The effect of innovation vouchers on science-industry interaction

Abstract:

The innovation voucher is a Dutch policy instrument to stimulate the interaction between small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and public research institutes. This paper provides an estimate of the effectiveness (output) of the innovation voucher, employing the fact that the vouchers were assigned randomly by means of a lottery. The main conclusion is that the innovation voucher indeed stimulates SMEs to engage in many new assignments with public research institutes. Out of every ten vouchers, eight are used for a project that would not have been assigned without such a voucher, one is used for a project that would have been assigned anyhow, and one voucher is not used. A broad assessment of the innovation voucher also needs to take into account the value added of the additional assignments (outcome of the voucher). No insights have yet been obtained here.