What is Open Innovation?

What are the objectives of InfoPro?

InfoPro

Open innovation is a paradigm that assumes that firms can and should use external ideas as well as internal ideas, and internal and external paths to market, as the firms look to advance their technology Henry Chesbrough Open innovation is the practice of looking beyond the four walls of your company - to suppliers, universities, producers of complementary products and services, and other firms - to identify and capitalize on new opportunities for innovation. It's the hottest trend in innovation today. Open Innovation is not about but about

Targets information processing needs of innovaargets tion networks and innovation stakeholders; stakeholders

ims Aims at reinforcing the impact of the information and data shared and exchanged by means of transfer of best methods and tools; tools

nhances Enhance the ability of the participating networks to support their members innovating in a more effective and open way.

The overall goals of InfoPro: goal Initiat nitiation of an intensive exchange of experiences within the participating networks; networks Dissemination of best practices to external innovaissemination tion stakeholders; stakeholders Fostering open innovation and competitiveness by ostering an adequate access to relevant know-how; Support for the establishment of collaborations to upport market innovations.

open access to own technologies outsourced R&D technology only

strategic IPR management strategic R&D both technology and business model commercial innovation win-win partnership core product development process innovation ecosystem building improving R&D Return on Investment

OPEN INFORMATION PROCESSING WITHIN INNOVATION NETWORKS NEWSLETTER #1

technical invention appropriating value new ventures partnerships only cutting research costs

What are the actions planned?

The benefits of Open Innovation especially for SMEs

Open Innovation allows many people from different disciplines to tackle the same problem simultaneously instead of sequentially and in less time. Anyone can participate with collaborative technology and OI training. Most small companies are underfunded; therefore they have to be creative in their resource allocation. For them, open innovation can mean collaborative work with other small companies, developing 'industry partner' relationships to jointly develop new products or services that may be small in volume but profitable. What are the benefits of innovating together with others for small companies? SMEs can (and they should) open their own innovation processes to implement internal ideas otherwise unexplored to ensure access to external ideas to enable better utilization of hidden innovation potential to share the benefits of and efficiency in resource allocation (e.g. per unit cost accounting basis) to extend their potential for growth via mergers and/or attraction of funding as larger companies offer ample opportunities Mehrfachverwendung for them to access otherwise far too expensive revorhandener 3D-Daten: sources/knowledge etc. Synergien nutzen

2nd InfoPro Project Meeting & Dissemination Event, 18th Oct 2011
The second InfoPro project group meeting and dissemination event took place in Lodz, Poland and was hosted by the Research and Innovation Centre Pro-Akademia (Second InfoPro meeting agenda). At first all project group members were transferred to Technopark of Lodz . The partners got the chance to get familiar with the researches that are carried out in the Medical Implant Laboratory. Thanks to the kind help of MD. Marcin Elgalal they could also see how cutting edge technology 3D printers are used to create medical implants. In this part of the meeting participants of InfoPro Project also discussed the current state of the research, problems and possible solutions. After the first part of the meeting the partners got the opportunity to take a short tour around Lodz. They saw how the city is currently being modernized and renovated.

The four project partners have agreed on a common strategy to ensure a proper implementation of the project. Regional surveys and reports will present available and utilized methods for information processing within networks. SWOT analyses of the different partner networks concerning information processing. Identification of best practises among the partners networks. Presentation and transfer of results via specific brochures and seminars (open to all interested parties, especially regional cluster organisations and innovation networks; provide for recommendations for innovation partners in Europe.

How can a sustainable project implementation and partnership be ensured? The partners will establish an informal network of networks and a database for sustainable information sharing. This network will serve as a forum for exchange of experiences, contribute to the further development of best practices, and support the cooperation between the regional networks.

Industrie-Workshop am VDC Fellbach

2nd InfoPro Project Meeting & Dissemination Event, 18th Oct 2011
The second part of the meeting took place in the Marshalls office of Lodz region. It was opened by a presentation of Mr. Janusz Baranowski, who presented potentials of investments in Lodz Region. Following his presentation Mr. Marcin Dudojc introduced the idea of Open Innovation, how it is perceived and how companies can benefit from its principles (InfoPro ProAka.01). Subsequently Mr. Stanislaw Aleksandrow described how Bioenergy for the Region Cluster contributes to the idea of Open Innovation (Bioenergy for the region Cluster.01). The last three presentations were held by the guest partners who described their profiles and activities. Mr. Michael Gradwohl from Virtual Dimension Center Fellbach depicted how virtual reality and technology can be used to improve commercial planning and modeling (Presentation_VDC). Ms. Eszter Halsz from Hungary showed how ZALA county Foundation is supporting development of small and medium enterprises (Introducing ZMVA 2011_IRIS.01). Last but not least presentation was held by Mr. Oscar Tomico and Ms. Yuan Lu from Technical University of Eindhoven from Department of Industrial Design. They familiarized the audience with new ideas and solutions that they are working on in their department (InfoPro TUe.01). This part of the meeting was concluded with a discussion regarding different aspects of Open Innovation.

Upcoming Events in 2012

Consortium

The next InfoPro Event will take place in April 2012 in Zala County, Hungary Project Team and Steering Group Meeting, Dissemination Event, and 1st Transfer Seminar.

Lead Partner VirCE- Competence Center for Virtual Reality and cooperative Engineering (Virtual Dimension Center Fellbach) www.vdc-fellbach.de

Further Transfer Seminars will take place at the following dates and locations: June 2012 July 2012 2nd Transfer Seminar in Lodz 3rd Transfer Seminar in Stuttgart Region

Participant No. 2 Association (Pro-Akad) www.proakademia.eu of Economic Consultants Pro-Akademia

September 2012 4th Transfer Seminar in Eindhoven The Transfer Seminars in each of the participating regions are dedicated and open to all regional cluster organisations and innovation networks. The aim of the seminars is to introduce and share the best practices in the field of information processing to other parties. These best practices were identified based on a survey among members of regional innovation networks, delivering complex data on effectiveness, quality, relevance, sustainability as well as cross-compliance of information processing methods.

Participant No. 3 Zala County Foundation for Enterprise Promotion (ZMVA) West-Pannon, www.zmva.hu

Participant No. 4 Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE), Department Design http://www.tue.nl/universiteit/kolom2/faculteiten/industrial-design/ of Industrial