Technology Transfer as Driver for Innovation and Automation in SMEs - Experiences and results from different programs in Norway

Abstract

Abstract-Competence brokering for knowledge and technology transfer plays an important role in innovation and development within small and medium sized companies (SMEs). This type of activity focusing on cooperation between SME's and R&D environment has been implemented in various applications in Norway for many years. The transferred knowledge leads to company specific projects in innovation and development. In both national and international studies, it is documented that 60-70 % of the challenges and needs of SMEs in different countries are related to products, processes and international marketing. The basic idea of brokering is to improve collaboration between companies and R&D institutes in order to facilitate innovation, development and value creation. The major characteristic of the brokering is to visit companies, build rust, and systematically audit the challenges and needs, clarify and identify relevant projects, and assist companies to obtain and apply R&D knowledge. This can be done by individual cooperation between one company and one researcher, or within networks where more companies and researchers participate. The paper presents the Norwegian approach and experiences of competence brokering and technology transfer to SMEs in regional innovation and development. The work is based on action research, reflection, experiences from the brokers' point of view and literature studies, and focuses also on experiences from company specific projects which have resulted in significant improvements and better efficiency in production.Keywords-competence brokering; knowledge and technology transfer; product development; automation; collaboration I. COMPETENCE BROKERING AND TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER IN NORWAY A. History of technology transfer programsVarious programs for knowledge and technology transfer from R&D institutes to small and medium sized companies (SMEs) started already in the early 80s in Norway, first as technology clusters for big companies. In 1982, a 3-year program was established aiming at collaboration between manufacturing companies in Jämtland, Sweden and SINTEF in Trondheim, Norway. SINTEF is the largest independent research organisation in Scandinavia. The evaluation created positive attentions, and a similar 5-years pilot program was implemented in 1985 in one of 19 counties in Norway.In 1989, District oriented Technology Diffusion (DTS) was started as a public 5-year program involving 9 counties, mainly peripheral ones, with one technology broker from SINTEF working full time in each participating county. During these years 2135 companies were visited, and 1011 companies managed to implement their technology related projects, where about 40 % were related to process development and automation. 334 different researchers were involved in the implementation. 24 % of the companies undertook repurchase of R&D within two years