THE COMPET’plus PROJECT
In this context, the COMPET’plus project, “Business Competitiveness & Innovation Platforms for the relocation of activities in the cross-border area, the creation of reinforced value chains, and the cooperation between SMEs and driving companies” – a European project selected and 65% co-financed by INTERREG POCTEFA (DG REGIO) funds, with a budget of €862,895 inclusive of taxes – aims to boost the entrepreneurial competitiveness and innovation of SMEs by measuring cross-border economic flows between the 3 territories involved, identifying leading SMEs, start-ups, and technology centres with high added value in 4 converging S3 areas:
Energy
Mobility
Agri-food
Creative industries
To achieve these major challenges, the project, as in its first edition, is based on the European Commission’s RIS3 (Research and Innovation Smart Specialisation Strategy) for each of the regions, but the sectors covered will be different. The aim of this strategy is for the territories of Nouvelle Aquitaine, Euskadi and Navarra to identify the knowledge specialisations that best match their innovation potential according to their resources and capacities.
This is where the cross-border area comes into play, given that the project will focus on those converging areas for the three territories. In this way, the productive fabric, technology centres and public entities will work together for the common good of the cross-border area. As a result, a more intelligent cross-border area will be achieved, due to the generation of a more integrating innovation ecosystem, due to the creation of more sustainable cross-border quality employment, and due to the use of nearby resources by the relocation of economic flows.
OBJECTIVES
The objective of COMPET’plus is to create 2 innovation platforms that will promote collaborative work between driving leading companies and supplier companies (SMEs and local companies) in order to generate a joint technological offer. This will lead to research agreements to develop marketable products.
Aparte del objetivo general, COMPET’plus cuenta con otros objetivos específicos:
1
Analyse cross-border economic flows in converging RIS3 sectors
2
Design cross-border value chains
3
Identify missing innovative links and working with economic actors to complete strategic activities
4
Identify innovation and business opportunities
5
Identify job profiles needed to cover the identified strategic activities.
COMPET’plus IN FIGURES
4
Strategic sectors
2
Innovation hubs
3
COMPETITIV'eko cross-border hubs
BACKGROUND
The POCTEFA COMPETITIV’eko project, developed between 2016 and 2019 by the CCI Bayonne Pays Basque, the Cámara de Gipuzkoa, ORKESTRA and the Social de Desarrollo de Navarra, SODENA, worked on strengthening the competitiveness of SMEs thanks to cross-border collaboration. This enabled the creation of 3 cross-border hubs with a total of 82 companies, technology centres and clusters from the three territories that make up the EGTC.
