DEVELOPMENT OF AN INNOVATION VOUCHER SCHEME TO STIMULATE CREATIVITY IN UK SMEs

SUMMARY

Date: September 2008 – October 2008

Description of the work done under the contract:

Following an invitation to tender, the UK’s National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) selected KEA European Affairs to design a voucher scheme aiming to stimulate innovation through collaboration between creative businesses and companies in other sectors. The voucher scheme will focus on reduction of innovation barriers for creative SMEs as well as for non-creative SMEs and will facilitate cross-sectoral linkages between them. The proposal contains extensive research into a growing number of innovation voucher schemes throughout Europe, methods for allocation, methods for evaluation and a discussion on creative SMEs’ key characteristics with the implications of such characteristics for the voucher scheme.

Beneficiary: NESTA, The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, UK