Building International Liaisons Between Regions

Building International Liaisons Between Regions

Within the context of the European Commission's PAXIS ^[23] (Pilot Action of Excellence on Innovative Start-ups) program, the PANEL (Pyrenean-Alpine Network of Entrepreneurial Liaisons) network links the cities of Barcelona, Milan, and Munich. The three cities are all technology and innovation leaders in their countries . They were selected to work together to foster the start-up of innovative high-tech companies within their respective regions.

The network's operation began in September 2000. For 18 months, the three regions communicated intensively in order to exchange information and knowledge as well as to develop successful initiatives on how to back and create new enterprises . The network expects to benefit from the transnational exchange of experiences, methodologies, and tools for the support of start-ups through, for example, setting up entrepreneurship seminars , contact bases, and various working groups. J ¼rgen Vogel, coordinator of the PANEL network (Pyrenean-Alpine Network of Entrepreneurial Liaisons between Barcelona, Milan, and Munich), explains that linking some of the most innovative regions in Europe is easier said than done.

J ¼rgen Vogel

Linking entrepreneurship in Europe ” The PANEL network within PAXIS

First of all, the regions had to be selected. Approximately 35 European regions applied to the PAXIS (Pilot Action of Excellency on Innovative Start-ups, which is supported by the Commission of the European Communities) program, of which 15 "regions of excellence" were eventually chosen according to strict competitiveness factors and grouped into four networks. The project is conceived to build long- term cooperation between the regions. The first phase is about identifying the potential lines of collaboration in innovative support. Central questions include: What are innovative measures in each of the regions? How can these innovations be applied within another region? Be it an idea, an incentive, or a process, what has been working and what has not? Which information should be made accessibe to and standardized in all regions? As an example, in each of the regions, incubation support mechanisms have been identified and some essential key economic players met to propose to help young companies to successfully launch.

As of October 2001, the PANEL network regions have succeeded in building up a directory of the collaboration potential and of what is inside their network. The next steps are to validate, to benchmark, and to find out what can be exchanged between the PANEL regions and also the other EU network regions, and how this exchange can be organized. For this purpose, it has proved very useful to have some key enablers from the different regions sit together regularly.

After the first year of preparations defining the assets, capabilities, and needs of the regions, PANEL is now beginning to enter into a phase of networking of successful initiatives. There is about $13.5 million of funding available from the Commission, including all four PAXIS networks as well as accompanying projects and measures. Spawned by the impetus of the action, and even though it is too early to judge the final results of this work in progress, the Commission has indicated its ongoing commitment by launching a follow-up program. This time the three PANEL regions of Barcelona, Milan, and Munich submitted a new proposal in collaboration with the city of Dublin.

Benny Ginman, director of governmental and educational affairs EMEA at Intel ^[24] in Munich, believes in the importance of the European Community's efforts to link its regions of excellence. He considers one of the advantages of the European Union as opposed to the United States to be its diversity of cultures, business environments, and approaches to solving business problems. However, to be able to benefit from this diversity, there needs to be a harmony to enable the fluid cooperation between regions. Mr. Ginman explains that in order to ensure its global competitiveness, the EU should not try to become a perfectionist system. Regulations should be limited as they could turn into invisible barriers and inhibit the compatibility between the EU and the U.S. for example.