Entrepreneurship
Theme: Innovation
Cross-cutting themes covered: Knowledge transfer opportunities
Name of project: MATREND
City: Milan
What is it?
MATREND promotes co-operation and knowledge transfer between innovative small and medium-sized enterprises and knowledge centres/universities.
Who is it?
Project partners were from five EU cities, including Milan. Italian partners included ASNM (the North Milan Development Agency), and the Business Innovation Centre La Fucina.
Where is it?
In Milan, the project impacted on the north area of the city, which comprises four municipalities that were affected by the industrial crisis of the 1980s. The area’s last iron-steel factory closed in 1996 and, at that time, the unemployment rate reached 13%.
Who funds it?
How does it work?
Then what happened?
Diagnostic sessions: Once SMEs had been selected for the project, their technological needs were assessed by experts. A profile of each participating company was built up, looking at their market potential, management expertise and future plans for development. Based on this information, SMEs were ‘matched’ with experts from universities and research centres.
Partnerships: These experts visited the companies for a period of one or two days, during which time a profitable exchange of ideas took place. The exchanges were intended to provide a basis for ongoing partnerships between businesses and universities. Indeed, in several cases research centres and universities decided to continue to support the companies, helping them in various research projects. Throughout the duration of the project, SMEs received ongoing mentoring support from project partners.
What are the results?
As a result of the MATREND project, nine technology transfer partnerships were developed, six with the support of public funding and three without. Most partnerships were set up in the IT and mechanical engineering sectors, and concerned both product and process innovation.Is it successful?
The MATREND project was successful in offering real support to participating enterprises, helping them to understand their technological needs and identify suitable solutions, through the support of research centres and universities.
The initial diagnosis session was particularly successful, meaning that SME needs were fully understood by project partners, and that businesses were approached in terms that were relevant to them.
Is the model transferable?
With sufficient financial resources, the whole project model is transferable to other areas – both the initial data collection phase and the practical support given to SMEs. In particular, the diagnosis session was especially useful in ensuring that SME needs were fully understood by project partners, and that businesses were approached in terms that were relevant to them.
The project could work equally well with SMEs in sectors which are not necessarily high-tech, as long as the businesses in question have a clear need for innovation, a will to innovate and the capacity for sustaining the innovation process.
What are the barriers to transferability?
One barrier to transferability could be a lack of a critical mass of SMEs and lack of research centres willing to donate time to the project.
