COORDINATOR & FULL PARTNERS
Role: Coordinator
Experience: UPNA is a cross-disciplinary public university in the small and highly industrialised region northern Spanish region of Navarre. As a public institution, UPNA’s strategic plans have always considered the alignment with the strategic priorities and goals of the Government of Navarre. In this sense, the most recent strategic plan is aligned with the Smart Specialization Strategy implemented by the Government of Navarre and the pursuit of the 2030 agenda. UPNA has strong ties with Navarre S3 actors, through the University-Society Foundation, which offers a wide catalogue of continuing education and in-company training, and especially through its Research Institutes, whose Head of Business Development keeps permanent contact with all the Navarre clusters and promotes technology transfer contracts and joint participation in research projects. Also, UPNA actively participated in the first study of the Higher Education for Smart Specialization initiative, which took Navarre as subject region.
Contact person: Martin Larraza
mail: aries4@unavarra.es
Role: Full partner
Experience: Set up in 1984 as the regional development agency, it is the instrument of the Government of Navarra to coordinate the design and implementation of the regional Smart Specialization Strategy (S4) contributing to regional development and the creation of quality employment; to the deployment of the competitive and innovation policies through strategic clusters; as well as to attract and develop value-added business projects for Navarra, supporting them financially, accompanying and facilitating their location and making their network of contacts available to them. For the new programming period, SODENA has designed the new S4 taking into consideration the digital and sustainable transition, and their impact on the manufacturing industries in Navarra.
Contact person: Daniel Mazo
mail: dmazo@sodena.com
Role: Full partner
Experience: It is the official Institution settled to manage Education in the Spanish self-government region of Navarra. The Department oversees the general conditions and the appropriate means for the real implementation of every aspect of education. These measures include the management of all public Primary, Secondary and Vocational Education and Training.
This institution has 172 Public Primary Schools, 59 Public Secondary Schools and 21 VET centres and they involve more than 3.200 teachers. These public schools are attended by over 67.000 students. Within the Department for Education there is a division created to develop and promote Vocational and Educational Training. What is more; it includes a Section to establish and promote Internationalisation among VET institutions by means of mobility and innovation projects. This unit helps VET centres for international matters and tries to approach companies and stakeholders to cooperate within the training system.
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Contact persons: María Rozas, Cristina Aranda
Role: Full partner
Experience: Karlstad University (KAU) is a civic university located in central Sweden. It currently hosts around 70 education programmes and 900 courses within humanities, social studies, science, technology, teaching, health care and the arts. KAU’s research programmes have a broad scope, positioning it well for engagement in successful collaborations with a range of partners from both within the academy and beyond, from major national and international companies, such as BillerudKorsnäs, Stora Enso, and Uddeholm to public bodies, such as Region Värmland. KAU’s activities are based on regional, national, and international cooperation, and the university is a preferred option as a partner in change and improvement processes among regional actors. Our longstanding relationship with Region Värmland serves as a template for excellent collaboration between universities and wider society. In particular, the Shared Professorships Programme and the Academy for Smart Specialisation have linked KAU’s research with the needs of key regional industries in a model which could be replicated to great effect worldwide.
Contact person: James Lees
mail: james.lees@kau.se
www: https://www.kau.se/
Role: Full partner
Experience Glava Energy Center (GEC) is an innovation cluster, living lab, test bed, training and education center within renewable energy and smart sustainable energy systems located in Glava in the region Värmland in Sweden. The center has run more than 80 innovation projects since 2009 covering different areas such as solar energy, smart grids, micro grids, battery systems etc. GEC has a test infrastructure with more than 10 different test beds ranging from on-grid PV systems to micro-DC-grids. Several PV training concepts have been developed at GEC, both on site at GEC solar training facilities and digital for remote areas. As a solar innovation cluster GEC has more than 60 members from for example industry, academia, and public sector which are involved in GEC projects. GEC is working with Karlstad University and other actors within the region to take actions according to a regional Smart Specialization Strategy, also involving the need to find new tools for attaining and measuring sustainability.
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Contact person: Lisa Gärdt
Role: Full partner
Experience: SDU was founded in 1966 as a research and educational institution with strong contacts with municipalities and regions, SME’s, industries and the international scientific community. SDU has a strong focus on interdisciplinarity and internationalization. The university has 5 faculties and offers teaching and research at 6 campuses. SDU embraces all UN Sustainable Development Goals and has a strong focus on gender equality and diversity as a base of excellence. The Faculty of Business and Social Sciences (BSS) provides top level research that contributes to solving societal and global challenges. The Department of Business Management is home to 7 research unit covering a wide range of research topic from consumer studies to accounting. Embedded at DBM, The International Business and Entrepreneurship Unit (IBEU) focuses the research effort on internationalization processes of SMEs and early internationalizing ventures. As a consequence of this focus, IBEU has a long tradition of developing research projects in collaboration with knowledge and technology intensive business. Currently this research agenda has led to an increased focus on the interplay between on the one side the challenges of sustainability and inclusion in the socioeconomic system and on the other employment of emergent technologies and internationalization of firm activities to developing countries.
Contact person: Martin Hannibal
mail: mhk@sam.sdu.dk
Role: Full partner
Experience: Public Intelligence (PI) is a health innovation consultancy situated in Denmark aiming to make lives better for people tomorrow. We operate in the intersection between the public and private sectors including municipalities/public organisations and private companies. On one hand, PI collaborate with public organisations to create better welfare, healthcare, and social care, through application of systematic innovation in their organizations. On the other hand, PI help technology companies test their technology in PI’s Living Lab with the actual users and healthcare workers. We have unique knowledge about the municipalities’ strategic focus areas and an in-depth knowledge about the assistive living technologies market. To support this work PI is establishing an IoT-lab together with the Welfare Tech cluster and a handful of technology companies. The IoT-lab is a test and development environment. In this lab firms, municipalities, and other relevant health care actors can build and simulate a real-life situation where, for example, public sector employees and private companies can test working procedures, service deliverances, and physical products. PI is HUB firm in the newly established Life Science Cluster and has been heavily involved in developing an active wide spanning network amongst health tech and life science firms in the region. PI facilitate interactive (user-firm) development of health services to secure integrative and smart health care solutions to tackle the challenge of an aging population.
Contact person: Peter Julius
Role: Full partner
Experience: Gabrovo Municipality is a public body operating as a local authority in Bulgaria. The political vision of Gabrovo Municipality is to achieve smart, sustainable and inclusive growth and competitiveness, addressing the principal societal challenges with a long-term vision: “Gabrovo Municipality – Green, Innovative and Smart”. Gabrovo is one of the most important economic centres in Bulgaria with long traditions in industry, a stable group of SMEs, developed educational system, high level of concentration of a qualified and high skilled labour force, availability of constructed facilities and VET establishments at secondary and tertiary level. In the last years, Gabrovo has been undergoing dynamic regeneration regarding its industrial development. For more than a decade Gabrovo Municipality makes systematic and focused efforts for the preparation and implementation of various projects, creating conditions for sustainable economic growth based on innovations through designing its policy to support innovation ecosystem in the region. Recognition for Gabrovo achievements are the Green Leaf Award 2021 and EER Award 2022-2023. In order to play its important role Gabrovo Municipality involves different stakeholders from business community, NGOs and educational system in the local innovation ecosystem, encouraging the collaboration between business and education, in order to improve business environment and to stimulate innovations in the territory.
Contact person: Desislava Koleva
mail: desislava@gabrovo.bg
www: https://gabrovo.bg
Role: Full partner
Experience Regional Innovation Center (RIC) “Ambitious Gabrovo” is a non-profit triple helix organization combining the best knowledge and experience from university, regional administration and several innovative companies plus the Gabrovo Chamber of commerce and industry. It was established and registered at the end of 2019 as an association. The association is an important vehicle for collaborative processes without reducing the core qualities of its members. Thus, the collectivity of the members creates greater innovation potential. The mission of RIC is to support the regional SMEs and regional public administration to be competitive and innovative. The main specialization of the regional industry is in Mechatronics and clean technologies and Informatics and ICT. RIC focuses on lessening the differences in the industry at regional and EU levels as well as on the ecological problems of the region to achieve its sustainable development.
Contact person: Nikolinka Hinkova
mail: nikky@stsbg.com
ASSOCIATE PARTNERS
Role: Associated partner
Role: Associated partner
Role: Associated partner
Role: Associated partner
www: www.tugab.bg
Role: Associated partner
www: www.ptg-gabrovo.com
Role: Associated partner
www: https://senstate.com
Role: Associated partner
www: https://kombis.net
Role: Associated partner
