Innovation voucher
About this good practice
Innovation potential ob businesses is present no matter the size but the implementation is limited in the case of small and medium enterprises.
In principle the Innovation voucher is a supporting mechanism that is mainly targeting small and medium enterprises. On one hand it motivates them to cooperate with institutions and specialised businesses for development and protection of their innovation potential. Also there is a direct public financial support for this cooperation that is usually small scale. Innovation vouchers are building a bridge between science, knowledge and implementation.
In practice SMEs financially supported by public funding have the possibility to address and cooperate with different knowledge institutions. In the case of Slovenian Innovation voucher the focus of support was protection of intellectual rights as the final output of the innovation process. The responsible agency published yearly tenders that were open till exhaustion of available funds.
Resources needed
Depends on the available funding, as it is rather micro scale support mechanism.
Evidence of success
In 2011 there were 99 SMEs that applied and benefited from this supporting mechanism.
Potential for learning or transfer
The voucher support mechanism is not something new and it has been adopted in many regions. It is a simple tool that gives SMEs access to knowledge that is usually not available within a single business. The focus of the voucher can be different and can be changed or adopted during time according to the identified needs. Innovation voucher was just one of those available in Slovenia. An important fact is also that the value for money is rather big but at the same time it is also not easy to measure a long term contribution to the national economy.