1. Mission statement: The Innovating Regions in Europe want to create a policy consulting community of practice in the field of regional innovation policy based on the involvement of regional governmental practitioners and their partners. From opening roads and opening minds to connecting minds IRE draft Businessplan input

2. The need for a new momentum Traditional RIS life cycle is about to end, so build on the experiences, to create a kind of mature stage of policy making in Europe To have access to others experience and knowledge and to use this efficiently and effectively To observe trends and developments in the area relevant to innovation policy making To learn what works and what does not in policy and innovation support schemes, To maintain valuable contacts to the committed people - quality partners for collaboration and create a kind of policy consulting community of practice To facilitate the visibility of their own regions, as active, successful and experienced in innovation policy, To be close to the policy making on European level, for both being able to contribute or influence as well as being up to date to the developments and trends, Lobbying and fostering dialogue with EU administration, alert system on EU policies To be able to solve the regional problems (with the programmes support, others experience or practical collaboration) To build on secured RIS experiences To organise an action oriented movement Most important now: to mobilise the available experiences and know how in Europe to solve and overcome problems and realise opportunities Motivation to revitalise IRE Community

3. Preconditions for the IRE Community Community – existence of true working and impact oriented community meaning: impact/output (measurable) of the community Right people as members (serious, committed, person oriented rather than only representatives of ) Capitalise personnel know-how and experiences, make this assessable Well prepared organisational and legal structure through Eurada link with maintaining kind of independency. Own-profile Global vision (vision that takes into account the global settings) No geographical limits to information exchange Reliability of delivering output/content. Self correcting mechanism Prestige - of renown personalities on the board and/or connected to qualified organisations and institutions (EC, EURADA, OECD and others) Quality of activities. Unique and added value, not more of the same No red tape, community serves its own interests mainly Efficient and effective because money is limited

4. Topics: (potentional topics to deal with within the next 5 years) * Innovation policy advice + policy recommendations Studies and trends, identification + summarize, study screening on demand + request, organise workshops + (on the other hand) Input for Innovation Scoreboard and Innovation Trend chart, + link to European observatory Identification for policy intervention, based on request, e.g. economic situation now, actual needs, individual challenges (topic related) good practice cases, discussed and evaluated by experts and members. Classification actions for policy intervention, project, theme and programme- related. Cooperation methodologies/ experiences with other regional stakeholders (EURADA members for instance) Discuss new concepts like functional regions, relation (regional) govenments implementation organisations. Impact assessment, measurable targets, how to assess these interventions Ex-ante and ex-post, organise communication on needs, experiences and methodology, (workshops), policy circle experiences exchange, including impact assessment, evaluation IMPACT programme (measuring, results methodology). Pilot project impact measuring with selected regions (3-5 schemes).

5. *Operational policy tools and activities Expert/practitioner database Ris approach, trend analysis, system analysis, future intelligence, foresight approach (long term strategies), experiences top-down-bottom-up, tool development, identification of services according to regions needs, methodology for mobilising key regional players, partner search for projects, Good practice cases both topic/category related (for instance healthcare, technology, materials), pre-defined criteria, organise access to and commitment of experts that are willing to share their knowledge, identify transferability criteria/conditions, schemes for tailor made services

6. Core business: 1.Access and share knowledge in the field of innovation 2.Community based exchange of experience in different ways (peers based) 3.Nursery and matchmaking for transnational activities including EU projects 4.Lobby group to different policy levels including awareness raising politicians 5.Joint problem solving and opportunity taking 6. Knowledge capitalisation and doing things together In general: Use the available knowledge and experiences in Europe to increase the efficiency and effectiveness in the field of regional innovation policy

7. Organisation Starting point: The decision that IRE Community will operate under the umbrella of the Eurada administration but with an own identity and independency Eurada acts as the legal organisation on behalf of IRE Community Existing Steering Group remains intact in 2009 and acts as governing board of IRE Community and gets a representation (Chairman IRE Steering Group) in the Eurada Board as from May 2009. In January 2010, the IRE Steering group establishes a new Steering Group/ Governing Board based on members in 2009/2010 and elects a new Chairperson. Suggestion: members Steering group 50% representatives governmental organisations, 50% others stakeholders. Important: members in Steering Group; directly involved practitioners not for instance (mainly) Brussels –offices representatives.

8. Synergies: *EURADA (investigate synergies and build on that) *Other networks and their activities (Regions for economic change and others) AER (discussed with AER to open discussion after May regarding the way of cooperation), ERRIN etc. *EC (Enterprise + Industry, Regio, Research, InfoSoc,) *Cie. of the regions *OECD-Leed partnership *National governments and regional stakeholders

9. IRE Community Unique selling points: *(long) History *Collective memory *Size, number members at present *Willingness to do something together instead of only come together *Connection to/cooperation with EURADA *Direct regional government representatives/practitioners *Willingness financial contribution Who can be members? Priority topic is regional innovation policy, meaning that regional authorities are important members.Typical questions to deal with are for instance: The role of regions related to internationalisation The role of regions in contributing the solving of the financial crises How to deal with/how to build functional or metropolitan regions How to prepare for the period after 2013 related to innovation How to measure the impact of policy programmes, programmes and tools What is the relation of regional innovation policy and national innovation policy How to solve problems in border regions etc. How to define roles of stakeholders related to innovation processes, RDAs, consultants etc. How useful is the new EGTC instrument for innovation policy implementation How to build effective implementation organisations

10. Because of the fact that we deal with complex questions, know how from different sites is needed. Therefore IRE Community membership is open to every organisation that can give a proper contribution to this discussion for instance: Universities, RDAs, Consultants etc. Membership fees The membership fee will be Euro 2500 per year. For those organisations that cannot afford this, there is a possibility to contribute in kind. Members can use this possibility only once ( 1 year) and will commit themselves to fulfil a well defined specific task spending 5-7 day. There will be a maximum per year (3-5) of regions that can use this in kind contribution. The membership fees are used to cover the IRE community expenses. Besides, the community members will help, support and consult each other directly. For this it is reasonable to design a kind of consultancy structure including a reasonable fee or compensation system. The organisation will design a possible operational model for this but will not take over the accounting system. Partners themselves have to organise this. The organisation will give support in terms of partner search etc. Basis element: organisations/regions that contribute to Others will be compensated in one or another way.

11. Finaly in key words: Keep it simple Keep it effective Keep it personal Steering Group IRE, 2 March 2009