90% Of all companies in the Austrian region Styria are SMEs. Innovative actions are mainly implemented by major enterprises. INNOVITAL was developed to broaden the innovative basis.

The manual guides SMEs through the process of developing an idea and its assessment, carrying out feasibility studies to evaluate the results and choosing the necessary steps to be taken when finding new or better products.

Based on this modular concept, SMEs should be able to carry out product identification and evaluation processes by themselves. The innovation manual was prepared by the project management team (comprised of academics and researchers) together with representatives of SMEs..

The project has been designed in three phases:

The innovation manual was the main outcome of the project. Within 90 pages, the most important aspects of innovation management and, moreover, appropriate tools and methods for a successful and structured innovation process are described and explained.

Special attention was paid to writing the manual in a very practical and easily understandable way and to ensuring that the tools and methods described in the manual were appropriate and sufficient for small and medium sized enterprises. The manual will now be disseminated among a much wider audience than the companies that took part in the pilot project.

Total budget: 180,735 euros

This practice was presented at the Fourth Best Practice Conference New Horizons in Graz, Austria on 15 November 2006. The conference aimed at promoting exchange of experience and dissemination of best practice between authorities involved in the implementation on EU Structural Funds Programmes in Europe. It was destined to contribute to improving quality of implementation of Structural Funds on the basis of project presentations and visits.

Graz University of Technology
Stefan Vorbach (Project manager)

01/01/2002

case

Urban Policy > Economy knowledge & employment > Urban economy

Business support