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Dialogic has supported the Province from April to November 2022 to gain insights into how the Province can contribute to a future-proof, financeable, and supported SME support structure in Overijssel. To achieve this, both the demand side and the supply side have been examined in various ways, including desk research, interviews, roundtable sessions with entrepreneurs, as well as a scenario development process involving two scenario sessions with stakeholders and a meeting with financiers from intermediary structure organizations. The Dialogic project team also extensively collaborated with an advisory group and involved civil servants.
The policy advice (part 1) and the underlying research report (part 2) are now in the public domain and can be found – together with the letter from the Provincial Executive to the Provincial States of Overijssel – here.
In the policy advice, Dialogic recommended, among other things, the following:
- The province should maintain at least the existing structural resources for supporting SME services as part of its task to stimulate the regional economy. Where possible, it should use incidental resources to enable additional programmes.
- The province only supports (existing) intermediary structure organizations for offering first- and second-line SME services (also for Deventer).
- The province supports the regular SME services of the intermediary structure organizations and connects that service provision to transition themes such as sustainability and digitalisation.
- The Province stops funding SME advisors as well as supporting SME services used by companies and institutions outside the provincial borders.
- Within the narrowly defined task assignment of the Province, it operates on a demand-driven basis. The province engages in ongoing dialogue with partners to ensure that the SME services still meet the needs of SMEs and how it can maximally influence third-party SME services (e.g. RVO, KvK) for the benefit of Overijssel's SMEs (referring, adjusting, raising awareness, lobbying, etc.) [For more details, see advice].
- The province reviews subsidy conditions for (existing) intermediary structure organizations where necessary [see report for more details).
The letter from the Provincial Executive to the Provincial States indicates that final decision-making is expected to take place in Q3 of this year (dependent in part on the provincial priorities in the economic domain), so that the intermediary structure organizations Novel-T, Kennispoort, and Oost NL can timely shape their 2024 annual plans.
Interested in learning more about this research? Ask Pim den Hertog.