Interreg Europe is a capacity-building programme dedicated to policy learning and policy improvements. In particular, it is dedicated to the exchange and transfer of good practices in order to improve the effectiveness of regional development policies.

Interreg Europe projects build on the good practices identified within their partnership carried out through desk research, project meetings and study visits. They are the source of inspiration when preparing the action plans and improving the performance of their policies.

A good practice is defined as “an initiative (e.g. project, project, process, technique) undertaken in one of the programme’s priority axes which has proved to be successful in a region and which is of potential interest to other regions. Proved successful means that the good practice has already provided tangible and measurable results in achieving a specific objective.” Since Interreg Europe is dedicated to regional development policy improvements, a good practice is usually related a public intervention. A private initiative may be considered as a good practice only if there is evidence that this initiative has inspired public policies.

Within the framework of the INNO Industry project, 30 good practices have been identified, three for each of the ten countries participating in the project, all of them focused on clusters, digitalization and Industry 4.0:

SLOVENIA

• Small-Scale Incentives for SMEs- Vouchers
• Slovenian Strategic Research Innovation Partnership Factories of Future
• Slovenian Digital Innovation Hub

AUSTRIA

• Lower Austrian Cluster Programme
• Lower Austrian House of Digitalization
• Lower Austrian Initiative for Artificial Intelligence

LATVIA

• Ecosystem approach
• Hackathons as cooperation platform
• Bits IT school

SPAIN

• IN4WOOD project: Industry 4.0 in the Furniture sector
• HÁBITAT 4.0 Project
• Aditiva 4.0: National Congress on Additive Manufacturing

PORTUGAL

• Industry 4.0 Digitalization Voucher
• Business and Shared Services Centre of Fundão
• SIG HABITAT - Information and management system of the Sustainable Habitat Cluster

SWEDEN

• Kickstart Digitalization
• Regional Innovation Node North Hälsingland
• Smart Arenas

SLOVAKIA

• Sector-driven Innovations towards an Efficient Labour Market
• Industry4UM
• Active role of Business Support Organisation in cluster support / SIEA

ROMANIA

• USMED and surgery assist
• INFRANET-CYBERPORT
• Romanian Cluster Competitiveness Platform

UNITED KINGDOM

• Use of Open Data
• Digital Innovation Hubs and the 5G Step-Out Centre
• Business Local Growth Hub Model

HUNGARY

• Industry 4.0 Showcase factories
• Using Clusters to test innovative funding structures for SME development
• Hungarian Cluster Accreditation System