Can regional innovation hubs support EU’s innovation strategy?

September 8, 2022

Research to further develop and test the ERA hub concept

ERA hubs are a spearhead in the European Commission’s strategy to boost regional innovation in the European Research Area. A new research project, led by TU/e, aims to develop and test the ERA Hub concept, based on the vision and success stories developed within the EuroTech Universities Alliance and their R&I ecosystems. The project named COOPERATE is a cooperation with Brainport Development, STAM SRL, IDEA Consult, Technical University of Denmark, Science City Lyngby, and Czech Technical University in Prague. TU/e project members are Marcel Bogers, Arjan Markus and Rianne Valkenburg.

Arenas

The overall approach revolves around co-creation Arenas in which ecosystems and a broader community of quadruple helix actors can interact. The piloting phases of the project’s implementation are expected to test the approach and pave the way for its consolidation and replication phase.

Leverage

The approach follows a mechanism in which leverage is sought to engage a broad range of stakeholders, activate cross-fertilization, facilitate mutual understanding, create intertwining cooperation, and jointly develop innovative ideas for shaping the ERA Hub framework model for further piloting and validation.

Common priorities

The intended ERA Hub model builds on lines of action (e.g. access to knowledge and talents) which gather a set of initiatives/projects to animate the actors and stakeholders and operate the ecosystem around common priorities (i.e. strategic multi-annual roadmap) which reflect the mission-based approach. In this framework the key exploitable results include:

  • the ERA Hub model and associated PLAYBOOK, TOOLBOX and PLATFORM with compliance criteria to develop the ERA Hubs network;
  • the policy recommendations and content from co-creation activities.

About ERA hubs

ERA hubs are a spearhead in the European Commission’s strategy to boost regional innovation in the European Research Area (ERA). Their aim is to help regions play a greater part in the coordination of R&D policies and investments in member states. The ERA Hubs could support organizations – and people – to bring together different stakeholders, join up public and private spheres and break existing silos.