How Polish Firms Use the EU Funds for Innovative Projects? Final Evaluation of Pomerania Region in Poland

Abstract

The key challenge for EU Cohesion Policy is to improve SMEs access to capital and innovation. The objective of the article is to analyse use of the EU Structural Funds for innovative projects in SMEs from Pomerania Regional Operational Programme (ROP) 2007-2013. The analysis is based on 119 projects granted by the Measure 1.2. In order to achieve the main objective of the paper, the following detailed objectives are expected to be met: description of conditions and rules of grants awarding, analysis of SMEs in Pomerania region and finally, analysis of granted projects. The results of the analysis confirmed significant diversity of total values of projects, awarded grants and branches. The funded projects were implemented mostly in manufacturing. There were no beneficiaries from section H and section I which are very important for Pomerania's economy. Most of the projects concerned implementation activity and only few of them were related to investment in R&D activity. More expensive projects and projects implemented in cooperation were more frequently financed with credit. In most cases firms have not declared employment growth. The research results should give recommendations for regional authorities on defining guidelines and implementing the Pomerania ROP 2014-2020.

The Role of Regional Authorities’ Policy in Supporting Innovation Potential of Pomorskie Voivodeship

“…In Pomorskie Voivodeship, enterprises refrain from cooperation when implementing innovative projects, which prevents from full exploitation of innovation capacity of the region. The results show high concentration of projects in Tri-city agglomeration and adjacent districts, which confirms the role of agglomeration in promoting technology transfer and innovation (Golejewska & Gajda 2015). In the current EU programming period, support is directed to enterprises implementing innovative solutions, as well as to enterprises starting up or developing their R&D activity and cooperating with universities and scientific institutions (with an enterprise as a project leader).…”

The Mechanisms of Technological Innovation in Smes: A Bayesian Network Analysis of Eu Regional Policy Impact on Polish Firms

“…7 For instance, the share of innovative enterprises in Poland is just half the EU average (Nieć, 2015, p. 12); see also section 2.1. 8 The papers available compare the general features of various innovation policies for Polish firms or the allocation of EU funds across firms in selected Polish regions (Golejewska & Gajda, 2015;Duda, 2012;Jasinski, 2014, Lewandowska, Stopa, & Humenny, 2015. The samples are typically quite small; the recent paper by Lewandowska et al (2015) on 394 Polish firms and is among the very few based on wider surveys.…”