelled on the best in business: the
concept of the project is based on our own
experience as well as European best practices (e.g
Irish-based expertiseireland.com project). Experts
and specialists from abroad contribute their
expertise and assistance drawing upon their own
extensive experience in the field.
5. Effective promotion: it is next to impossible to
expect success without suitable promotional
activities. The project covers a number of ideas to
increase awareness of the portal, both in Poland and
in other countries. In order to achieve this objective
we intend to use the network of Polish diplomatic
and commercial outlets.
Winnova.pl
6. Multilingual: all information will be available in
Polish and English. Selected newsletter issues will also
be translated into other languages.
7. Resource integration: technology used to build the
portal makes it possible to export into the portal either
entire existing data bases or selected sections of data
corpus. This makes it possible to group under one
address the majority of information resources that
would otherwise remain scattered.
Winnova.pl
8. User-friendly: the portal’s layout and functionality is
designed to facilitate the use of all information and
resources contained in the portal. Scheduled
functionality audits will yield precious user feedback to
tailor the portal even further to meet the users’
expectations and requirements.
9. Expert knowledge: when preparing the information
content we enlist the assistance of the leading experts
in the fields of innovation, commercialization of research
results, patents so that they can offer their experts
advice to the portal’s users.
10. Umbrella-nature: we intend to make it the biggest
portal of this type in Poland. It will serve editors of other
portals as the definitive and reliable source of up-todate information.
Thank you for your attention
Andrzej Szoszkiewicz
Smartlink Ltd.
[email protected]