RAPIDE Project holds first working summit

South West businesses could soon get innovative ideas off the drawing board and onto the shop shelves much quicker thanks to the RAPIDE project, which held its first working summit in Cardiff on 9 & 10 December.

The South West RDA has played a leading role in getting project RAPIDE off the ground. The South West is the only English region involved in the project and will work alongside 11 other European regions to look at how the public sector can influence innovation through procurement; investment decisions; business support; partnerships with Higher Education Institutes; and policy development.

During the two-year lifetime of project RAPIDE, the South West and all other regions involved in the project will develop a regional action plan setting out how the good practice explored through the network will be implemented within regional Competitiveness and Convergence Programmes. The action plans will centre on three factors identified by project RAPIDE as being key to speeding up the time it takes to get innovative ideas to the market place. These are:

- managing risk - encouraging public sector organisations to become less risk averse so they can help companies and innovators manage the risks associated with both the commercialisation of R&D and cultivating a culture of innovation

- finance - ensuring adequate finance exists and is easily accessible

- developing successful partnerships - strong partnerships between the public, business and education sectors play a key role in speeding up the commercialisation of innovation

For more information, please visit the RAPIDE website.