Report from visit to SIEA, Bratislava, March 13, 2014 May 23, 2014
1 Recommendation to the Board, Executive summary The MPG and the EWG recommends to the Board to invite the Slovak Innovation and Energy Agency (SIEA) to be a member of Taftie. Though their activities may not be in the core of Taftie, they have sound experience in the implementation of structural funds for innovation and they are (and will be even more after consolidation of the ongoing merger processes) the one agency on the national level that is relevant for Taftie. There are plans to increase funding activities for RTDI by the responsible Ministry; if this happens it will be implemented by SIEA. SIEA has good track record in international cooperation in the field of energy; they are eager to participate in the Taftie network. The visit was carried out by Wolfgang Gessner (VDI/VDE-it) and Sabine Mayer (FFG) March 13, 2014, in Bratislava. The visitors were received by the following persons from SIEA. Svetlana Gavarová, managing director, Miroslav Balog, Director Innovation Dept., Eduard Jambor, Communication Dept., Michal Fiala, Structural Funds Implementation and Project Monitoring. and further members of the staff They jointly presented SIEA according to the structure of questions for the visit that had been communicated in advance. They emphasized their maturity as an organization, their experience regarding implementation of structural funds in the field of innovation and R&D and their experience in being part of several international networks in the field of Energy due to the fact that SIEA s forerunner was the Czechoslovak State Energy Inspection, as of 1993 the Slovak Energy Inspection / Energy Agency. SIEA seems to be eager to join the Taftie network and to participate actively. They mentioned as their possible contribution to Taftie links to agencies in post Soviet Union countries, analytical capacity and being a gateway for dissemination / contacts to stakeholders. Vice versa, they expect from Taftie access to information and are willing to provide their own information and experiences openly. They expect to benefit from Taftie by establishing links to the member agencies that might result also in bilateral cooperation, joint funding or joint projects etc. What SIEA itself did not mention, but can be relevant for other Taftie members is their experience in implementing structural funds for innovation and R&D.
Agency Management of RDI Funding programmes (no of programmes) Structural funds for innovation; 2 national level programmes Size (No of staff; desired: > 20) 159 Budget managed ( /a, desired: > 30M) 95 Mio / a Budget sources Structural funds; to a low extent funds from Federal Ministry of Economy SME client base (no of SME clients pa, desired: > 1.500 in current 1000) contracts Maturity: years in operation (desired > 2 years) as SIEA since 2007 Country GDP 52 bio (75% of EU 27) in 2011 GERD as a share of GDP (%) 0,68% GERD publicly financed as a share of GDP (%) 50% of GERD, i.e. 0,34% of GDP 2 Indispensable criteria 1. National coverage (or full coverage in autonomous regions in federative countries if there are no agencies at national level) SIEA is an agency at national level. It has 3 regional offices. 2. EU 28 + FP7 Associated Countries Yes 3. Implementing R&D or innovation (RDI) funding programmes for SME SIEA is divided in three divisions, with the division for innovation closely linked to the division for implementation of structural funds.
Management of structural funds is targeted at 5 fields (see below), two of which (and partly the third energy efficiency) relate to innovation. Implementing the structural funds in the Slovak republic, SIEA processed around 5.700 proposals, 1.400 contracts, leading to 640 implemented projects since 2007. Structure of target groups? In addition SIEA developed two new instruments funded by the Federal Ministry of Economics: Innovation voucher: two programme lines, addressing SMEs, budget for 2014: 240.000 EUR Cluster strategies: development of new strategies for clusters, target group: cluster management organisations, Budget for 2014: 150.000 EUR (test phase, SIEA expects 3-4 cluster initiatives to be funded) As a third instrument SIEA manages an award for the innovative action of the year high mobilization effect with low budget (4.000 EUR award, 200 companies applied).
4. Public organisation (either independent body being a public organisation or being integrated in a ministry) or private organisation with public funding/mission SIEA is owned and governed by the Federal Ministry of Economics. National initiatives are carried out and financed by the ministry; programmes developed for the implementation of EU structural funds have to be approved by the Ministry. 3 Weighted Criteria 5. Centrality of position in National Innovation System 6. Track record in Innovation policies (on the basis of evaluation reports etc.) 7. Size and maturity of the organisation 4 8. Ability and willingness to invest and contribute to the Taftie network 9. Absence of conflict of interest with existing members 10. Financial liability (budget managed) 5 Total points 25 1-5 points (1 = very weak, 5 = very strong) 4 3 4 5 National Innovation System GERD and BERD in a European comparison are comparatively low. Currently GDP amounts to 75% of EUR 28, but started with 50% 10 years ago. Bratislava region GDP is above average of EU. GERD is currently 0,68% of GDP, national goal is 1,2 %. There are 371 entities carrying out R&D as a business (does not include companies doing R&D for their own purposes). The analysis of the NIS carried out to define priorities for the Smart Specialization Strategy showed that the structure of the economy and the structure of the scientific fields are not compatible. This challenge has to be addressed in the future: how to commercialize research results without a suitable critical mass of companies? How to change the mind sets of the scientists? How to support academic spin offs? How to foster science industry links that could be beneficial for both sides? SIEA sees its role on the one hand as a provider of analytical capacity (e.g. carrying out studies and evaluations), on the other hand as a change agent / funding agency.
Currently SIEA is one of several agencies acting on behalf of the Ministry of Economics. However, it is the only organisation in Slovakia active in programme management in the sense of Taftie. Others are e.g. the Agency for Development of investment and trade and the National Agency for Development of SMEs. The Slovak government decided to merge the existing agencies that are governed by one ministry. Since the beginning of 2014, the merger process started, SIEA will be the core of the newly to be established Technology agency. However, the National Agency for Development of SMEs will be merged into the new Slovak Business Agency SBA. SBA is an organization owned by Mistry of Economy only b one third. It supports entrepreneurship in general, e.g. unemployed persons to become self-employed. SIEA is fully public organization under total responsibility of the Ministry of Economy. Concerning the activities: there is consensus between both agencies (SIEA and SBA) at the level of new Operational Programme. SBA will deal with the general business related support, like mentoring, support of new companies etc. SIEA has taken over the activities of the former National Agency for Development of SMEs that would have been relevant for Taftie. Only SIEA will support R&D&I activities in the companies. Also SIEA will be the agency to implement international RDI programmes. First contacts are already established in this regard with TA CR. The same is to expected for all agencies governed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Science (e.g. Scientific Grant Agency, Research and Development Agency) Regarding Research funding, currently national funding is provided for basic research / research carried out by Universities, Academy of Sciences by the Agency for Research and Development. On the other end of the spectrum are the funding schemes provided by SIEA: innovation voucher, cluster strategies, and innovation-related funding from EU structural funds. There are no programmes in between. The Ministry of Economics plans to allocate more funds to applied research in the future, implemented by SIEA / the future Technology Agency respectively. SIEA currently also tries to establish its analytical competencies by carrying out expert studies such as technology foresight, evaluation of innovation policy, analysis of emerging sectors, study on creative industries etc. SIEA s Energy department was created as advisory body for the efficient use of energy to address public entities and companies, currently they prepare offer consultation for people in towns and villages we will come to the people (seminars, individual consultations). The unit offers energy audits, monitoring implementation of energy efficiency measures in public buildings, education and training for energy experts. It participates in several European networks and FP 7 projects. Track record of SIEA It is difficult to establish empirical evidence on SIEA s track record through evaluations since there seem to be no evaluations in this field at all. SIEA itself
tries to carry out evaluation studies regarding RTDI policies and their implementation. Size and Maturity 1989, the forerunner of SIEA started as being a part of the Slovak Agency Energy Inspection, which turned 1998 into the Slovak Energy Agency. Since 2007, SIEA is existing, having incorporated the activities and the staff of the Slovak Energy Agency. Hence, there are experts with more than 20 years of experience related to energy and innovation. In the field of energy SIEA is experienced in being a member of international networks. However, experience in the field of innovation policy apart from energy dates back only few years. Current No of staff: 159. All work in the field of innovation / implementation. Budget managed: SIEA manages structural funds, to a large extent addressing innovation and R&D. (see diagram above): In total the sum amounts to around 810 Mio EUR (162 Mio EUR/a); however if only innovative technologies and R&D are considers, the budget relevant to Taftie would be 472 Mio EUR (95 Mio, EUR/a), even if some parts of energy efficiency might also be relevant. The budgets for the two measures on the national level are rather humble: 250.000 EUR for innovation vouchers (2014) and 150.000 EUR for technological clusters. SIEA indicated no significant change in the budgetary situation for the future their focus will remain on structural funds; national funding is not expected to increase significantly. SIEA plans to be responsible for 2 OPs: research and innovation, quality of environment Ability and willingness to participate and contribute to Taftie SIEA seems to be eager to participate in Taftie network. They see a clear benefit for them in learning from experienced innovation agencies. They are willing to be open and contribute their experiences, e.g. regarding implementation of structural funds. They are interested to participate in Taftie Academy and Task Forces, however they did not specify in which topics they would be like to join in at the visit. Allocation of resources to participation in EWG and Board meetings plus expert sessions, Conference and Policy Forum is not seen as a bottleneck, SIEA emphasized that in other networks they are used to even more meetings per year.
4 Plans of the applicant added value and commitment SIEA is currently the only organisation in Slovakia interesting for Taftie and the only organisation from Slovakia interested in Taftie. SIEA will be able to add value to the Taftie network by providing input and experience related to structural funds management. Dealing primarily with structural funds issues, however, R&D is not the primary issue in their focus. Their major ability, in fact, might consists in sharing knowledge on economic development through SMEs outside RDI. The representatives of the organisation demonstrated credibly their willingness to actively contribute to the Taftie network and to the topics currently addressed in Taftie. We also believe that through SIEA Taftie will have the opportunity to be observer of very interesting ad particular economic developments. SIEA could all in all provide an added value to the Taftie network.