SMEs; Up until now, more than 130 businesses and 316 employees participated in different TERA incubation programmes
Use of business space in TERA Incubator, use of the Incubator’s equipment and programme support, use of significantly improved consultancy services
TERA has developed into an institution that provides complete support to innovative entrepreneurs. It operates as a Technology Transfer Office of the home university and a regional Technology Transfer Office, certified by HAMAG-BICRO as a business innovation centre and a technology incubator. Within its business activities, TERA keeps up with international trends and develops services in accordance with the 3rd and 4th business incubator generations, which emphasise networking, virtual incubation, and online services. It offers access to technology, business, and financial networks, as well as support in the development of international businesses of its tenants and clients. Thus, new tools for entrepreneurs are currently under development. Those tools will facilitate business management, business planning, and result monitoring. With the digitalisation of services, TERA plans to expand the business on the entire region, but also include local business support institutions in the provision of specialised services and connecting with research institutions.
The total value of the project, of 2,492,875.90 HRK, is co-financed by the European Union’s European Regional Development Fund, Operational Programme Competitiveness and Cohesion 2014 – 2020, in the amount of 1,946,686.79 HRK.
TERA 3D rapid prototyping laboratory has recently been upgraded with another top-grade device that, alongside the existing Ultimaker 2.0 3D printer, completes and improves the 3D laboratory services. It is a high-performance device of a guaranteed quality – 3D scanner ATOS Core 185 Essential 5M. The ATOS Core is specialised for 3D scanning of small and medium-sized objects up to 500 mm. It uses the verified advantages of the ATOS system, such as the blue light technology and the GOM stereo camera system. The laboratory is now able to provide a full service, from scanning 3D objects to printing 3D models.
The implementation of this business model largely depends on the possibility to transform a product or service into a digital form without losing the value for customers. Digitalisation enables simpler, quicker, and cheaper distribution on a much larger territory. In this case, the implementation of the digitalisation business model is two-fold. In the first phase, all printed publications were digitalised, and new kinds of multimedia were introduced, such as educational and promotional animated clips. The second phase included the creation of applications that allow business plan writing, investment studies, management of company resources, and project cycle management.
Hrvatska agencija za malo gospodarstvo, inovacije i investicije HAMAG-BICRO (Croatian Agency for SMEs, Innovations and Investments) initiated the establishment of the Business Organisations Network Development – BOND, aiming to gather all business support institutions in one platform. The objective is to facilitate entrepreneurs’ access to information, to ensure an integrated support in all stages of development, and to make business knowledge, services, and partners equally accessible to all. Of 169 business support institutions registered in Croatia, 59 participate in the first phase of the network development. TERA Tehnopolis is one of them, and its employees underwent an extensive education programme, which strengthened the advisory capacities of the company. The BOND members employee education is followed by the development of new standardised services of high quality that will be evenly accessible across regions and at disposal to all entrepreneurs.