From 14 to 17 of May 2019, Sabadell's stakeholder ESDi, the Higher School of Design, participated in the RELOS3 Long Term Visit that took place in Bologna (Italy).
The meeting was a success for ESDi since it was a unique opportunity to be in touch with the project partners that joined the visit. The partners (from Estonia, Italy and Poland) also brought their stakeholders. Therefore it was a great opportunity to get in touch with territorial agents, politicians and local companies of the Bologna region.
ESDi had the opportunity to observe, analyse and reflect on the experiences at the local level of smart specialisation strategies in the Bologna region in the field of fashion, textiles and innovation, all major focus points for ESDi's curriculum. These topics also feature in the territorial specialisation project leaded by Sabadell city council. ESDi is an active participant in these activities.
Thanks to the different visits to interesting local organisations, an initial study was made into the good political-private practices carried out in the territory. As a part of this, ESDi was able to start contact with Italian universities in order to deepen relations, within the framework of the ERASMUS+ programme, for the exchange of experiences at the level of students and professors.
In addition, ESDi could establish a start of collaboration with private actors in the fashion and innovation sectors to establish partnerships and discuss possible synergies, particularly within the new techno design hub that is part of the RIS3 project in Sabadell.
The exchanges with actors from the territory of Bologna facilitated seeing advanced technological equipment in the field of agricultural innovation and academic methodology in action. In this sense, the meeting in a centre of innovation in the field of Design and Science led to animated discussions on a reference platform in the field of techno-design.
ESDi was particularly interested in the local ecosystem of Bologna for the in-depth relationship between clusters and local government that help and support the innovation process. In that sense, the visit provided good examples of cooperation between the different actors in Bolognas’s ecosystem, as well as actions implemented in the framework of innovation.
This Long Term Visit strengthened the collaboration between Sabadell City Council and ESDi, framed within the process of innovation leaded by Sabadell City Council based on the Quadruple Helix approach (companies, research centres, universities, government and civil society). It was a good opportunity to strengthen this link to continue working favouring synergies among local stakeholders and fostering the territory’s entrepreneurship.
