Finland - Jyvaskyla Region - Final Self-Evaluation Report.pdf

the organizational complexity and lack of knowledge about funding opportunities and their availability.Small firms might also see the University of Jyväskylä as an inappropriate partner because they do not haveenough information about what opportunities there might be to utilize the research and knowledge basegenerated by the University and what the value added received from cooperation might be. Thus, for thosefirms the Polytechnic is often easier to approach. However, the R&D -activities of the Jyväskylä Polytechnicare rather new and still taking shape and more time is needed to fully integrate them into the region, whichhas partly restricted the extension of firm-level cooperation. As a whole, according to the interviews theoperations of the HEIs are rather poorly known in the region of Jyväskylä, which prevents firms and otherregional actors from engaging in R&D cooperation effectively.The main challenges recognized by firms, other regional actors and the HEIs themselves are how to make theHEIs’ activities and output externally more visible and concrete in an attractive way and how to approach afirm as a whole. Firstly, the HEIs should clearly identify their priorities and define their profiles. Secondly,they should seek to better inform the firms and other regional actors on their knowledge and know-how. Inthe process of information transfer, the intermediate organizations could also have an important role.According to the results of the questionnaire the most useful channels for the transfer of information areconsidered to be the intensive cooperation and interaction with regional actors, more effectivecommunication and active participation in the seminars and other meetings where it is possible to presenttheir own activities. However, it is clear that the increasing information transfer is only one part of therelationship building. In addition, the actors have to identify a common mission, mutual trust and addedvalue generated by the cooperation.One drawback of the R&D –projects of the Jyväskylä Polytechnic and University of Jyväskylä is their loosetie to the development of the firms’ processes as a whole. In general, firms need an individual-level approachwhich focuses on the firm as a whole. Only this allows recognizing those specific needs of the firms whichcannot be expressed or recognized by the firms themselves. The differences between expressed and latentneeds/potential often stem from the difficulties that many small and medium-sized firms have in diagnosingthe external support requirements of their business. Customized support and services for different types offirms, which take account of their life-cycle path, their economic and personnel resources, the capability oftheir owners and managers (concerning the knowledge in the fields of substance, business andentrepreneurship) are becoming more and more important. This could be supported by the development ofsome kind of a customer management system.It would be essential to solve the obstacles which the HEIs and firms are struggling with and stimulatecooperation between them. Besides the collaborative efforts of the HEIs more intensive cooperation alsorequires that the firms themselves are committed to the process and share a common goal. At best, thecooperative research projects between the HEIs and firms in the region allow for both of them to go beyondtheir own resource limits, which also means that they can spread their risks and take advantage of a numberof funding opportunities.4.7 Interfaces facilitating knowledge utilization and transferThe regional innovation system consists of several actors taking care of the various phases of the innovationprocess. The main actors are the HEIs, intermediate organizations and firms. The Ministry of Educationplaces a strong emphasis on the cooperation between polytechnics and universities based on theircomplementary functions and the strengths of each institution. The cooperation between HEIs andintermediate organizations is also seen as a challenge. The Ministry of Education encourages regional actorsto create an operational mode based on the science park concept, which gathers firms, intermediateorganizations and HEIs together in an effective way (discussion with the representatives of the Ministry ofEducation, 12 Sep 2005).The university should be seen as a producer of high level basic research and education. In turn, thepolytechnic is more acquainted with professional education, development of working life and testingprocesses. The intermediate organizations are responsible for the commercialization and diffusion ofresearch based innovations into the market. In the region of Jyväskylä the division of work between thedifferent actors is considered necessary but it is still taking shape.55