Regions within the Northern Periphery face a number of investment and innovation challenges arising from their small internal market sizes, distance from both potential customers and innovation or business partners and lack of critical mass.

However, these regions have also invested substantially in the development of broadband capacity and 3^rd level education and are beginning to develop digital media clusters, often based around research or innovation centres and based on traditional strengths or particular sectors.

Small market size and lack of potential innovation partners can be partly overcome by developing business partnerships with other regions in the Northern Periphery and beyond (the large innovation clusters and large markets enjoyed in central areas of Europe and North America) to jointly achieve the economies of scale necessary  I.e., can be alleviated by peripheral regions working together.

Additionally, smaller high technologies companies from outside the Northern Periphery, can also benefit from developing partnerships with businesses and innovation partnerships inside the NP. This can create additional products, services and export opportunities for NP-based companies, as well as investment opportunities for regions and innovation hubs.

Finally, regions and cities within the NP can add to the attractiveness of their inward investment offering by moving it up the knowledge economy value chain, particularly by bringing a closer alignment between scarce technology zones or parks, innovation, 3rd level and Next Generation Broadband (NGB) resources.   

The aim of this project is to “increase knowledge economy job creation and investment rates within the Northern Periphery by networking the area’s innovation, research and business assets and better connecting it to global marketplaces”

Specific objectives are to:

1. Develop a methodology and system (Innovation Networking Support System) for supporting innovation networks between companies, innovation and research centres in different regions across the Northern Periphery
2. Identify and transfer (a) best practice innovation models and (b) concrete research, technologies and business opportunities between small companies, research centres and the 3rd level in the Northern Periphery.
3. Test the efficacy of the system (objective1) and the approach (objective 2) for job creation and investment as a result of  connecting the area’s innovation assets and business clusters to area external to the Northern Periphery.

Products and Services to be Developed

1. The project partners will jointly create a transnational on-line repository of the knowledge economy assets within the participating regions. The assets will include technology parks, Next Generation Broadband (NGB) infrastructure, innovation centres, research poles, and technology companies (This will include ICT, digital media and sustainable technologies). This will be available to all regions across the NP.
2. The project will develop and operate a transnational innovation service specifically focused on facilitating the development of technology exchange and marketing partnerships between companies across the Northern Periphery, with a particular focus on businesses developing products in the digital media space designed for Next Generation Networks. This will be available to all regions across the NP.
3. The project will result in a new type of investment service, where investors can work with a group of regions to achieve the best package, perhaps based in more than one region.
4. The partners will collaborate across the NP area to share and develop best practice in the design and marketing of new breed of business parks in rural and remote areas based on NGB, digital media and innovation centre support.
5. The project will result in business partnerships between knowledge economy companies from across the NP area.  It will result in inward investment from both smaller and larger companies from outside the NP area, as a result of the regions working together to offer a larger pool of technology and investment offering