Identification and benchmark of the different local good practices in the field of policies to support innovative SMEs and entrepreneurs at the partner City, using the Innovation Hub experience as a yardstick.

The main activities are:

• Preparation of a common toolkit to identify, benchmark and describe best practices in innovation support to entrepreneurs and SMEs. The toolkit includes templates, questionnaires and checklists and is modelled taking into account the specific features of each site and taking as a blueprint the most complete of the current schemes, the one under implementation in Nacka. This includes a joint partners' workshop for methodological design.
• Data collection, identification and description of Good Practices in local support to innovative entrepreneurs and SMEs at each Edge City involved in the project.
• Local benchmarking exercise of the Good Practices using a SWOT analysis methodology.
• Production of a Good Practice Guide including a catalogue of best practices, analysis of success factors and results of the benchmark.
• Joint workshop to analyse the results of the benchmark and propose a generic trans-regional Innovation Hub model applicable across the Edge Cities Network.
• Exchange of study visits to the best practices considered key sources for the generic Innovation Hub model in order to discuss and prepare exchange/transfer scenarios.
• Local workshops among stakeholders to prepare an implementation plan of the generic Innovation Hub model, taking into account the local framework.
• Preparation of a Roadmap addressed to politicians and decision-makers about the implementation of the best practice exchange in support to entrepreneurs and SMEs.
• Joint workshop to analyse the results of the limited pilot experience carried out and its effects in final Roadmap.
• Improvement of the Roadmaps taking into account the pilot experiences.
• Local workshops, round tables and in-depth meetings with key decision makers in the innovation support field in order to discuss the Roadmap.
• Presentation of the results and achievements at the Annual Seminars.