Blog

Read the latest blogs from the IGL network.

The future is now: Citizen participation in R&I

By Nyangala Zolho on Monday, 27 November 2023.

This blog shares insights gathered from the three-day conference ‘Connect. Collaborate. Create.’, held in Paris from 19-21 October 2023, where the Innovation Growth Lab co-hosted a futures-oriented workshop aimed at identifying what decisions might need to be made today, in order to ensure the deepening of the participative pockets of R&I that exist today.

Demonstrating the impact of a policy to support SMEs in designing more competitive products and services

By Davide Azzolini & Nicola Doppio on Wednesday, 2 March 2022.

This blog examines the 200SMEchallenge project, which involved carrying out a UX Challenge and using a randomised controlled trial to evaluate its effects on SMEs’ readiness to implement user-centred design methods. This project was one of 13 funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 programme, INNOSUP-06-2018.

KEPA: A tale of piloting, exploring and scaling

By Stella Ishack on Thursday, 5 August 2021.

In 2018, the European Commission introduced a new EU Horizon 2020 programme - INNOSUP-06-2018 - to encourage innovation agencies across Europe to experiment with their policy programmes. Here at the Innovation Growth Lab, we’ve been supporting both the EU and innovation agencies to succeed. This piece explores the journey of Anna Koktsidou, a member of Greece’s Business and Cultural Development Centre (KEPA) team, who are currently partaking in the INNOSUP programme.

What the Horizon 2020 Innosup programme can teach us about RCTs: The lessons

By Stella Ishack on Monday, 14 September 2020.

Part two of our two-part blog series on the insights gained from innovation agencies designing new or improved policy schemes supporting SME innovation, and testing these using randomised controlled trials (RCTs). We share what can be taken away for future innovation policy when evaluating business support programmes.

What the Horizon 2020 Innosup programme can teach us about RCTs: The challenges

By Stella Ishack on Thursday, 3 September 2020.

In this post, we summarise some challenges that innovation agencies have faced when designing new or improved policy schemes supporting SME innovation, and testing these using randomised controlled trials (RCTs). We share what does and doesn’t work for future innovation policy when evaluating business support programmes.

Innosup kick off meeting in Brussels

European innovation agencies are running randomised experiments to improve their support schemes

By Hugo Cuello on Wednesday, 11 December 2019.

A new wave of policy experimentation is underway across the EU. The European Commission is funding 13 projects led by agencies from 8 different European countries who have been selected to trial new innovation support programmes. Last week, they all met in Brussels for the kick-off meeting.

EU flags

As much as €152 billion is spent across Europe supporting businesses: but does it work?

By Teo Firpo and Thomas Beevers on Friday, 11 March 2016.

Our estimates for the spending on business support across the European Union, based on our research for the UK, indicate that as much as €152 billion were spent in 2014. In this blog, we explore what this means for Europe, and what could be done better.

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