Innovation Audit for business excellence

Abstract Innovation means creativity and added value recognise by the market. The first step in creating a sustainable commercialization of research results, Technological Transfer - TT mechanism, on one hand is to define the “technology” which will be transferred and on other hand to define the context in which the TT mechanism work, the ecosystem. The Innovation Audit is a component of the analysis of innovation capability potential of SMEs and R&D Institutions together with TO - Technology Offer, TR - Technology Request in the field of economy, technology transfer. We created a methodology and a tool that will support the entities that work in the field of technology transfer and innovation to analyze the company’s capacity to be innovative, to create competitiveness. The Innovation Audit tool developed will be available online for all the users interested, in the conditions described above, which makes them accessible beyond the members of the consortium and their home regions and countries. Also, since the development process will be part of the financing project, all the consultations, reports, analyses, inputs and feedbacks will be available to any interested party which can replicate the process in other fields or in other regions. Actually, this would be highly desirable, as it would lead to building a stronger network of support for innovation and technology transfer that can lead to an increased competitiveness of European enterprises (especially SMEs) in domains important for the future life and welfare of European citizens. The Innovation Audit tool developed is readily transferable to the organisations from all the countries along Danube, involved in the “Made in Danube” project that are active in the domain of bio-economy. This is due to the fact that they will be conceived starting from the real needs of these organisations and in line with European level guidelines and international best practices and come to fill a know-how niche that is under populated at the moment.