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Innovation is not just a privilege of big cities: knowledge, technology and expert support should also be made accessible to regional businesses.

Many businesses do not lack innovation because they lack ideas, but because they do not have access to the right experts, technologies, testing environments, or business development support. This is especially true for industrial, rural, and peripheral areas where the innovation infrastructure is weaker. IaaS 4 DR – Innovation as a Service The project provides a solution to this. „Innovation as a service” means that businesses do not have to build all the knowledge and infrastructure on their own: they can flexibly connect with regional and international experts, services, and testing opportunities.

Who is it useful for?

IaaS 4 DR is for those who want to operate innovation not as a one-time consultation, but as an accessible, interconnected, and practical service.

    • For small and medium-sized businesses
      It helps find innovation partners, technology experts, testing opportunities, and business development support.
 
    • For innovation-supporting organizations
      It provides a new methodology, a service portfolio, training materials, and international expert connections.
 
    • For universities and research institutes
      It provides an opportunity for scientific and technological capacities to be better aligned with the practical needs of businesses.
 
    • Clusters, Chambers and Business Development Players
      It can help develop more integrated and advanced innovation support services.
 
  • Municipalities and regional development organizations
    It can provide policy lessons for the convergence of regions with lower innovation capacity.

Why is this needed?

The innovation of regional businesses often fails not because of the idea itself, but because the right knowledge, testing environment, partner, or funding route are not available.

In traditional industrial, rural and peripheral areas, innovation services are often fragmented. A business may have a development need, a digital transformation plan or a new product idea, but it struggles to find a research institution, a technology partner, testing opportunities or business development support. IaaS 4 DR addresses this access problem. The project views innovation as a networked service: local actors, regional institutions and international experts can work together to support businesses. For Central Transdanubia, this is important because it has a strong industrial and entrepreneurial background, but technology transfer, digitalization, industrial transformation and international innovation linkages require further strengthening.

How does the project help?

IaaS 4 DR does not build additional separate services, but rather innovation hubs that connect local and international knowledge into a process.

The project aims to improve the conditions for industrial transition and technology transfer in the lower-innovation regions of the Danube region. The project is based on three main elements:

  • IaaS nodes: regional innovation hubs that connect businesses, research institutions, the public sector and supporting organizations;
  • IaaS 4 DR Academy: training and capacity building program for innovation-supporting professionals;
  • IaaS 4 DR Accelerator: Testing pilots and service models for smart spaces, smart services and transnational collaborations.
The goal is that these tools not only operate during the project period, but also be integrated into the regions' innovation support practices in the future.

Practical application

The project becomes tangible when a regional SME introduces a new technology but cannot find the expertise, testing opportunities, or business support to do so.

Imagine a manufacturing company that digitalizes one of its processes, reduces waste, tests sensor solutions, or introduces more sustainable manufacturing technology. The company does not have its own R&D department, does not know the right technology partners, and is not sure how to validate or finance the development. IaaS 4 DR can help with this: it can connect the company to regional innovation-supporting players, international expert knowledge, testing environments, and a structured service process. In this way, innovation can appear not as isolated advice but as a cohesive service package.

Our role

The role of the KDRIÜ is to make the international IaaS 4 DR service and expert network available to medium-sized enterprises and innovation players in Central Transdanubia as well.

KDRIÜ participates as a project partner in the IaaS 4 DR collaboration and is linked to the coordination of the Central Transdanubian IaaS node. Its task is to involve the enterprises, innovation support organizations, policy actors, universities, chambers and clusters of the region in the project activities. KDRIÜ contributes to the domestic utilization of innovation-supporting methodologies, training, pilots and service models. The value of the project for KDRIÜ is to strengthen regional knowledge related to technology transfer, industrial transition and business development services.

Partnership

The IaaS 4 DR partnership brings together the innovation players of the Danube region. 16 partners are implementing the project from 11 countries. In the partnership, universities, regional innovation centers, technology parks, business development organizations, development agencies, and national innovation actors are working together.

Managing partner:

  • Technical University of Kosice – Slovakia
Project partners:
  • Regional Innovation Center of Kosice Region – Slovakia
  • Technology Center Horb GmbH & Co. KG – Germany
  • Atrineo – Germany
  • Pomurje Technology Park – Slovenia
  • Pannon Business Network Association – Hungary
  • TERA TEHNOPOLIS Ltd. – Croatia
  • Vorarlberg University of Applied Sciences – Austria
  • Business Development Agency of Karlovy Vary Region – Czechia
  • Development Agency of the City of Prijedor – PREDA – Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding – UEFISCDI – Romania
  • North-East Regional Development Agency – Romania
  • Central Transdanubian Regional Innovation Agency Nonprofit Ltd. – Hungary
  • Association for Democratic Prosperity – Zid – Montenegro
  • Innovative Composite Technologies Center – Ukraine
  • Austria Wirtschaftsservice – Austria
Associated strategic partners:
  • Hungarian Innovation Association – Hungary
  • Ministry of Economy and Entrepreneurship of the Republic of Srpska – Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Czecho-Slovak Region – Karlovy Vary Region
  • Ministry of Education – Montenegro
  • Public Institution County Development Agency of Osijek-Baranja County- Croatia
  • Regional Economic Development Agency of Northern Black Forest – Germany

Are you interested in the project?

For further information, please visit the official project page or contact the project manager.

Official project page

Programme

  • Interreg Danube Region

Full project title

  • IaaS 4 DR - Innovation as a Service for accelerated innovation and industrial transition in industrial rural and remote areas with low innovation capacity in the Danube Region

Status

  • Closed

Maturity period

  • 1 January 2024 – 30 June 2026.

Project
ID

  • DRP0200211

Project participants

Dr Yvette Vargáné Gálicz, Project Coordinator for KDRIÜ

Dr Yvette Vargáné Gálicz

project coordinator

View profile

Results and related knowledge base materials

The IaaS 4 DR results are truly useful only if they become services that are also available to businesses from frameworks supporting innovation, nodes, and pilots. The IaaS 4 DR results are continuously expanding as the project progresses.

    • Common Innovation Support Framework
      Methodology for mapping regional innovation services, actors, and gaps.
 
    • Regional innovation ecosystem maps
      Analyses presenting the innovation players, services and infrastructure of the project areas.
 
    • Transnational toolbox and service portfolio
      A common toolkit and service catalogue for innovation-promoting organizations.
 
    • IaaS 4 DR Nodes
      Regional innovation hubs that connect local and international innovation services.
 
    • IaaS 4 DR Academy and blended learning platform
      Training program and online learning platform for professionals supporting innovation.
 
    • Smart spaces and smart services pilots
      Testing innovation spaces and advanced services to support the industrial transition.
 
    • IaaS 4 DR Accelerator
      The integrated innovation support model combines smart spaces, smart services and transnational expert collaborations.
 
  • Scaling, sustainability and policy recommendations
    Proposals for the transfer of the project's results and the development of innovation-supporting ecosystems in the Danube region.

Transnational toolbox and service portfolio for innovation support according to joint standard

Transnational toolkit and service portfolio supporting innovation in line with a common standard

The transnational toolkit of the IaaS4DR project offers a unified framework and a practical service portfolio to support innovation, with a particular focus on developing the innovation capacity of rural and remote areas.

WATCH
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  • IaaS 4 DR partnership

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