SYNERGY End of the Project 

The Interreg Central Europe Project SYNERGY (“SYnergic Networking for innovativeness Enhancement of central european actoRs focused on hiGh-tech industrY”) was terminated in October 2020 after a three-year project duration (01.08.2017 - 31.10.2020). The project, implemented by the international consortium of 7 organisations from 6 countries, was led by Wrocław University of Science and Technology. The other project partners involved in SYNERGY were PROFACTOR GmbH (Austria), Technical University Chemnitz/Cluster of Excellence MERGE (Germany), Jozef Stefan Institute (Slovenia), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany), STEP RI Sience and Technology Park of the University of Rijeka Ltd (Croatia) and Centre of Research and Technological Innovation Srl. (Italy). 

The SYNERGY project aimed at strengthening synergies and cooperation between companies, industry, research, intermediaries and policy makers from the Key Project Areas (KPAs) of Additive Manufacturing and 3D-Printing, Micro- and Nanotechnologies and Industry 4.0 in Central Europe. The project team analysed international project infrastructures, created Synergic Consortia and Synergic Networks, defined expectations for new online Crowd Innovation services that have been tested within different pilot actions and are now available online on the SYNERGY Platform. In addition, SYNERGY engaged in the development of a ready-to-adopt generic Crowd Innovation Strategy that was presented to respective regional target groups. All this describes the results of the SYNERGY project, which we were able to summarise at the SYNERGY Final Online Conference. 

The Main Outputs Achieved over the course of the project are described in the following and more information can be found in the output section.

 

Main Output 1: Synergic Profiling: An analysis of 240 international research, industrial & regional development projects was carried out in order to gather and group regional innovation actors of common areas of expertise and interests. The Synergic Profiling (SynPro) Tool was developed as an online matchmaking tool that analyses multiple project features and organizations' competences in order to create synergy effects between entities looking for new contacts, wanting to establish wider, international cooperation, which are interested in finding a partner in the fields of Additive Manufacturing, Micro- and Nanotechnologies and Industry 4.0. The SynPro tool will remain available after the end of the project and we invite you to use the tool for your cooperation development https://synpro.e-science.pl/. Find more information in the Synergic Profiling Output Sheet. 

Main Output 2: Synergic Networking: The SYNERGY project built innovative Synergic Networks to establish living linkages among trans-regional stakeholders as a self-sustained way of collaboration towards the enhancement of collaboration and cooperation within the high-tech industry in Central European regions. Three KPA-specific Synergic Networks have been created through targeted stakeholder engagement formats involving representatives from all target groups such as academia, industry, government and civil society to jointly establish the needs for innovative cooperation in Central Europe. The results of Synergic Networking are directly displayed on the Competence Map in the SynPro Tool and on the SYNERGY Platform. Find more information in the Synergic Networking Output Sheet.

Main Output 3: SYNERGY Crowd Innovation Platform: The SYNERGY Platform was introduced as a new Open and Crowd Innovation environment for industry and academia providing different online collaboration services for crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, micro-working and resource exchange initiatives across the key project areas Additive Manufacturing & 3D Printing, Micro- & Nanotechnologies and Industry 4.0. The six thematic pilot actions carried out have enabled more than 700 users from all over Central Europe to collaborate together via the platform while coming up with targeted technical solutions to specific challenges. The SYNERGY Platform will of course be actively operated after the end of the project and made available for various types of collaboration. We invite you to benefit from the collaborative environment on the SYNERGY platform and we encourage you to register via https://synergyplatform.pwr.edu.pl/. Find more information in the SYNERGY Crowd Innovation Platform Output Sheet. 

Main Output 4: SYNERGY Crowd Innovation Strategy: The SYNERGY Crowd Innovation Strategy comprises a plan of actions designed to achieve a long-term and overall spread of Open Innovation (OI) initiatives in the Central European partner regions among all relevant stakeholder target groups that will foster productivity, efficiency and competitiveness in innovation processes. The SYNERGY Crowd Innovation Strategy was translated into the local languages of the project partner regions in order to make it accessible to all regional authorities and organizations involved in enforcing and designing Open Innovation at a regional and trans-regional level. The SYNERGY Crowd Innovation Strategy is publicly available. Find more information in the SYNERGY Crowd Innovation Strategy Output Sheet. 

The main results and outputs achieved under the SYNERGY Interreg Central Europe project are still available and are actively sustained after the end of the project. We look forward to continuing the common cooperation in the field of Open Innovation involving all stakeholder target groups and hope for your continuous support. The results and objectives of the SYNERGY project will be further developed through a number of different subsequent EU projects and initiatives, funded for example by the Horizon 2020 or Interreg (Central Europe/Upper Rhine) programmes.

We would like to thank all committed SYNERGY project partners and, most importantly, all external SYNERGY stakeholders for their active involvement and support in the project, which has helped to drive innovativeness enhancement in the Central European regions! 

Are you interested in all detailed project results and future activities after the end of the SYNERGY project? Then visit the SYNERGY social media channels on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to stay informed! 

In case of any questions please feel free to get in contact with the lead partner Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, WrUST, POLAND. We will be happy to share the knowledge gained thanks to this cooperation with you.