CReATE TOOLKIT

A STEP BY STEP GUIDE

Creative Cluster Development through ICT Innovation

Authors David Furmage with contributions from Bjrn Sautter, Martina Groeschel, Ludovic Nol, Michela Pollone, and other members of the CReATE Project team. November 2010 CReATE Creating a Joint Research Agenda for Promoting ICT-Innovations in Creative Industries across Europe. EU Project, FP7-Regions-2007-1 Visit www.lets-create.eu for partner details, downloadable resources and links to relevant networks. The project CReATE has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

www.lets-create.eu

Contents Chapter Executive Summary Objectives, Audiences & Outcomes the benets to your region The CReATE Process ve stages unpacked Stock-taking - stage 1 develop a regional knowledge base Forward-looking - stage 2 Identify regional priorities Outward-Looking stage 3 Develop a joint research agenda Set up the mechanism to bring partners together Action-taking stage 4 Setting Your Roadmap Monitoring & Evaluation stage 5 Reviewing Progress & Implementing Lessons Learnt Conclusions References 9 10 43 45 8 39 7 37 6 33 5 25 4 17 3 13 1 2 Page 3 7

Chapter 1 Executive Summary

creation

domestic annually gross

growth creativity Knowledge Industries employment Euro

Union European

sustained

sustainable

knowledge

Creative
product ranked

4th

Economy

Billion

tag cloud: Key objectives and areas of interest for CReATE

The creative industries are a key sector in the Europe of tomorrow. They are developing and evolving rapidly. A crucial driving force for this development is ICT technologies. Using innovative IT solutions in growing areas of the creative sector such as advertising, digital media, games and interactive design - opens up competitive advantages for research, development and business. The Creative Industries are recognised as being of national signicance in many countries. They have the potential to bring strong growth in jobs and economic wealth to a region.

Creative Industries are already ranked 4th in the European Union for gross domestic product contribution - 626bn in 2007. Creative Industries employment growth rate was double that of the general economy in recent years. They are forecast to continue growing at an average of 10% annually.1 In its EU 2020 proposal for the Council [March 2010], the European Commission highlights the importance of creativity and knowledge creation for sustained and sustainable growth.2

1 2

source: EFP Brief No 171 www.foresight-platform.eu/foresight-briefs/ source: EFP Brief No 171 www.foresight-platform.eu/foresight-briefs/

At the moment, European research programmes and support schemes do not ideally meet the requirements of Creative Industries. As a consequence, Europe is in danger of not turning its enormous creative potential into growth and prosperity.

The CReATE Toolkit is a step-by-step guide enabling policy-makers and other stakeholders to deliver benets for businesses and research institutes. CReATE will help regions: 1. Understand & develop the true economic potential

That is why the European Commission assigned the CReATE consortium to support the process of tackling this issue back in 2008. The result is the CReATE Joint Research Agenda. This is enabling new partnerships to be forged between businesses and research institutes, both within regions and across Europe. Whilst CReATE is primarily focussed on Creative Industries, the approach is also applicable to other research driven sectors, such as e-health, energy and the environment - where value can be derived through the development of intellectual property that can be commercialised.

of each regions creative cluster leading to a clear Regional Research Agenda Action Plan. 2. Bring the benets of the Joint Research Agenda for ICT Innovations in Creative Industries to each region3. This includes the setting up of a pan-European platform to connect creative industries with IT experts and research institutions. 3. Increase the collaboration between businesses, government and research institutions within each region. 4. Improve the capabilities of SMEs (small & medium enterprises) from the creative sector. 5. Raise the prole and importance of each regions creative industries nationally, trans-nationally and internationally. A key aspect of CReATE has been to consider global trends within the digital and creative space. This global perspective has been combined with a regional stock-taking, forward-looking and outward-looking process. This process has enabled participating regions to identify their core strengths and opportunities leading to their own Regional Research Agenda Action Plans.

Joint Research Agenda for ICT Innovations in Creative Industries can be found at www.lets-create.eu/downloads.html

A common view about key trends has emerged. The Joint Research Agenda explains these in detail. The ve key areas that have been identied include:

Regions who participate in the CReATE process can expect outcomes that include: 1. A greater level of consensus, common vision and purpose

1.Visual & Interactive Experiences Including virtual environments, 3D, real-time visualization, high-resolution displays, haptic computing and user-friendly environments & displays. 2. Tools of Productivity and Intelligent Automation Including semantic software for automatic recognition, assembling & indexing, interactive articial intelligence and enhanced procedural generation tools for digital content & prototyping. 3. Digital Distribution Including encryption, data compression & decompression, new business models and cross platform distribution. 4. Mobility & Interoperability Including data streaming systems, augmented reality solutions, web security for on-line data exchange, interoperability of mobile and other devices and location based/personalised mobile services. 5. User-producer Interaction in Development Including collaborative production & user-generated content, web technology for on-line collaboration and interactive testing environments.

amongst regional stakeholders throughout the creative and digital sectors. 2. Agreement over regional research agendas and better collaboration between businesses & research institutes. 3. An increase in applied innovation and the commercialisation of products and services. 4. An increase in cooperation between countries over shared research priorities, resulting in more trans-regional working on a wide range of innovative and commercial projects. Creative & Digital Industries have the potential to make a huge difference to many regions. Opportunities for growth and collaboration are many, but to really benet a region needs to develop proactive policies that enable their creative cluster to grow and connect to other stakeholders and funding opportunities, both within their region, nation and across Europe. It is therefore desirable to make an adjustment in regional policies and initiatives - to encourage businesses to take more risks in innovation and research institutes to become more commercially minded in their partnerships. The CReATE Process delivers a set of tools to implement change - bringing the benets of growing your creative cluster to your businesses, research institutes and the wider economy. In summary, the CReATE team would encourage you to get your region involved to map your regions strengths connect your stakeholders and strengthen your cluster join up with others in your country and across Europe go for it! The CReATE Project Team 2010

Chapter 2 Objectives, Audiences & Outcomes The benets to your region

strategic business

support

creative

digital

clusters

tag cloud: Objectives and Aims of CReATE

The CReATE Toolkit is targeted at the following stakeholder groups: Public Sector Decision-makers, e.g., Regional Development Agencies. Businesses who are looking to innovate and develop new products, services & processes. Research & Technology organisations, e.g., ICT Research Institutes, looking for private partners. Providers of funding, nancing agencies and venture capital rms. Todays knowledge driven economy is dependent for its prosperity on the continuing success of a wide range of industrial and research driven clusters. The Creative Industries are ranked as the 4th top sector in Europe for contribution to GDP ( 626Bn in 2007). As such, the on-going development of this sector will yield huge benets to regions and countries right across Europe. Creative Industries employment growth rate was double that of the general economy in recent years. They are forecast to continue growing at an average of 10% annually.4
4

source: EFP Brief No 171 www.foresight-platform.eu/foresight-briefs/

innovative

competitive

research
industries

priorities

collaboration

CReATE objectives institutes

pan-european

IT

future

9 Creative Cluster Highlights from the founding CReATE Regions

AgentFramework Hank Nikita, Baden-Wrttemberg Film Academy

Baden-Wrttemberg - South West Germany Cluster strengths in ICT, Software, Games, interactive design & publishing. Research strengths in Visualization & Simulation Technologies. Highly innovative region based on number of patent applications. High density of education and research institutes.

VR&MMP - Virtual Reality & Multi Media Park, Piemonte

Piemonte - North West Italy Virtual Reality & Multi Media Park (VR&MMP). Well supported Regional Innovation Poles (clusters) for Digital Creativity, Multimedia & ICT. Active Animation Cluster. Pilot region for DTT - Digital Terrestrial Television. Film commission activity and a wide range of educational opportunities.

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Studios Lumiere - Rhone-Alps

Rhone-Alps South West France Strengths in lm, games and fashion. Active Clusters include Imaginove (Content), Edit (Software), Minalogic (Nanotech) and Cit du Design (design). Public sector support in IT/ media activities since the 1990s. Strong creative heritage as Rhne-Alpes is the birthplace of the cinema with the Lumire Brothers.

Bullring at the heart of Birmingham, West Midlands UK

West Midlands - England, UK Clusters in Games, Serious Games, Social Media and ICT. Birmingham is a digital hub with 17,000 creatives. Extensive higher education offer, research in Human Interface technologies, Serious Games Institute and Digital Lab. Screen Agency leads on a 5m digital media innovation fund. More about the regions can be found at www.lets-create.eu/downloads.html

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The key objectives of CReATE include: Identifying potential priorities for future research in supporting competitive creative industries. Supporting strategic collaboration of innovative creative industry clusters in Europe. Establishing a pan-European platform to connect the creative industries with IT experts and research institutions.5 Providing assistance and training measures for small and medium-sized companies in research and technology transfer.

Focusing Creative Clusters

CReATE uses a six-segment denition of the creative industries. Many other denitions exist, but this one was found to have the greatest relevance to participating regions.
music | radio | audio production

6 Segment Denition of Creative Industries6

The CReATE process follows a unique multi-level, multiactor and multi-disciplinary approach: Multilevel because it makes an impact on regional development by combining trans-regional consortia, global trends & regional cluster analyses with policy & funding alignment. Thus it contributes to the optimization of regional, national and European funding with private investments. Multi-actor because it is a dialogue oriented approach. Regional Stakeholders from science, industry & public administration work together developing regional priorities.

Multi-disciplinary because the CReATE approach brings together different disciplines like ICT and Creative Industries in ways that help to stimulate innovative ideas and new solutions. Such a multi-level, multi-actor and multi-disciplinary approach is needed to ensure longer-term competitiveness of research-driven clusters in a globalizing knowledge economy. Scarce public resources and a complex environment make it desirable that multiple stakeholders join forces to achieve their goals. The underlying methodological model of CReATE takes the multi-level approach and synthesiss together global trends with regional strengths.

5 6

More information can be found at www.lets-create.eu This 6-segment denition of the creative industries was developed in Queensland, Australia

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Regional Priorities for Applied Research

ICT Research Areas

Application Areas
Creative Industries
Global Trends
chart: CReATE Model for Analyzing Regional Priorities for Applied Research

The model combines three streams of data: 1. Analysis of regional ICT Research and Creative Industries strengths and weaknesses. 2. Identication of relevant global trends and drivers. 3. Regional and global data is pooled to enable meaningful debate at stakeholder workshops about future application areas, e.g., new products, business models, etc., The results of the debate and the regional SWOT analysis are combined to dene the regional research priorities for applied research. This will become the Regional Research Agenda Action Plan.

Regions who participate in the CReATE process can expect the following outcomes: A greater level of consensus, common vision and purpose amongst regional stakeholders throughout the creative and digital sector. Agreement over regional research agendas and better collaboration between businesses & research institutes. An increase in applied innovation and the commercialisation of products and services. An increase in cooperation between countries over shared research priorities. Thus resulting in more transregional working on a wide range of innovative and commercial projects. An improvement in the range of regional policies and initiatives (budgets willing); encouraging businesses to take more risks in innovation and research institutes to become more commercially minded in their partnerships.

13

Chapter 3 The CReATE Process Five Stages Unpacked

14
Stage 1: Stock-taking
start

Stage 2: Forward-looking
collect global data emerging technologies, global trends & drivers, ICT research regional stakeholder workshops 1&2

collect regional data desk research, reports, stakeholder interviews, ICT Research

results draft SWOT Innovation Audit Cluster Map

results Regional Research Priorities Cluster Map STEEPV SWOT

results improve project lessons learnt for next cycle

Stage 5: Evaluation
collect feedback / data monitor during project evaluate afterwards

Stage 3: Outward-looking
results Develop Projects Joint Research Agenda Agree Regional Research Action Plan Policy proposals Study Visits make connections pull together ndings European priorities decide cluster priorities explore potential projects & collaborations

Stage 4: Action-taking
Inuence Regional Policy & Funding Initiatives National & European Policy & Funding launch Regional Research Agenda Action Plan Increased Cluster Prole Stakeholder Groups

The CReATE process has ve stages: Stage 1: Stock-taking Building the Regional Knowledge base. Stage 2: Forward-looking Gathered data, stakeholders and foresighting techniques are used in combination to agree strengths & opportunities across the regions Creative & Digital Cluster and to dene regional research priorities. Stage 3: Outward-looking - Developing a trans-regional joint research agenda and nding partners & projects. Stage 4: Action-taking Launching a Regional Research Agenda Action Plan, Start project collaborations, create stakeholder communications and inuence policy. Stage 5: Monitoring & Evaluation Monitoring during the project and a full evaluation afterwards helps ensure the best outcomes.

15

Building the Creative Cluster in your region requires you to use and understand a set of Strategic Policy Intelligence (SPI) tools. These tools are used to provide decision-makers with comprehensive, objective, unbiased and forwardlooking information. Areas covered by SPI include; global trends, opportunities & threats, drivers of change, longterm developments, success factors, advantages and disadvantages compared to competitors. Strategic Intelligence can be dened as: the set of actions to search, process, diffuse and protect information in order to make it available to the right person at the right time in order to make the right decision.7 A number of CReATE partners have considerable experience in using SPI tools and their application to research driven clusters. Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum, for example, has produced a detailed guide to SPI - Enabling better RDTI Policymaking in Europes regions Strategic Policy Intelligence Tools A Guide.8

Benets of Using Strategic Policy Intelligence

The benets of SPI include: Participation - SPI encourages the participation of all stakeholders involved in decision-making. Evidence-base - SPI makes decision-making more objective. Mediation & Alignment - SPI generates mutual learning and facilitates consensusbuilding. Decision Support - SPI not only facilitates decision-making but also facilitates the implementation of decisions.

7 8

IPTS website looking at European Foresight tools. http://foresight.jrc.ec.europa.eu/ Enabling better RDTI Policymaking in Europes regions Strategic Policy Intelligence Tools A Guide www.steinbeis-europa.de/478.html

16

CReATE uses a sub-set of the total range of SPI tools that are available. A good understanding of SPI is important to those facilitating the process for the region.

17

Chapter 4 Stock-taking stage 1 Develop regional knowledge base

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Stage 1: Stock-taking
collect regional data desk research, reports, stakeholder interviews, ICT Research results draft SWOT Innovation Audit Cluster Map
chart: Stage 1 Stock-taking

Stock-taking is used to build the Regional Knowledge Base. This will become the basis of subsequent discussions and strategic thinking. It includes gathering data about the region through researching existing reports, creating surveys, stakeholder interviews, compiling an Innovation Audit and an initial SWOT Analysis [strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats].

Stock-taking forms a sound basis for analyzing the state of play in the region regarding the regional Creative Industries (CI) and ICT research potential. It also identies regional elds of aspiration. The results of this stage are a comprehensive set of data and information on CI and ICT innovations. The quality of this data - and thus the success of the entire stage - is dependent on asking the right questions.

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Information to nd out in the stock-taking phase Description/Mapping of Key Stakeholders/competences in ICT Research & Creative Industries Identify Key players and Stakeholders Quantify Overview of Region [turned into cluster map] Compile key Competences and interrelations Identify regional Creative Industry Company Needs Identify elds of excellence Identify elds of aspiration Identify future prospects and technologies Identify regional policies and support measures Identify regional ICT -RTDI [Research,Technological Development & Innovation] Capacities Identify elds of excellence Identify elds of aspiration Identify future prospects and technologies Identify regional policies and support measures Identify relevant Policies already supporting region/sector Identify regional related Policies already supporting region/sector Identify national related Policies already supporting region/sector Identify trans-national related Policies already supporting region/sector Derive Regional Strengths/Weaknesses By building on Analysis so far By correlating needs, capacities and initiatives Derive Regional Opportunities/Threats from Global ICT Trends Correlate analysis and information derived so far Correlate views of stakeholders Include views of external experts Summarize in a SWOT Matrix The stock-taking phase includes an Innovation Audit. This is a method of investigation which evaluates the technological capacity and technology needs of the region. The audit is based on a variety of research methods; using databases, surveys, interviews and workshops. This audit will build the basis for the identication of regional and trans-regional research priorities. A full innovation audit is only required in regions which are strongly technology driven. Mostly it is sufcient to mobilise a critical mass of principal stakeholders in business, academia and government based on the expert panel discussed later. To ensure results are as accurate as possible these experts should have a good understanding between them of all Digital & IT aspects of the region.

20

Benets of Innovation Audits

for public policy-makers: 1. Identication of the strengths and weaknesses of the regional innovation system and an insight into the drivers of technological and economic development. 2. Assessment of the effectiveness of existing Research, Technical Development & Innovation Policies and empirical evidence to guide the formulation of new RTDI (Research, Technological Development & Innovation) policies and goals. for rms & research organizations: 1. The identication of sources of knowledge and support, and of potential partners and markets. 2. Information about best practice in incubation strategies to support the successful development of new products/processes and technology transfer to enterprise. 3. Greater visibility of existing expertise and capabilities.

This early phase of the stock-taking stage is focused on gathering information and learning or conrming who the key players and stakeholders are in the region, and where the strengths and opportunities lie. The next

phase involves preparing information in a format that can be easily understood and circulated to workshop participants in stage 2.

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Preparing for Workshop 1 The following needs to be done before the workshop starts: 1. A provisional SWOT Analysis should be prepared.

SWOT ANALYSIS - stock-taking stage strengths weaknesses

internal factors completed

external factors rough ideas only

opportunities

threats

chart: Example SWOT Template partially completed

to be enhanced later

Most people are familiar with the SWOT Analysis Matrix strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. At this stage it is only possible to complete the internal factors - strengths and weaknesses - with any degree of robustness. The rst regional workshop, during stage 2, is the forum to ne tune the SWOT and get it validated by the group.

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2. A Cluster Map - showing the relationship of key stakeholders and categories of stakeholders in the region should be prepared. There is no one format to follow - as the examples below illustrate. Baden Wrttemberg (Germany) have used a detailed ow-chart approach whilst West Midlands (UK) have chosen a simpler model to represent their creative cluster.
ICT Technologies
Simulation, Visualisation, Interaction and Mixed Realities Embedded Systems Software Technologies Learning Systems Communications networks Intergrated Micro-/Nano Systems

Technologies Originators
Virtual Environments / 3D Data processing & Interpretation / Exploration Music Recording Web Application Engineering / Web 2.0 Technologies Mobil Devices

Interactive Systems / Design

Film (Post-) Production Technologies

Content Originators Film/TV/Radio Producers Game Developers Designers / Achitects Animated Content Producers Multimedia Producers Authors / Journalists Musicians

IPR Commercialiser Multimedia Distributors Game Distributors Book Publishers TV / Radio Channels Film Distributors Newspapers / Magazines Record Labels Advertsing Agencies

Distribution Channels Retail Shops Libraries / Museums TV / Radio Broadcasts Cinemas Internet Advertising Media

Cultural Sector Industrial R&D

Universities

Banks & Financiers

Political Agencies

Regional Competence Centres Other Cluster Partners

Upgrading & Innovative Bodies Legend Reletive Strength Broadly on Par Relative Weakness

chart: Example Cluster Map, Baden Wrttemberg (source for map layout: Scottish Enterprise)

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Birmingham Warwick Wolverhampton Birmingham City Coventry Staffordshire Aston

Universities

Creative and ICT SMEs

BT Oracle Fujitsu Codemasters Microsoft Sun Microsystems

Corporate Technology Partners

Public Sector Support Agencies

chart: Example Cluster Map, West Midlands, UK

Whatever format is chosen for the cluster map, the important thing is that it does visually represent the relationship in the region between stakeholders. 3. A short stimulating presentation should be prepared for the workshops on Creative, Digital and ICT trends and drivers of possible future developments.

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4. Cards should be prepared listing trends & drivers for the STEEPV framework. These will facilitate discussions, as it is best to put all the factors that you are aware of on the table before the workshop. STEEPV is future oriented; it considers possible factors of change and developments in a broader thematic context. It also allows for highlighting cross-impacts often overlooked by other techniques.

STEEPV Framework perspectives societal technological economic environmental political values

chart: STEEPV Analysis Framework

trends and drivers

scientic

ecological

The six categories to consider in a STEEPV Analysis are:

organization / region and its environment. 5. Political: e.g., changes in the regulatory environment

1. Societal: e.g., health consciousness, population growth rate, age distribution, career attitudes, gender roles, quality of life, attitudes to consumption, lifestyle, etc. 2. Technological/ Scientic: e.g., government spending on R&D, the rate of technological change, impacts of new technologies (in particular ICT), intellectual property rights protection, etc.

(tax policies, regional policies, employment laws and environmental regulations), trade restrictions and tariffs, political (in)stability and acceptability, wars, political unions, etc. 6. Values: e.g., changes of attitudes to family, common culture, ethics, attitudes such as materialism or altruism, etc. To be effective, the STEEPV analysis should not only

3. Economic: e.g., economic growth, interest rates, exchange rates, ination rate, new markets or loss (shrinking) of markets, unemployment, wage rates, etc.

identify the key factors but also rank the outcomes of these factors by: 1. The likelihood of the most relevant effects expected

4. Environmental/ Ecological: ecology is considered a broad concept, including typically environmental factors (e.g. climate change, natural disasters and alternative energy sources), as well as factors inuencing the general relation between an

to materialize. 2. The importance/needs of these factors for ICTresearch & innovation.

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Chapter 5 Forward-looking stage 2 Identify Regional Priorities

26

Stage 2: Forward-looking
collect global data emerging technologies, global trends & drivers, ICT research regional stakeholder workshops 1&2

results
chart: Stage 2 Forward-looking

Regional Research Priorities Cluster Map STEEPV SWOT

The forward-looking stage of CReATE is based around two stakeholder workshops a few weeks apart. To be effective the workshops should embrace a good mix of experts, business and policy people, it is useful to have at least 15 people present in each session.

The Joint Research Agenda leads to a key goal of the project - to enable the setting up of a wide range of active commercial and/or research partnerships both within and between regions. Benets from the Forward-looking stage revolve around

The aim is to identify the most promising trends & drivers and thus agree future application areas (e.g. new products, business models, etc.), which will be important to society and present strong opportunities for the regions creative & digital industries and research institutions. The regional research priorities should be aligned with all the information, debate and analysis gathered so far taking into account capabilities, capacities and aspirations. The regional priorities that have been identied can be fed into the trans-regional joint research agenda. This can only remain effective if it is regularly updated with new ndings and priorities from participating regions.

the correct implementation of a Foresight Process. In the face of complexities and high uncertainties it is helpful to purposely solicit diverging and individualist viewpoints, broadening debate. This enables us to make foresight usefully provocative! These workshops should ideally be designed and supported by foresight consultants, to ensure adequate and comparable results. But what is foresight?

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Foresight is the process involved in systematically attempting to look into the longer-term future of science, technology, the economy and society, with the aim of identifying the areas of strategic research and the emerging generic technologies likely to yield the greatest economic and social benets.9 The goal (of foresight) is not to predict the future but to understand how the future is shaped and on that basis to explore a range of possible futures with a view to selecting one that is desirable and attainable.10

The benets of using Foresight include:

Exploring possible futures enables major challenges to be identied and alternative ways forward considered. Foresight allows stakeholders to reach a consensus on desirable visions and goals for the future. Involvement of key stakeholders can deepen linkages between them and lead to a better mutual understanding between science and other parts of society. Improved policy design and implementation in all policy elds and in the design of innovation-friendly regulations.

The regional workshops are underpinned by the use of foresight techniques but also grounded in the reality of the region by using an expert panel. This panel should be made up of an interdisciplinary group of policy-makers, entrepreneurs, academic researchers and venture capitalists. This ensures that existing strategic documents, research reports, outputs of scientic analysis, and other current information are fully taken into account. The expert panel together with other participants - should have wide-ranging knowledge and experience in various elds such as technology, economic, social and political sciences. A variety of businesses from the Creative and IT sectors should also be involved.
9

source: Ben Martin, SPRU source: Blueprints for Foresight Actions in the Regions http://ec.europa.eu/research/social-sciences/pdf/blueprint-upgrade_en.pdf

10

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1st Stakeholder Workshop At the rst regional stakeholder workshop the data accumulated so far is shared and discussed. Participants should add additional factors that may impact current and possible future development of the creative industries cluster. The session can review the cluster map, improve and validate the SWOT and agree a STEEPV analysis. It should do some Scenario building within the workshop sessions to identify future application areas and to consider a wide range of alternative futures both from an opportunities and a threats perspective. The session should give a good basis for an initial draft of the Regional Research Priorities Action Plan. This plan will begin to dene research priorities for the sector as well as reviewing regional initiatives, which can help collaboration and funding. Trends and drivers, which have already been identied in advance, are brought into the discussion by the workshop moderator and serve as a valuable stimulus for the workshop.

Innovations in Running the Workshops

Some regions used innovative ways to run CReATE Workshops. West Midlands in the UK, for example, ran the session live into Second Life, a virtual 3D environment. This broadened the range of participants for the sessions.

Participants in the West Midlands, UK, could join the CReATE workshop sessions virtually. They were hosted by the Serious Games Institute.

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To help new regions run the CReATE process the founding partners have pulled together their experiences: It was important to identify common challenges and opportunities, ensuring there was a collective awareness of them and possible solutions. Facilitators should ensure that a sufciently broad view of Using the initial SWOT Analysis as the basis for discussion, enabled a more rened SWOT to be developed for later discussions. It was important to share a common aspiration for future products, services, business models and projects. It was important to share commitments, and then join forces as a group to set goals to achieve those commitments. It was important to be very specic in compiling a list of the competences and skills of regional organisations and stakeholders. The creative atmosphere of the workshops opened up many productive conversations, especially for networking opportunities between the ICT industry and creative stakeholders. global and European wide trends is made available to the group. In the regional CReATE process, the introduction of the trans-regional perspective enriched the discussions with external impulses, and thus facilitated out-ofthe- box thinking, leading to new ideas about promising business opportunities. Furthermore, the identication of mutual synergies between the CReATE regions prepared the ground for trans-regional collaboration and strategic alliances. During the regional stakeholder workshops, we pinpointed some different business cultures, languages and mindsets among ICT and Creative Industries representatives. Course facilitators need to be aware of these different mindsets to maximize the effectiveness of the workshops.

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Preparing for Workshop 2 Its a good idea if the second workshop takes place within a month of the rst. It is also desirable if a small working group can be tasked to compile the results of the rst workshop and prepare for the second. This encourages stakeholder buy-in to the whole process and to the decisions that have been made so far by the group. The working group should nalise the SWOT completing the external factors opportunities and threats.
SWOT ANALYSIS - stock-taking stage strengths weaknesses

internal factors completed

external factors completed

opportunities

threats

chart: Example SWOT Analysis now completed by workshop groups

workshops completed SWOT

They should also nalise the STEEPV although this may change again in the 2nd workshop. The group should then begin to dene strategic research priorities. These can be considered broadly at rst, for example in ow-chart terms:

global trends and drivers - most relevent expected effects - STEEPV

regional needs and capacities. opportunities and threats - SWOT

strategic research areas

chart: ow chart for rening workshop results into outcomes

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They can then be rened in more detail using a grid such as this one:

research priority areas

application areas

relation to global ICT trends

relation to regional CI needs

relation to regional ICT -RTDI11 capacities

relation to regional policies

need for transregional partners

.........

.........

.........

.........

.........

.........

.........

.........

.........

.........

.........

.........

.........

.........

chart: Example Layout of Information for detailing Regional Research Priority Areas

This grid will be used to prime discussions during workshop 2. The working group should also present the suggested funding and policy initiatives that will help cluster development become a success. The quality of this groups work strongly affects the success of the structured debate and outcomes from the second stakeholder workshop.

2nd Stakeholder Workshop In the second workshop, the stakeholders do a sense check on the work so far. Their task then is to rene the Regional Research Priorities Action Plan and the suggested Policy Changes. These deliberations should take into account: The relevance for the identied regional needs, Future market perspectives Future business models (products, services) Future innovation and value creation processes Future requirements with regard to human resources (qualications, skills etc.) Future other key factors, e.g., change of government, new funding priorities. This workshop is effectively the agenda setting moment, producing sufcient detail and consensus to prepare a concrete Regional Research Priorities Action Plan and Policy Proposals.
11

Based on this assessment, the identied research priority areas are ranked with reference to the previous SWOT and STEEPV analyses, taking into account:

capacities, policies and funding. The relevance for regional ICT-R&D [Research & Development] The specic time-horizon for implementation.

ICT-RTDI = ICT Research, Technology, Development and Innovation capacities

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CReATE Case study coming out of CReATE Workshops

The CReATE expert workshops 2009 in BadenWrttemberg demonstrate how targeted and successful integration of creativity and ICT knowhow can lead to new collaborations. The Institute of Animation, Visual Effects & Digital Postproduction in Ludwigsburg and Tridelity Display Solutions GmbH AG combined and tested the Filmakademie Agent Framework with autostereoscopic 3D Displays. The Agent Framework is a development platform for character-centric application prototypes beyond lm and video games. Based on the Filmakademies open source application framework Frapper it allows for implementation of complex technologies like computer vision, synthetic speech and articial intelligence all within a user-friendly authoring environment. After a period of development the engineers of Filmakademie presented a real-time solution that allowed the display of interactive and dynamic animated 3D content that could interact with visitors. The interactive booth was received extremely positively by visitors to FMX - showcasing a novel interface for information through natural voice and face to face communication with a computer generated character. The collaboration that started at the CReATE workshops has opened up a great opportunity for the organisations involved, and for the region of BadenWrttemberg. Collaboration continues.

33 Chapter 6 Outward-looking stage 3 Develop a Joint research agenda Set-up the mechanism to bring partners together

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Stage 3: Outward-looking
results Develop Projects Joint Research Agenda Agree Regional Research Action Plan Policy proposals Study Visits make connections pull together ndings European priorities decide cluster priorities explore potential projects & collaborations chart: Stage 3
Outward-looking

The Outward-looking stage can take many forms, depending on available resources and the level of need within each region. The objectives of this phase are to dene the on-going actions the region should make to ensure that cluster stakeholders can engage and become a part of active projects and partnerships. Considerations to achieve this outcome include: 1. Review all the data gathered so far - at a Regional, European & Global level and use this to nalise the Regional Research Agenda Action Plan. Use CReATEs Joint Research Agenda for ICT Innovations in Creative Industries12 to see how your regions capabilities and needs t with the broader picture.

5. Review all the potential project and funding initiatives that can help your stakeholders get research or product development projects off the ground. 6. Use the information gathered from your region to develop a list of projects that need partners either from within your region or beyond it and put these into the mix with other participants. 7. Consider setting-up some Trans-regional study visits for stakeholders, based on the most promising project ideas and potential partnerships from your region. Part funding for these is often available. 8. Disseminate all of this activity and information back to

2. Connect with other regions running CReATE and get involved with the exchange of information and potential project partnerships that are being developed. 3. Look for new funding streams in research innovation and product development. 4. Get involved in relevant events such as International Matchmaking for different technology areas. You can run additional Trans-regional Matching Workshops in your own region if demand exists. In both cases ensure that the right regional stakeholders can participate.

your region. Consider which distribution channels you can use to reach stakeholders. You may have chambers of commerce, trade associations or innovation networks that would welcome this initiative. You could set-up your own group using social networking sites, or join activities set-up by the CReATE Partners, check out www.lets-create.net for more information on how to connect your regional stakeholders to the bigger picture across Europe. 9. Develop a set of recommended policy or funding initiatives that will support the aims of CReATE in your region. Many regional development agencies have seen good returns from their support of business innovation and near-to-market research.

12

CReATEs Joint Research Agenda for ICT Innovation in Creative Industries www.lets-create.eu/downloads.html

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The nal version of the Regional Research Agenda Action Plan, being completed during this stage, needs to consider the following: Specic research priority areas relevant for boosting ICT-innovation in a regions Creative Industries cluster. Potential impacts of the research priority areas identied (related in particular to regional companies needs, the ICT-R&D capacities, strategic goals, etc.), Regional stakeholders and policies involved in these research areas. Time-horizons and other issues

Dissemination Workshops
The CReATE team ran dissemination workshops and international match-making events around Europe. These introduced the project, explained its methods, discussed its benets to participants and in some were able to begin developing international match-making.

Dissemination Workshop, Barcelona, Spain

The rst international match-making for CreATE was done at the CReATE Conference in Turin.

International Match-making & CReATE Conference, Turin, Italy

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Aligning Research Priorities Across Europe To assist your regions work CReATE has published a document, Joint Research Agenda for ICT Innovations in Creative Industries. This is available from www.lets-create.eu/downloads.html This document pulls together all the ndings so far and sets a broad direction for regional and trans-regional funding for future Creative Industry research. It serves to show how and where your region ts into this matrix of research priorities. The document is not xed in stone though! indeed it needs to evolve constantly. The key priorities identied so far in no particular order - include: 1. Visual and Interactive Experience Virtual Environments 3D visual animation Real-time visualization and interaction High resolution display environments Haptic computing User-friendly immersive environments User-Centred design of continuous interfaces 2. Tools of Productivity & Intelligent Automation Semantic software for automated recognition, assembling & indexing Interactive articial intelligence Enhanced procedural generation tools for digital content and prototyping 3. Digital Distribution Encryption Data compression & decompression New business models Cross-platform distribution 4. Mobility & Interoperability Data streaming systems Augmented reality solutions Web security for online data exchange Interoperability of mobile & other devices Location based / personalised mobile service 5. User-Producer-Interaction in Development Collaborative production & user-generated content Web technology for online collaboration Interactive testing environments

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Chapter 7 Action-taking - Stage 4 Setting Your Roadmap

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Stage 4: Action-taking
Inuence Regional Policy & Funding Initiatives National & European Policy & Funding launch Regional Research Agenda Action Plan Increased Cluster Prole Stakeholder Groups
chart: Stage 4 Action-taking

Stage 4 is about ensuring that good intentions become a roadmap of real actions! The nest plans in the world do not in themselves guarantee success practical delivery is vital! Stage 3 Outward-looking will have identied for you a range of actions specic to your regions priorities. During stage 4, the actions on your roadmap should be announced and implemented as soon as possible. These might typically include: LAUNCH The Regional Research Agenda Action Plan, including (budgets willing) some funding and/or policy initiatives that can support the development of collaborations. INSPIRE stakeholders with the benets and possibilities that these new and powerful partnerships and consortia could be achieving for their businesses and the region as a whole. IDENTIFY for business and research stakeholders which new or existing policies, funding programmes and European initiatives can be harnessed to help them achieve their objectives.

LAUNCH the communication mechanisms that will help regional stakeholders nd the right partners to develop their product ideas or research goals. This may be a social networking or other on-line group, a spin-off activity from an existing trade or cluster body, or any combination. START to build and encourage actual project and partner collaborations in specic research areas and for specic innovative products and services. At a regional level, this means ensuring the cluster has enough traction and inuence to deliver on the Regional Research Agenda Action Plan. CHANGE or INFLUENCE the alignment of funding, programmes and initiatives for the long-term. Where policies cannot be launched immediately, actions should still be going on behind the scenes to inuence policy changes in the future at a regional, national and trans-regional level. The Regional Research Agenda Action Plan should be periodically updated, ensuring that it reects the changing face of creative, digital and ICT trends. It should also take account of changes in the region, such as major policy changes, funding changes, new businesses in the area and so on.

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Chapter 8 Monitoring & Evaluation stage 5 Reviewing Progress & Implementing Lessons Learnt

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results improve project lessons learnt for next cycle

Stage 5: Evaluation
collect feedback / data monitor during project evaluate afterwards
chart: Monitoring & Evaluation stage 5

It is good practice that any new processes, such as CReATE, have a Monitoring & Evaluation Plan. This ensures that stakeholders feel the process and results have been handled with accuracy and fairness. It is a chance to pull-together feedback, to either correct something in the process before it is too late, or to provide lessons learnt for future implementations of CReATE. There needs to be a monitoring culture in place from day one. Monitoring is the ongoing collection and review of information (e.g., on the implementation of an intervention, its coverage and use). It is used to assess the quantity, quality and timeliness of inputs and to provide measures of outputs. Monitoring methods include data collection, activity records, interviews and surveys. The primary aim is to monitor performance and to identify problems so they can be addressed in a timely manner. Monitoring does not, of itself, address the wider evaluation issues concerning the objectives and broad effects of the programme.13

Each CReATE stage should be reviewed in some way before moving onto the next. This means that participants should be willing to feedback and those running CReATE willing to modify the process to optimize its regional success. Evaluation can be mid-term, at the end, or after and agreed period, often 12 months. This enables true outputs to be collected, such as jobs created, collaborations, projects instigated and products or services developed. Evaluation at any stage of a project or process should address three issues: 1. APPROPRIATENESS - are the decision-makers doing the right thing? 2. IMPACTS - what are the results of their actions? 3. EFFECTIVENESS - could they do it better? Mid-Term Evaluation is used to review progress. Results help to modify and refocus interventions. Methods include statistical data analysis, management and user discussions, modeling, focus groups, control group comparisons, expert panels, peer review and network analysis. The CReATE process is short, so a mid-term evaluation is unlikely to be benecial.

13

SPI - Enabling better RDTI Policymaking in Europes regions Strategic Policy Intelligence Tools A Guide page 40-41 www.steinbeis-europa.de/478.html

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Post-Evaluation measures the effects of a policy intervention, its impacts and outcomes, examining efciency and efcacy. It can identify changes in the conditions and behaviors of the targeted groups and individuals. It is often used to improve design and implementation of an intervention at its next cycle. Methods used include bibliometric analysis, citations analysis, statistical data analysis, management and user discussions, focus groups, case studies, control group comparisons, expert panels/peer review, network analysis and modeling.
14

An evaluation culture can motivate policymakers to be alive to feedback and ensure that improvements are made to their policies. Evaluation enables the next cycle of a project to be more successful -through the implementation of lessons learnt. A word of warning though. It is very easy for evaluation processes to be run in an overly zealous way! With too much resource in time and money spent on too many evaluations and too great a level of detail. Evaluation should always be a servant to creative and progressive policy-making, not its master.

Where public money has been spent over a process, such as CReATE - and funding has been made available for projects or partner collaborations - there are likely to be outputs to record and an agreed audit process to be satised.

Benchmarking in Brief A chapter on Monitoring & Evaluation would not be complete without mention of benchmarking. Organisations running CReATE may optionally wish

Lessons Learnt For some people the evaluation function is regarded as a routine tick box exercise. Used well, however, both monitoring and evaluation can be hugely benecial both to improve the current process and set out lessons leant for future policy and intervention design. Effective evaluation can bring the following benets: Evaluation can identify gaps in policy planning. Evaluation ensures that objectives, targets and results are analyzed with care, leading to improvements in policy performance in the future.

to look at benchmarking giving them a wider perspective on the comparative performance of their policies and programmes.

14

SPI - Enabling better RDTI Policymaking in Europes regions Strategic Policy Intelligence Tools A Guide www.steinbeis-europa.de/478.html

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Benchmarking provides practical learning through comparing performance of policies or outcomes across nations, regions, sectors, clusters, industries, institutions, products or services. The essence of benchmarking is identifying the highest standards of excellence and then making the improvements necessary to come closer to or reach those standards.15 In general, benchmarking is an improvement process in which a company, organization or any other (multiorganizational) system, carries out three activities:

The evaluation and benchmarking of clusters in the context of European cluster mapping studies has recently attracted attention. It predominantly focuses on measuring: Current performance of the cluster or cluster initiatives. Success factors - framework conditions - leading to the current performance. Economic impact of the cluster or cluster initiatives. One of the most important motivations for cluster

1. COMPARE - its performance against best-in-class external systems. 2. RESEARCH - how these systems have achieved their superior performance? 3. IMPLEMENT - collected information to improve its own performance. An intrinsic benet of benchmarking is the opportunity to collaborate with other regions and build trans-regional partnerships.

benchmarking is to raise awareness among the regional stakeholders of the competitive ranking of the cluster compared with other clusters nationally and internationally.

15

SPI - Enabling better RDTI Policymaking in Europes regions Strategic Policy Intelligence Tools A Guide www.steinbeis-europa.de/478.html

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Chapter 9 Conclusions

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No one can predict the future. But we can predict that the Creative, Digital & ICT sectors will have a crucial inuence on the working life and leisure of our citizens in the future.

existing European strengths such as heritage, culture, creativity and diversity - making Europe more innovative, economically strong and citizen focused. Regions who participate in the CReATE process can

We can already see in 2010 how crucial these sectors are and how vital they will be for Europe to take a leading role in innovation, research and business entrepreneurship. We cannot afford to leave it to other parts of the world to hustle in a new digital era. Our clusters, regions and creative businesses need to become a major part of the new digital story. We only have to examine core European policies to see how central the digital agenda is to many of them. The Europe 2020 Strategy puts forward three mutually
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expect outcomes that include: 1. A greater level of consensus, common vision and purpose amongst regional stakeholders throughout the creative and digital sectors. 2. Agreement over regional research agendas and better collaboration between businesses & research institutes. 3. An increase in applied innovation and the commercialisation of products and services. 4. An increase in cooperation between countries over

reinforcing priorities: Smart growth: developing an economy based on knowledge and innovation. Sustainable growth: promoting a more resource efcient, greener and more competitive economy. Inclusive growth: fostering a high-employment economy delivering social and territorial cohesion. In each of these, the creative and digital industries play an important part. That is why A Digital Agenda for Europe is one of several agship areas recognized by
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shared research priorities, resulting in more transregional working on a wide range of innovative and commercial projects. Creative & Digital Industries have the potential to make a huge difference to many regions. Opportunities for growth and collaboration are numerous, but to really benet a region needs to develop pro-active policies that enable their creative clusters to grow and connect to other stakeholders and funding opportunities, both within their region, nation and across Europe. In conclusion then, the CReATE team would like to encourage you to implement CReATE in your region. Go for it there is much to gain!

the European Union as vital to delivering the Europe 2020 strategy. So CReATE is very timely! The CReATE agenda shows that both Creative & ICT businesses can learn and prot from each other: Creative Industries are customers and users of new innovative ICT applications, while ICT can learn from Creative Industries about usable and tailored applications. Together, both sectors boost
16 17

The CReATE Project Team 2010

Europe 2020: A Strategy for Smart, Sustainable and Inclusive Growth. http://ec.europa.eu/eu2020/index_en.htm A Digital Agenda for Europe 2009 http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/digital-agenda/links/index_en.htm

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Chapter 10 References

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Further information about CReATE Other Information

Go to www.lets-create.eu/downloads.html for the following:

Enabling better RDTI Policymaking in Europes Regions Strategic Polocy Intelligence Tools A Guide

CReATE Joint Research Agenda

www.steinbeis-europa.de/478.html

CReATE yer

CReATE Toolkit A Step by Step Guide: Creative Cluster Development through ICT Innovation [this document]

Global Synthesis Report: Creative Regions: Future Trends for Digital Creative Industries in Europe.

Summary of Global Synthesis Report: Creative Regions: Future Trends for Digital Creative Industries in Europe.

Regional Analysis on Future Trends for Digital Creative Industries in Baden-Wrttemberg - South West Germany

Regional Analysis on Future Trends for Digital Creative Industries in Rhone-Alpes, South West France

Regional Analysis on Future Trends for Digital Creative Industries in Regione Piemonte, North West Italy

Regional Analysis on Future Trends for Digital Creative Industries in West Midlands, England, United Kingdom

Strategic Cluster Development: Applying Strategic Policy Intelligence to create a Joint Research Agenda

Background paper on ICT Innovations in Creative Industries

Summary of background paper on ICT Innovations in Creative Industries