The Kick-Off meeting of the P2L2 (Public Policy Living Lab) project took place in Bremen. With the State of Bremen as Lead Partner, the project supports six European regions to improve their innovation strategies in the area of advanced materials. The guiding question of this INTERREG EUROPE project is: how can regions co-operate beyond their own organisational boundaries. The two-fold aim is to increase the individual strength of the different locations and the implementation of their RIS3 strategies.
The project has a runtime of four years and is coordinated by the Innovation Capability Center of the University Bremen. It strategically supported by the Senator of Economy, Labour and Ports and by the Business Development Agency Bremen (WfB) forming the Bremen regional partnership for the project. Besides the Bremen team, public authorities from Denmark, France, Italy, Lithuania and Poland are members of the consortium. Three objectives are addressed by:
- Fostering research and innovation for an improved c-ooperation between EU regions in the field of advanced materials. For Bremen there will be a specific focus on the new technology center EcoMat (Center for Eco-Efficient Materials);
- Coordinating effective regional development and innovation policies. This also includes the question how double structures can be avoided and a better alignment of different actors can be achieved;
- Improving the toolset and methodologies for the development and implementation of smart specialization strategies. In this context the project will develop a process oriented model, that will be used for a limited policy mapping of the participating regions. This model is based on the innoSPICE, improvAbility and ProductAbility methodology.
The P2l2 project will be implemented in close co-operation with regional stakeholders from science, economy and governmental organizations. One important stakeholder – among others – is the AIRBUS production facility in Bremen, that will host a part of the P2L2 Kick-Off Event. New materials, advanced manufacturing (and 3D printing) are important enabling technologies e.g. for the Aerospace industry.
The kick-off meeting in Bremen was hosted by the three regional partners. The participating regions presented their policy instruments for analysis and improvement. Partners had the opportunity of meeting regional representatives responsible for the RIS3 strategy and meeting stakeholders from Bremen and neighbouring regions like Airbus DS, and Hamburg State Chancellery representatives. Participants also had the opportunity of visiting interesting installations like the Airbus New Materials Centre (ALM Additive Layer Manufacturing Plateau) and the Ariane Rocket Integration facilities.
