IRIS - Improved Results in Innovation Support: transnational exchange and joint development between Innovation Infrastructure Organizations
To maintain and advance Baltic Sea Region (BSR) as a dynamic and prosperous region, where people and businesses can thrive and build a future, collaboration over regional and national borders is essential. National strategies identify incubators as significant actors to support innovation and entrepreneurship as powerful drivers of growth, making economies more competitive.
IRIS aims to develop incubator structures to be global frontrunners, capable to address common BSR challenges. To achieve this, incubators need to cooperate and collectively leverage their management and support capacities. The potential for institutional learning on macroregional level in BSR are excellent based on the proximities in culture and geography. Сurrently structured transnational exchange and learning between incubators are lacking. The common development practice for provided support in incubators can be characterized by “learning by doing”. IRIS main objective is to improve and strengthen management and support capacity in incubator organizations as important Innovation Infrastructures. IRIS will make the target group demonstrate higher management capacity and higher ability to support entrepreneurs, start-ups and SMEs. The improved capacity will lead to more efficient utilization of resources and advancing incubator performance ultimately leading to more surviving start-ups and growing SME’s. This will contribute to the continued development of the BSR as a dynamic, innovative and business driven region.
The IRIS partnership consists of 15 partners, all leading actors in the field of innovation management and business support from all countries of the Baltic rim, including Norway and Russia represented by Foundation Victoria.
Project implementation period: 2017 – 2020.
The contact person: Yulia Kandalova, Project manager, fond@inok.ru.
