Positive balance of the first year and the first results of the project.
The third steering committee of the COMPET’plus project, financed by Interreg POCTEFA funds, took place on Thursday, the 10th of May. A project event will be organised on the 1st of July to present the first results to the public.
This meeting has allowed a first assessment of the project results, and to identify the next steps in order to move forward in the creation of 2 innovation platforms that will promote collaborative work between the driving and leading companies and suppliers in order to generate a joint technological offer.
Specifically, since the launch of the project in 2020, the similarities of the Smart Specialisation Strategies of the three territories has been analysed. This study has made it possible to identify niches of opportunity, shared innovation challenges and common interests that have enabled the COMPET’plus activities to be geared towards establishing cross-border cooperation as a factor of territorial competitiveness. This analysis has been compiled in a publication in Spanish, Basque, English and French prepared by ORKESTRA.
Based on the 4 priority thematic areas extracted from the RIS3 analysis, the COMPET’plus partners have focused on working across borders on the following themes:
- Electro-mobility both in electric and hydrogen
- Hybridization of energies
- Healthy food
- ICC for industrial applications
To this end, 6 webinars, 2 working groups and several meetings with companies, public bodies, technology centres and clusters have been organised with the aim of identifying synergies, innovative activities, cross-border value chains, and identifying innovation and business opportunities in the cross-border area. More than 202 actors, companies and organisations have taken part in these events. The summary of the events, presentations and recordings are available in the resources and news section of the project website.
In terms of communication during this first year, the competplus.eu website has been launched, as well as the different social networks (Linkedin and Twitter). These information channels, together with the newsletters, allow informing and communicating about the different project actions and results.
During this first year of operation, two knowledge transfer sessions were also organised, whose aim was to promote synergies between the theoretical field and practical development within the project.
Finally, progress has been made in the analysis of cross-border flows (mainly sales and purchases) of interest to each of the territories. The first sector analysed – agri-food – has made it possible to analyse how the most intense flows behave in those areas of interest, and to show those economic flows that leave the cross-border area. In the coming months, it is hoped to be able to present the analysis of the rest of the converging sectors.
The balance of this first year of the project is very positive, especially because of the interest shown by companies, technology centres, clusters and public bodies in the different topics and business opportunities offered by cross-border collaboration.
The COMPET’plus project is organising an event on the 1st of July to present the first results to the public, as well as to discuss the opportunities of cross-border collaborations and the next steps to be taken to create 2 innovation platforms.
