The project “Location at the level of local governments of support instruments for SMEs operating on the basis of the multi-level regional management model (REGIOGMINA)” is implemented by a consortium composed of Kujawsko-Pomorskie Voivodeship, Warsaw School of Economics, and Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. The project budget is over PLN 10.5 million, 100% financed by the National Center for Research and Development as part of the Strategic Program: “Social and economic development of Poland in the conditions of globalizing markets” GOSPOSTRATEG. The project involves the development of methods and instruments of support for the growth of competitiveness and innovation of SMEs on the part of local governments operating under multi-level management with the provincial government and its institutions.
Delivery time – 32 months. In the initial phase of the project implementation – the research phase, a methodology will be developed that will allow for the detailed identification of companies on a regional scale, taking into account their territorial and industry distribution, as well as their development dynamics. As a result of research and analysis, and up-to-date image of companies in the voivodeship will be prepared, presenting their productivity, competitiveness, innovation, and cooperative relationships. The existing support instruments for SMEs will also be subject to identification and evaluation, which will result in the development of recommendations necessary for the possible introduction of the identified instruments and mechanisms relating to the institutional, regulatory and legal sphere. Based on desk-research and questionnaires, the methodology and formula of the voivodship economic development program will be developed, defining a practical and measurable way of using the export and investment potential of the region.
It will define the role of SMEs in its development in cooperation and cooperation with key companies in the region for the growth of investments, exports, and product innovation, using the endogenous development potential of the voivodeship. The developed method of collecting, processing, and sharing information on company management and their competitive position for selected industries, types of activities, and subregions of the voivodeship will constitute the assumptions for the functioning of the Regional Economic Observatory as a permanently updated regional development information resource for self-government companies and support institutions. In the second phase – the phase of preparation for implementation, questionnaire surveys for focus groups will allow assessing the adequacy of instruments in relation to the structure of companies and support institutions, as well as activities recommended in the economic program, while the pilot will check the effectiveness of the proposed and created support instruments for SME, Regional Economic Observatory and other proposed solutions.
