The report from the work undertaken by UNICREDS partners on the theme of 'Nurturing an Innovative Business Culture and Reaching Isolated Groups' has been published today. The report, written by partners at the University of the Highlands and Islands in Scotland, UK draws on the experiences of the project partners from all seven UNICREDS regions in the ways that universities and the public sector are working with businesses and communities.

Key findings

It has been found that communities from across the UNICREDS partner regions agreed that enhanced communication was the key to nurturing an innovative business culture and reaching isolated groups. Specifically, future initiatives should make a much greater effort to:

• Understand the needs of local businesses and communities in isolated areas;
• Ensure that two-way communication becomes the key tool for developing innovation systems;
• Ensure that isolated businesses and communities are made fully aware of the opportunities and benefits of;
  • Innovative practices;
  • Collaboration;
  • Cooperation;
  • Funding for collaborative innovation projects.

From this work a new “connected quadruple helix “model is proposed to better describe innovation in remote and rural regions.

Download the full report here.