Masterclass Urban Rural Relationships

Supporting businesses to innovate

jan-willem.vanderschans@wur.nl

Edinburgh, 11 April 2018 @JWvdS

Business Innovation Accelerator

▪ Help to improve the success of start-up businesses

▪ Structured environment to support

● Peer to peer learning (cohort based)

● Mentoring

● Shared services (technical equipement, business

support, legal advice)

● Common space (informal exchange of experiences)

● Face to face contact to explain implicit and

complex knowledge

▪ Pitch or demo aimed at funding (venture capital but also public

and corporate funds)

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https://enrd.ec.europa.eu/sites/enrd/files/publi-enrd-rr-24-2017-en.pdf

https://enrd.ec.europa.eu/sites/enrd/files/tg_rural-businesses_case-study_agrient.pdf

https://enrd.ec.europa.eu/sites/enrd/files/tg_rural-businesses_case-study_academy-on-

tour.pdf

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Academy on Tour

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21 october 2016 Make your dreams come true! 2

3 18 november 2016 Horeca, supermarkets, webshops

416 december 2016 How to build a brand?

5 13 januari 2017Destination marketing

6 10 februari 2017New business models

9 september 2016 Introduction1 7 30 maart 2017

Final meeting

Meetings

20 maart 2017 Popup Markthal

3b

6b

4b

25 november 2016 Trip to Gent

Some weeks 2016/2017 Student research ‘’Fast Casual”

De-commodification of dairy

Each farmer is unique

Each meadow is unique

Each cow is unique

Each milk is unique

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Lessons learned

Dynamic demand led approach

Organise around challenges rather than sectors (new coalitions)

Committed initiators (passion for entrepreneurship and innovation)

Pilot and test for refining the programme

Multiple funding sources

Accelerators may not yield immediate result

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https://enrd.ec.europa.eu/sites/enrd/files/tg_rural-businesses_case-study_accelerator.pdf

Questions to be debated

To what extent is public funding (EU

RDP) able to facilitate this accelerator

approach?

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