The Carpe Digem project has been crucial for setting the basis and contributing to consolidating the Digital Innovation Hub of the Balearic Islands. Digital Transformation is key for all territories to ensure their competitiveness and sustainability. It is especially important for island territories, such as the Balearic Islands, where innovation and digitalisation are at low levels of development. This is also because the European Statistics system does not consider the tourism industry innovation and digitalisation.
At the level of the Balearic Islands, no initiatives were acting as the umbrella of all digital and innovation initiatives. Thanks to Carpe Digem, all the entities related to these fields came together to build the Digital Innovation hub of the Balearic Islands. The DIHs are tools promoted by the European Commission since 2016, but the Balearic Islands didn’t participate in the first calls launched by the European Commission. The Chamber of Commerce of Mallorca benefits from the knowledge gained in Carpe Digem and the experiences of other partners in the generation of digital ecosystems, for example, taking the model of the University of Ljubljana and Nevers for the creation of DIHBAI-TUR. This name comes from the Digital Innovation Hub of the Balearic Islands in Artificial Intelligence for tourism and agri-food. It is aligned with the Smart Specialization Strategy of the Balearic Islands. Its members are the Chamber of Commerce of Mallorca as coordinator, the Cluster of technologies applied to Tourism (TURISTEC), the University of the Balearic Islands, the Agri-food Cooperatives of the Balearic Islands, the Regional Government of the Balearic Islands (represented by different departments) and with AnySolution taking the role of technical office.
During the implementation of Carpe Digem, DIHBAI-TUR started organising monthly meetings with the different members of the ecosystem, as well as organising meetings and participating in national and international events. Since the DIHs were advancing under the recommendations of the European Commission, DIHBAI-TUR was defining services and was presented to be selected as a European Digital Innovation hub (EDIH)
In the last call for EDIH, DIHBAI-TUR was awarded the Seal Of Excellence. This recognition will allow DIHBAI-TUR to be part of the European network of DIHs as well as to have access to national funds to support the digital transformation of their SMEs
The Seal of Excellence is a quality label awarded to the DIHs that submitted a proposal, scored above the threshold, but didn0t get a high enough mark to receive funding from the EU. They can be a part of the European Network of Digital Innovation Hubs and are permitted to receive direct funding from their national authorities.
DIHBAI-TUR received this recognition from the European Commission on February 7th, 2022, and this Seal will be valid until the end of the present programming period.
This Seal is a recognition of the work implemented in the framework of the Carpe Digem project to set up a Digital Innovation Hub in the Balearic Islands, led by the Chamber of Commerce of Mallorca. The different activities implemented in Carpe Digem made it possible to create a sound ecosystem bringing together stakeholders from the Balearic Islands related to innovation and digitalisation, intending to promote the digital transformation of the islands and their industries.
