Toolbox for impact: consortium of life science clusters offers tools to increase efficiency
The subject of impact measurement is of crucial importance for cluster organizations as they continuously aim to enhance their support to their ecosystems with ever more innovative and efficient services. Therefore, the INNAXE’s consortium has recently developed a “Toolbox for Cluster Organisations” allowing them to easily benchmark their regions and monitor the impact of their activities towards their stakeholders.
A consortium coordinated by Biocat, BioRegion of Catalonia, with Medicen Paris Region, BioRN Life Science Cluster Rhine-Neckar, Danish Life Science Cluster, Health & Life Sciences Cluster Bulgaria and Council of European BioRegions as partners formed around the idea of improving themselves and developed tools to achieve that within the European project INNAXE (see Box).
With the aim to identify activities that give a real added value to the ecosystem in mind, the consortium developed a toolbox for clusters to both benchmark their region (to find out what is working in the region and what is not) and to evaluate the impact of their activities (to find out which activities are actually useful in their particular setting).
“This toolbox is freely available and empowers all Life Science and Healthcare clusters that are interested – regardless of their background – to run the most useful, the most impactful activities matching their circumstances”, says Friedemann Loos, Project Manager at BioRN
To transfer this rather academic exercise into real life and generate real benefit, the most effective activities that specifically benefit from an international scope are now being implemented by the consortium in a five-year plan. This plan was initially validated and optimized by means of surveys, interviews and foresight workshops with a diverse set of stakeholders from the participating clusters.
The result is a well-balanced mix of activities, for instance:
- Support to attend international conferences, e.g. by pooling existing partnership agreements with conference organizers to offer more and bigger discounts to stakeholders
- Facilitation of matchmaking between innovators and investors, e.g. by proactively involving startups and investors from all partner regions
- Improving access to health data, e.g. by supporting local ecosystems in the harmonization process between EU, national, and regional level
- Building international communities, e.g. by joint appearances and shared spaces at major conferences
These and the other activities from the plan are inherently linked to the strategies of the partner clusters ensuring their continuous commitment. Like this they will benefit the regional ecosystems, and through its international component close existing knowledge gaps in Europe.
INNAXE (Inclusive & aligned INNovation Agendas across Europe) is a project funded by the European Union. It is coordinated by Biocat (Catalonia, Spain) and run with the partners Medicen (Paris region, France), BioRN (Rhine-Main-Neckar region, Germany), Health & Life Science Cluster Bulgaria, Danish Life Science Cluster, and the Council of European Bioregions. It has a budget of about Euro 500,000 and runs for two years from July 2022 to June 2024.
Contact:
Friedemann Loos
Innovation Manager
BioRN Network e.V.
Email: fl@biorn.org
