Partners of GoSmart BSR project gathered for a meeting to assess the current progress of the project and set the next steps of action in developing well-functioning and sustainable Transnational Innovation Brokerage System (TIBS). This was also the first time when Innovation Brokers of all member states joined the team and gave valuable input in project discussions.
Meeting started with Project leading Partner’s summary of where are we with GoSmart BSR project, specifying what has been done so far and setting the milestones ahead.
Continuing discussions were centered around two Project domains – Transnational Innovation Brokerage System (TIBS) and Transnational Smart Specialisation Strategy (Trans-S3).
Now that Methodology for Trans-S3 has been developed, it is important to work on TIBS methods and structure, which will eventually become the main tool of Trans-S3 implementation for SMEs. Lithuanian Innovation Centre will be organising skill development lectures, practical exercises, discussions and workshops as a capacity building programme for IB in May.
While innovation brokers (IB) will have a key role in TIBS system, identifying main fields of expertise in each region, a clear definition is needed of who the client is going to be. Project partner from Podlaska Regional Development Foundation have developed the first draft of guide and forms that will be used in order to identify potential areas of cooperation between IB and company, and afterwards – for IB to work on cooperation models of matching companies from two different countries.
The main idea of TIBS services is to effectively support internationalisation and innovation of SMEs in all components of the company’s value chain. During the next project period TIBS services are going to be tested with selected companies to determine what further improvements are necessary to advance TIBS and make it sustainable. Wieslaw Urban, Lead Partner representative from Bialystok University of Technology asserted that “with this project we have touched the nerve of EU problem. It is now important to disseminate it and to deliver it to decision-makers in EU institutions.”
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