BENEFITS (Building an Expertise Network for an Efficient Innovation & Training System)
the BENEFITS project is partly funded by the Channel-France Interreg IVA programme via ERDF funds.
Benefits will propose innovative solutions, relying on a more global approach of existing systems, so as to keep the most useful competences within the France-Channel area where they have been trained: in structuring higher education and job creation-including self-employment-practices, in crossing the key success factors, in strengthening the links between higher education, companies (SMEs) and institutional bodies and eventually in restructuring an industrial manufacturing fabric.
Duration : July 2012 – June 2015
Partners: CESI, University of Greenwich, University of Exeter
Objectives:
Authorities and public communities at all levels in Europe invest heavily in higher education and the Channel area does comply with this rule. In the context of the knowledge economy it is a positive issue for the territories, provided that the knowledge created, the skills developed, the behaviours and attitudes which these very successful economies need to be fed in, to move forward and stay competitive, remain in the region where they have been trained. The 2008 crisis and those which have followed have very strongly influenced attitudes, and a new deal remains to be worked out.
The project intends to design innovative solutions, based on a more comprehensive and cohesive approach to existing systems, in order to keep high-skilled people in the Channel area where they have been trained: in structuring practices which have been proved successful in terms of higher education and job creation, including self-employment, in crossing the key factors for success in France and the UK and in strengthening the links between SMEs, higher education and institutional bodies, while placing the person at the centre of all its concerns. Benefitswill draw on strengths and assets of local economies, among which industrial sectors such as energy, transport and aerospace. Benefits will not investigate into translating the outcomes of public academic research into economic activities as it has been dealt with in a previous Interreg IVA project named Prottec; all of the reports can be downloaded with the following link: http://www.marinesoutheast.co.uk/prottec/downloads/. The team of the university of Exeter ensures the link between Prottec and Benefits.
The project can be broken down into 3 main objectives:
– Structuring the network of stakeholders and establishing exchange porgrammes on a transnational basis.
– Ensuring innovation fitness of people and companies to innovation.
– Maintening and developing the industrial and manufacturing fabric.
