KT Force - Knowledge as a Value: Regional Implementation Plan

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The KTForce INTERREG IVC project involves, at its core. the benchmarking and investigation of best practices in knowledge transfer policies and practices at regional level. Its ultimate goal is to Improve Europe's innovation environment. The project focuses on three components within Knowledge Transfer (KT) and seeks to assess and benchmark these within an innovation and regional development context. KTForce looks at how university-industry relations can be enhanced, how technology licensing can be improved and the Identification of the optimum conditions for creating spin-outs and increasing entrepreneurial activity. Along with a brief contextualisation of the South East Region of Ireland this booklet gives a concise overview of the overall methodology set up and applied over the course of the KT project. Specifically. this booklet provides a characterisation of the South East Region, the focus (however. most data available is only for the Southern and Eastern region). through a regional SWOT analysis supported by detailed illustration of both scenario 0 and future scenarios. based on the analysis of key innovation performance indicators. In considering both practices and policies relevant to knowledge transfer, at national and regional levels. the process for practice selection and implementation and the analysis used for policy benchmarking are also illustrated. This booklet ends with the main conclusions and some policy recommendations resulting from the analysis and work performed over the course of the KT Force project.