The Danish-German Region’s first innovation price How far can EU-policies reverse peripheral developments? Martin Klatt, PhD. Associate Professor Dept. of Border Region Studies Sønderborg

Starting point:  Peripheral (and border) regions are not innovative  Low level of education  Out-migration of the young, highly educated  Not attractive as area of residence  Lowly diversified, often traditional productive fabric  No “creative class”

Danish-German border until 1864 The Danish-German border region

A growth region?   

The Dybbøl Innovation Price  Conditions:  Strengthen Danish-German cooperation  Demonstrate the potential of cross-border cooperation  Demonstrate the potential for growth in the Danish-German region  Support innovation and entrepreneurship in the Danish-German region The projects/ideas had to be within the six priority areas of the project  Sustainable energy  Health economics and welfare technology  Tourism and leisure economy  Food  Logistics and infrastructure  Cross-disciplinary topic knowledge

Recipients  2 University institutes (University of Applied Sciences)  5 SME’s, start-ups  1 semi-public institution (a vocational training centre)  1 municipality

Method  Contacted the price recipients  Semi-structured interview with 6 of the 9 recipients (the other 3 did not answer)  Issues:  Why in the border region?  How does the border matter?  Are the EU and regional support policies suitable to create innovation  Innovation and the border

About 90 applications, 9 recipients

Universities

Big, international companies

 Start-ups (electronic devices/software)  Two university spin-offs  One industrial R&D spin-off  One Danish SME expanding into the German market (R2R)  Border location:  Clear location factor for R2R  Close to the primary investor in Denmark  Flensburg is the most Danish German city  More situational for the university spin-offs and the industrial spin-off  ”learning from Denmark (e-Health)  Professor born in the border region, Danish minority  Company based there – but closeness to the German market important, too

 Semi-public: vocational IT-training for autistic young people  Border had no relevance at all  Aim is to cooperate with Germans, but so far not really happening  Some trainees had internships with German firms  Tønder Innovation House (public)  No cooperation across the border so far  Intended to have Germans use the facility, too  The municipality has a good network in Germany

Innovation and the border  The border is the ”other”  Othering makes you think differently  The other can inspire

How to use it? Spierings, Bas, and Martin van der Velde Shopping, Borders and Unfamiliarity: Consumer Mobility in Europe. Journal for Economic and Social Geography 99 (4): High rational differences combined with low emotional differences: High innovation potential Low rational differences combined with high emotional differences: Low innovation potential

Unfamiliarity, borders and innovation

Conclusion  Borders as source of innovation work, if:  Opportunities are within the ”Bandwidth of Familiarity”  A certain R&D capacity is in the region (industrial and/or academic)