Innovative activities tend to cluster in regions. This makes international comparison and evaluation of regional innovation environments and regional innovation policy and practice a much wanted tool for regional policymakers. Out of five case studies on regional innovation climates and performance for the Finnish Seinäjoki city region, TNO specifically looked at the Brainport Eindhoven and the Leuven region for comparison.
Brainport Eindhoven
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TNO regularly publishes regional economic benchmark studies, such as the annual Randstad Monitor and the Amsterdam Economic Outlook. This expertise, together with recent studies on the Eindhoven high-tech region, formed a sound basis for the two case studies on Brainport Eindhoven, ‘the world’s most intelligent community of 2011’, and Leuven. These regions are similar to the Finnish Seinäjoki region regarding economic structure and high-tech profile. The case studies entailed a quantitative analysis of the regional socio-economic and innovation performance and a qualitative assessment of the regions’ economic development and key sector dynamics. VTT Innovation Studies (Finland) and Technalia (Spain) were responsible for the other case studies in the international comparison.
With the largest regional share in R&D expenditure in the Netherlands and a strong focus on high-tech manufacturing, the Eindhoven region finds itself at the forefront of Dutch and European innovation. Companies as Philips and DAF, and more recently ASML, and numerous others have been central to the development of Eindhoven’s industrial profile. The Eindhoven innovation ecosystem has shown its resilience in the recent economic downturn. As a response to the burst bubble crisis of the early 2000s, the entrepreneurial spirit of the region as well as a joint action plan of the local business community, the government and the research community have resulted in the Brainport region current ‘triple helix’ innovation practice. Together with the Eindhoven (former Philips) high tech campus as a showcase of open innovation, Eindhoven is internationally acknowledged as one of the innovative hotspots of North-Western Europe.
Despite its relatively compactness and primarily service-oriented economy, the region of Leuven has a remarkable track record when it comes down to initiating new business, especially in the high-tech domain. Institutional arrangements, the university’s technology transfer unit (Leuven R&D), the world-renowned IMEC nanohigh-tech research institute and the existence of several venture capital funds contributed to a large number of successful spin-off companies, engendering a lively regional innovation climate in which cooperation, valorisation and knowledge transfer is given high priority. Since 1972, Leuven Research and Development has been one of the first offices in Europe to actively promote and support the transfer of knowledge and technology between the university, other knowledge institutions and industry, making it an example for later innovation policies in other regions.
