The role of the Helix approach in the promotion of Cultural and Creative Industries Experience from Interreg Central Europe Cooperation Programme

Abstract

The elaboration of a strategy S3 is an ex-ante condition, both for Member states and Regional authorities, to access to the European regional development funds for the 2014-2020 funding period. The need to elaborate these kind of strategies is an open declaration by EU of the importance of the innovation processes as essential to contribute to the economical local growth. Therefore to accelerate the transfer of research and innovation results to regional growth are proposed two models the Triple Helix and the Quadruple Helix. These models entail transdisciplinary collaborations between different spheres: University, Industry, Government and, as the fourth helix, the Civil Society. Creativity and innovation can be considered two concepts in semantics overlapping because innovation is the creation of new ideas, for this reason creativity and culture must be seriously considered as high performance assets. Furthermore CCIs can be assumed as R&D centres for their peculiarities, ie they can lead the innovation process as knowledge producers. Because of the fact that they are still not fully recognised in their power, for the CCIs European projects take shape as a fundamental tool in order to create the basis for the creation of innovative production process that can really contribute to the economical local growth. However, we can notice on an empirical basis, that the application of the models proposed is weakened by a lack of policy making and communication between authorities and the other actors, especially University. In my thesis I will put to the test the Quadruple Helix, verifying the use of it in the European Interreg Program context, that involves specific territories, that promotes actions in support to Cultural and Creative Projects.