On the 27th of May about 30 participants had the chance to learn more about the development of European initiatives related to the improvement of regional innovation ecosystem.
The meeting was chaired by Claudia Fassero of Metropolitan City of Turin as under normal circumstances it would have taken place face to face in Italy, but this was impossible due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Claudia Fassero and Xabier Hualde, from Fomento San Sebastian, Lead partner for the ecoRIS3 project, welcomed the participants, introduced the agenda and announced the final event of the project in the fall 2021 in San Sebastian.
The seminar demonstrated the effective interaction and exchange that have been created during the implementation of the project between the partners. The sharing of experiences and initiatives has led to the definition of innovative and concrete action plans by partners.
The implementation of these action plans was the subject of the first part of the meeting.
Readers can click the link for a PDF of the presentation slides
Xabier Hualde, EU projects Officer, Fomento de San Sebastian
Xabier Hualde illustrated the development of the Spanish Action Plan, which is focused on acceleration and support programme to create technology based innovative companies in cooperation with the research and technology centres and sparking entrepreneurship among young students/PHD/Researchers.
Dr John Hobbs, Senior Lecturer, Munster Technological University
John Hobbs outlined the on-going work in Ireland in the area of clustering development to connect academia and industry and to utilize clusters as the mechanism for delivering RIS3 and innovation diffusion across the industrial ecosystem in Ireland, along with co-working spaces as a mechanism for connecting stakeholders.
V era Soares, Senior International Relations Officer, CIM do AVE
Vera Soares outlined the Action Plan implementation in North Portugal, which focuses on promoting and supporting innovation and technology transfer whilst improving the visibility of innovation as a driver to foster local and regional innovation via improving governance mechanisms.
Laurynas Braskus, Innovation Consultant, Sunrise Valley
Laurynas Braskus outlined the Action Plan for Lithuania, which focuses on increasing business and science/education cooperation initiatives including a few different programs which can engage different stakeholders.
Ninetta Chaniotou, Senior Project Manager, Regional Council of Kainuu
Ninetta Chaniotou outlined how the ecoRIS3 action plan is being integrated into the Kainuu RIS3 strategy in Finland with some specific examples and proposed initiatives for the development of a mining cluster.
Claudia Fassero, Head of the EU and International project office, Metropolitan City of Turin
Claudia Fassero delineated the development of the Action Plan with the first action now completed and focused on the definition of the Territorial Strategic Plan of the Metropolitan City of Turin (which was approved in February 2021 with an intense participatory planning process).
Laima Engere, Entrepreneurship center manager, Vidzeme Planning Region
Laima Engere outlined the development of the Latvian action plan which has been developed to promote innovation project management and to create specific innovation creativity stimulating cooperation among SMEs and the leading scientific institutions teams.
The meeting continued with the presentation of the European Enterprise Promotion Awards given by Gwenaëlle Dubois, from Atlantic Cities, winner in 2020 promoting the entrepreneurial spirit.
Giovanni Amateis and Tiziana Dell’Olmo from Piedmont Region than took the floor to present the development of the action “Support for consolidation and growth programmes of Piedmontese start-ups”. This action, financed in the framework of the “ROP ERDF 2014-2020 Action 1.4.1 Support to the Creation and Growth of Innovative and Knowledge Based Start-ups and Research Spin-off” has been chosen by Metropolitan City of Turin as “Policy instrument” in the implementation of ecoRIS3 project.
The meeting closed with the presentation of the development of the 2 pilot actions financed by the Interreg programme in the framework of the project.
TOP-IX Consortium presented the implementation of the action “eHealth Territorial LAB – Local ecosystem as an instrument to scale up innovative local start-ups in eHealth topic” which involves Metropolitan City of Turin and Fomento San Sebastian and some local stakeholders. The pilot has been designed with the purpose of promoting a shared reflection on the possible promotion of e-health for the local development and well-being.
Laima Engere finally took the floor again to present the development of the pilot “Innovation manager support program – test before implement” which is finalized to give support for professional and productive innovation project management in companies.
