Report of Visit to Agency ANI Portugal. Lisbon, 2 May 2016

Transcription

1 Report of Visit to Agency ANI Portugal Lisbon, 2 May

2 1 Recommendation to the board, Executive summary, Executive Summary: The MPG and the EWG recommends to the Board to invite ANI Portugal (Agência Nacional de Inovação) to become a member of Taftie. The services provided by ANI Portugal correspond well with the core activities of TAFTIE. ANI Portugal fulfils the indispensable criteria as defined in the document Taftie Membership Applications Criteria and Procedures of May 2015 and was evaluated with a score of 27 points against the weighted criteria. The management team of ANI Portugal is highly motivated to participate and contribute to the development of the Taftie network. It is also important to note that IAPMEI, Taftie representative for Portugal, has no objections to ANI Portugal becoming a member and foresees many valuable synergies from their participation. The visit was made by Ian Cresswell (Luxinnovation) and Wolfgang Gessner (VDE/VDI-IT) on 2 May 2016 in Lisbon. The headquarters of ANI Portugal is actually located in Porto (with about 30 employees) but they also have offices in Lisbon (with about 50 employees), which is situated in very close proximity to IAPMEI. The Taftie delegation was received by the following representatives of ANI Portugal: Miguel Barbosa: Managing Director of ANI (Board Member) Ana Ponte: Head of Tech transfer Diana Costa: Head of Incentive Management Marcos Lopes: Head of Strategy and Business Development The representatives of ANI Portugal presented an overview of the Portuguese economy plus the role and the services provided by the Agency, which was created in 2014 from the agency AdI Portugal (Agência de Inovação). It is important to note that AdI Portugal and was a Taftie member until The goal of ANI Portugal is to promote knowledge transfer through greater and better collaboration and cooperation between companies and R&D institutions. The Agency has a strong technological focus and is intent on becoming one of the top innovation agencies in Europe within the next 10 years, whilst supporting the Portuguese economy through the development and implementation of high value-added services to industry. To achieve this, the Agency is active in 3 different areas: Financial and tax incentives Projects and international cooperation Policy and innovation promotion The Agency is funded by a combination of mostly government funds and European Regional Development Funds but is looking to increase its 2

3 participation, for example, in Horizon 2020 projects as an additional source of funding (an application has been submitted for the Innosup 5, Peer learning of innovation agencies programme). The Agency also contributes directly to policy development and featured prominently, for example, in the preparation of the Smart Specialisation programme documents for Portugal. The services proposed by ANI Portugal appear to correspond well with the core activities and values of Taftie. The representatives of ANI Portugal demonstrated a strong motivation to join the Taftie network and to contribute actively to its further development. It is therefore highly recommended that ANI Portugal be accepted as a Taftie member organisation. Agency Management of RDI Funding programmes (no of programmes) Size (No of staff; desired: > 20) Budget managed ( /a, desired: > 30M) ( ) 1) Financial and tax incentives 2) One National R&I programmes with different priorities 3) R&I initiatives with an international focus 83 (with a planned increase to 120 people) 156M /year (average) tax incentives + 49M /year (average) programme budget Budget sources State Funds + European Regional Development Funds SME client base (no of SME clients pa, desired: > +/- 3,700 SMEs 1000) Maturity: years in operation (desired > 2 years) ANI Portugal was created in 2014 but derives from the agency AdI, which was created in 1993 and was a Taftie member until 2012 Country GDP 179B (2015) GERD as a share of GDP (%) 1,29% GERD publicly financed as a share of GDP (%) 0,58% 3

4 2 Indispensable criteria 1. National coverage (or full coverage in autonomous regions in federative countries if there are no agencies at national level) ANI Portugal is the National Innovation Agency for Portugal and therefore enjoys national coverage. In this role, it works with the existing Taftie member for Portugal, IAPMEI (Public Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation), with each having a separate role: ANI Portugal Promotion of knowledge transfer through greater and better collaboration between companies and R&D institutions IAPMEI Development of services aimed at supporting technological innovation in Portugal ANI Portugal therefore considers itself to be further upstream in the innovation cycle and stresses the link that it maintains between companies and public R&D institutions. 2. EU 27 + FP7 Associated Countries Yes, Portugal is a member country of the EU since Implementing R&D or innovation (RDI) funding programmes for SME ANI Portugal implements and manages RDI funding programmes on behalf of the Ministry of the Economy and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education. This is its core function and around 80% of its resources are dedicated to this activity. These programmes are open to all companies but positive discrimination is exercised towards SMEs. It is estimated that more than 90% of ANI Portugal clients are SMEs. The Agency does not, however, directly handle the funding of projects as this is the role of the Ministry of the Economy. The Agency is, however, responsible for the follow-up of all projects to ensure that public funds are used for the purposes for which they were intended. 4. Public organisation (either independent body being a public organisation or being integrated in a ministry) or private organisation with public funding/mission. ANI Portugal is a publicly owned private company with two stakeholders: the Ministry of the Economy and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education. In this capacity it is heavily involved in the development, application and management of innovation funding programmes. 4

5 3 Weighted Criteria 5. Centrality of position in National Innovation System 6. Track record in Innovation policies (on the basis of evaluation reports etc.) 1-5 points (1 = very weak, 5 = very strong) 7. Size and maturity of the organisation 4 8. Ability and willingness to invest and contribute to the Taftie network 9. Absence of conflict of interest with existing members 10. Financial liability (budget managed) 5 Total points The GDP per capita in Portugal is currently EUR 16,217, which is approximately 24% below the EU average. GERD as a share of GDP (1.29% of which 0.59% is contributed by the private sector) is also below the EU average. The Portuguese Economy has been expanding continuously since the third quarter of 2014, with a yearly GDP growth of 1.5% registered in the second quarter of This growth has been accompanied by a fall in the unemployment rate (11.9% in the second quarter of 2015, compared with 13.9% at the end of 2014). The Government budget deficit has also been reduced from the 11.2% of GDP in 2010 to 4.8% in These rates mark an inversion from the negative trends caused by the impact of the Financial Crisis of The World Economic Forum s Global Competitiveness Report for ranked Portugal 36 th overall and number 1 in terms of annual growth rate in R&I performance. 5

6 At the beginning of the last decade, Portuguese public policy explicitly adopted the concept of a national innovation system. Public intervention has been largely centred on the creation and reinforcement of links between producers and users of knowledge, as well as its circulation, thereby reinforcing the density and completeness of the system. Links were mainly promoted by support for public research and company partnerships and the creation of intermediary organisations. The mobilisation of intergovernmental research organisations and foreign research institutions was crucial for stimulating the R&D system. Such involvement is a key feature of the process of national research growth. ANI is the National Innovation Agency for Portugal and operates in synergy with IAPMEI, the Public Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation, which is already a Taftie member. The roles of the two organisations are different but complementary, with ANI Portugal occupying a position that is further upstream in the innovation cycle. IAPME fully supports the Taftie membership application of ANI Portugal. ANI Portugal was created in 2014 and derives from previous Taftie member AdI Portugal (Agência de Inovação), which was created in 1993 and dissolved in It therefore benefits from the experience of AdI and from the relationship that this Agency had with the Portuguese Government but, since it was only created in 2014, no external evaluations have yet been undertaken. The Agency currently employs some 83 personnel shared between its headquarters in Porto (approximately 30 people) and its offices in Lisbon (approximately 50 people). It is planned that the headcount will further increase to some 120 people during the current phase of recruitment. 6

7 The Board of ANI Portugal took office in October 2014 and is appointed by the two stakeholders the Ministry of the Economy and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education and to whom the Agency reports. During the period 2008 to 2015, ANI Portugal (AdI prior to 2012) managed a total of 7,415 financial applications resulting in approximately EUR 1.25 billion of tax incentives and approximately EUR 392 million of other financial incentives. A total of jobs were created, of which in Companies and in non-business Entities. These programme management activities represent about 80% of revenue generated by the Agency, with the remainder coming from Horizon 2020, the European Space Agency, Eurostars, etc. 4 Plans of the applicant added value and commitment The ANI Portugal management team appears to be highly motivated to participate in the activities of the Taftie network and had prepared very thoroughly for the meeting. Since the predecessor of ANI Portugal was a Taftie member until 2012, the management understands very well the commitment that is expected of them. ANI Portugal expects not only to benefit directly from membership of Taftie (networking, collaboration building, Academy, Task Forces ) but also to contribute in many different ways: Providing access to the Portuguese R&I landscape (in complement to IAPMEI) Integrating specific national contributions to the Taftie agenda and discussions based on their smart specialisation profile Providing access to international cooperation partners (namely the Portuguese speaking countries) Actively integrating and contributing to Taftie Task Forces Providing networking opportunities with Portuguese economic and political actors Providing access to Portuguese innovation analytics and benchmarking studies The Agency is planning to grow both in terms of the number of people employed and also in the scope of the services provided and the management is very optimistic and enthusiastic about future achievements. It is therefore the recommendation of this report that the application by ANI Portugal to become a member of Taftie be accepted. 7