One of the main driving forces of the knowledge based society is knowledge itself, which is a fundamental element of competitiveness. Every product around us is the result of a chain of development processes. The innovation resulting in the intellectual output (the product), is an essential driving force of the economic life. Nowadays, there is a strong focus on innovation, because the speed of development is rapidly increasing. The 2014 issue of the Flash Eurobarometer describes the characteristics of innovative enterprises, on EU level as well as from the national economy’s point of view. According to this, between 2011 and 2013 37%, out of 28 EU member countries enterprises, 39% of Slovakian, 41% of Romanian, 40% of Polish and 24% of Hungarian enterprises have created new or significantly developed products. Our goal is to develop a training material addressing the development of an innovation management system based on the new CENT/TS 16555 standard released in 2013. This system will be established and tested in the partner organisations. By developing new educational materials, the project improves the adaptation of vocational education to the needs of the labour market and supports its harmonisation with modern economic needs. The project embraces the educational and employment sectors; therefore it contains labour based elements as well. As a result of the social and economic development needs the CEN/TS 16555 standard was issued in 2013, providing technological guidance for innovation management, and supporting the implementation of the innovation management system. The measurement and evaluation of innovation means much more than simple data collection. IMS serves to use these data to establish the development of such systems, and to measure their effectiveness. Therefore innovation can be understood as the complex system of the following attributes: - Clarified leadership role regarding innovation strategy - Planning successful innovation strategy and processes - Aspects supporting innovation - Optimizing IMS - Evaluation of IMS achievements - Assessment and adjustment of IMS The novelty of this project is that it will develop an innovation management system based on the recently issued CEN/TS 16555 standard, which will be tested ‘on the spot’ on the partners’ own organisations, and the results will be disseminated among entrepreneurs in the partners’ network, involving them in the testing process as well. The standard-based IMS can be integrated into the larger corporate management systems (e.g. ISO 9001) which share the common base of dynamic PDCA system. The project will realize the following intellectual outputs: IO 1 – will consist of three parts: IO1.1: a competence profile of the person who will be responsible for IMS within the company IO1.2: a collection of questions assembled based on the Standard. This database will help the companies to assess the actual state of the corporate innovation management and scrutiny the needs within their company. IO1.3: a guidebook which supports the implementation of the IMS system within the company IO 2 – The main parts of IO 2 are the following: IO2.1: Training material to support the establishment of the Standard based IMS (includes Curriculum, Pedagogical Guide, Good examples, Hand-outs etc.) IO2.2: Testing of the training within project partnership – 5 days joint staff event IO2.3: Testing of the training material at national level using Blended learning method IO 3 - Online social brainstorming platform to support innovation and creative idea generation. The project partnership will consist of 6 partners (2 Hungarian, 2 Romanian, 1 Slovak, 1 Polish), covering a wide range of the economic sectors from SME, across large multinational company, to various educational institutes etc. Most of the partners have known each other, but the partners in this combination have not worked together before. For P6, this is the first time to participate in an Erasmus+ project. The partnership has great experiences in the development of educational materials, education and training, and implementing innovation in everyday worklife. The materials and additional tools will be developed with the contribution of professional trainers ensuring that the training process will be professional, adjusted to the needs and possibilities of the target group, and appropriate to train practical knowledge about innovation process, IMS establishment and maintenance. The target groups of the project are: - Professional trainers and training institutes advancing/aspiring to train and develop innovation management competences, and IMS process to the assigned persons of the companies who will be responsible for innovation management within the company. - Corporate employees and/or managers (small, medium and large companies) The duration of the project is 2 years, and it will start on 01.10.2015.
The development and application of intelligent manufacturing technologies and equipment have increased demand for efficient innovation, largely for breakthrough innovation. The process is referred to as the 4th Industrial Revolution. This need can only be met if there is a large number of professionals able to implement innovation and there is an appropriate framework for ensuring the effectiveness of innovation management. This framework is granted by the CEN/TS 16555-1 “Innovation Management System” (IMS) European standard. In order to provide a large number of professionals, there is a need for cost-effective online training services. Thus, the 4th Industrial Revolution has a significant market demand for our educational service to be spread worldwide. Our project was a step towards our long-run goal that more and more companies could efficiently apply the IMS standard, thus increasing their innovation capability and efficiency. The main goal of the InnoMe - Training on Corporate Innovation Management System for Competitiveness (2015-1-HU01-KA202-13551) Erasmus+ project, therefore, was to develop an educational material mainly for the management of SME-s to support the establishment and management of an innovation process controlling system based on the CEN/TS 16555-1 IMS standard. The aim of the standard is to give guidelines to the introduction, development and operation to the frameworks of systematic innovation management activities of organizations. The implementation of the standard ensures the growth of their competitiveness. The standard-based IMS can be integrated into the larger corporate management systems (e.g. ISO 9001) which have the common base of a dynamic PDCA system. The 27-month-long project has realized three intellectual outputs, which are closely related to each other, being parts of a complex system; however, they can also be viewed as independent elements. Each output is available in Hungarian, Slovak, Polish, Romanian and English and accessible from the project’s website: http://innovationdevelopment.eu/. The first two outputs consist of 3-3 units. 1 - Elaboration base of IMS 1.1 Competence catalogue of innovation managers Competence profile of innovation managers responsible for successful operation of the IMS based on the standard was elaborated on the basis of a survey carried out in the 4 partner countries. Altogether 450 completed questionnaires and 32 personal interviews were analysed. Relying on the results, a separate report for each country as well as a summarizing report were elaborated. 1.2 Online questions database A questions database customised for the scope of the standard have been developed so that companies/decision makers can assess innovativeness within their organisation. The database contains a total of more than 150 questions that can be filtered according to the corporate sector (Automotive, HR, Education / Training, Other) and filling manager position (senior / middle manager). 1.3 Guidebook The Guidebook supports the understanding and practical utilization of the IMS standard with examples and good practices in 350 pages. Main topics are: innovation in the European Union, innovation policy in Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, types of innovation, context of organization, leadership for innovation, planning a successful innovation, innovation driving factors, innovation management techniques, steps of a CEN/TS 16555-1 audit. 2 – Training 2.1 Joint Staff event A 5-day-long innovation management training was organized in Budapest in order to test the content of the Guidebook as basis for a training on innovation management. Besides testing, the 40-hour training aimed at improving the knowledge, skills and competences of employees of InnoMe project consortium members in the field of innovation management. 2.2 E-learning Using the Guidebook as a source of information, the e-learning tool provides employees with the skills, knowledge and competences needed for the establishment and maintenance of an innovation management system at their organization according to the IMS standard. 2.3 Blended learning courses Blended learning courses on innovation management have been organized in each partner country to test the e-learning tool. The e-learning training were complemented with face-to-face classroom sessions. The training materials have been finalized according to the feedback received from the participants. 3 – Online brainstorming platform At the final stage of the project, an online brainstorming platform was developed to assist people separated in space to share their ideas related to particular questions or issues. The project has been implemented by six partners covering a wide range of economic sectors (HR, education and training, consultancy, car industry): • TREBAG Ltd. (coordinator), Hungary • ASTRA, Slovakia • Nowoczesna Firma S.A., Poland • EAPTP, Romania • Babes Bolyai University, Romania • Magyar Suzuki Corp., Hungary