Juan Carlos Martinez Barrio, Director of Projects in CEEI Burgos, Castile and León, Spain, has been the responsible person regarding the BRIDGES project on behalf of his organisation, since the very early planning stage of the project in 2014. CEEI Burgos is PP8, advisory partner in the BRIDGES project partnership. Juan Carlos has been supporting the god practice (GP) analysis and transfer during Phases 1 and 2 of the project, while during the last period he has been responsible for the external dissemination activities.
His experience during the first two phases of the project is that there was a need to ensure convergence between the conceptual aspects of the project with the different paces and interests of the different partner regions. He especially noted the preference for a practical vs learning approach. The BRIDGES project strategy during its first two phases was to stress learning during Phase 1 and learning -by-doing (action plans) during Phase 2. In the last phase of the project, i.e. during the implementation of the additional activities, the emphasis has been on explicitly linking methodological (value chain mapping) to concrete implementation solutions (in-shoring, re-shoring, and near-shoring of prioritised value chains), and this proved to be a better choice. Juan Carlos confirmed that this approach was appreciated and raised interested also during the project presentation to external events. Moreover, the initial (covid19) and the current conjecture, confirm the relevance of the value chain approach as a strategic, development and growth instrument for regions and businesses.
The presentation by PP8 during the closing meeting of the project is available here: https://projects2014-2020.interregeurope.eu/fileadmin/user_upload/tx_tevprojects/library/file_1660732878.pdf.
