Since 2012 San Sebastian has made great efforts to promote innovation and talent through the annual Economic Stimulus Plans, investing nearly 32 million euros to promote a smart, sustainable and inclusive development.
With this purpose, several measures are designed each year (with an annual budget of almost 8 million euros) with the main target of creating new jobs, always with the focus that Innovation has to be the engine, the pillar to promote the generation of new companies, the design of new public policies, etc. In summary, this is the city operational tool to strengthen and impulse its economic development. This has also appointed a collaborative way of participation and connection with the agents of the ecosystem, fostering a public-private model of collaboration through agreements signed every year with entities participating in the plan.
Image: The Major, the city council members, and Fomento de San Sebastian´s responsible present the Donosti UP 2016 Plan.
This programme must be “alive”, meaning that it must be adapted every year to the real needs, identified thanks to a close collaboration and contrast with the companies and other valuable agents.This is the path to answer to specifical needs and to be really helpful for the territory.
This way, more than 70 local partners are requested to identify the most critical needs of the city, to make sure that the strategic investment lines identified will have a real impact and correspond to real needs. This is perhaps the key aspect for its success, but not the only one. Having a common “brand” is also relevant, as well as having a funding package and specific collaboration partnerships.
On the other hand, the support and endorsement of the institutions, at different levels, is critical to have a broader impact. Finally, The design and deployment of an intense communication programme, as well as briefing meetings, is of the utmost relevance to be able to reach and foster the productive tissue.
The 2016 Plan was structured following three main guidelines for the city:
>>> People, as they are the base of every society, and public investments must be channeled to support and enable its development and integration in the job market, strengthening its Talent and promoting its social cohesion.
FSS developed several economic tools, in the framework of the Donostia/San Sebastián UP!, in order to adequate his economic effort to the specific needs identified and directly related to its citizenship:
- A programme to attract international entrepreneurs.
- A programme to foster the Innovation in the educational area.
- Funds to encourage the recruitment of under 35 years old qualified persons to develop innovative projects.
- International grants for local young people.
- The “Investiga” programme, to support the recruitment of qualified under 30 years old persons without previous researching experience.
- The “Talent Return” programme, to facilitate the return of under 35 years old high qualified profiles.
- Different training programmes to fight against youth unemployment.
- Funds to help the recruitment of young people without any training or experience.
- Funding programs to foster the recruitment of people above 45-year-old in the commerce and hotel industry sectors.
>>> The enterprises as a key agent to create employment and contribute to the economic development. This Plan stresses the importance of the companies with more added value, as well as those that have made a bet in the Innovation field. The aforementioned Plan includes several tailor-made programs in order to help enterprises, for example:
- “INNPLANTA program”, to help companies to develop innovative projects.
- Commerce Day, Funds to foster commercial activity in different neighborhoods, funds to encourage entrepreneurship in commerce and hotel industry, etc.
>>> The territory, as a concept including neighborhoods infrastructures, but also public spaces and equipment as the environment where citizenship and enterprises activity takes place. This is identified as a perfect space to develop SMART projects, which are already taking place such as the REPLICATE project (co-funded by Horizon 2020 and with more than 11 million budget for the city, 30 million in total).
Donosti UP´s main metrics:
Since 2012 San Sebastián has made great efforts to promote innovation and talent through the annual Economic Stimulus Plans, investing nearly 32 million euros to promote a smart, sustainable and inclusive development.
The implementation of these plans has involved:
- The creation of over 1,400 new companies.
- The improvement of nearly 3500 small and medium companies and the creation or maintenance of over 5,000 jobs.
- The public-private cooperation in the design and implementation of these plans is another big goal that has been achieved.
- 2016 Donostia Up Plan: 951 new jobs created.
Links: http://www.fomentosansebastian.eus/es/actualidad/noticias/1374-donostia-san-sebastian-up
