MED-IPA capitalisation seminar in

Budva, Montenegro

1

3rd Citek open data lab hosted by

HOMER project in Malta

2

KIC on Energy Efficiency and Rene-

wable Energy Meeting in Evora

3

Your Innovation Day Transnational

Business event in Lyon

6

KIC on ICT for Tourism International

Workshop in Terrassa

4

KIC on Creative Industries

5

N.3

October 2014

In this edition of the CITEK newsletter, five

different events, held all around the Medi-

terranean region, will be presented.

Our travel starts from the Balkans, namely

from the Montenegrin city of Budva,

where, in March, the MED—IPA capitalisa-

tion seminar was held. The event gave the

chance to utilize, valorise and further build

on the knowledge and the results of the

MED projects realized with IPA partners.

This third CITEK newsletter stops, then, by

Malta where the 3rd Citek open data lab

event from the HOMER project was

hosted. It was a good example of intersec-

tion and cooperation among European

projects.

The middle section of this newsletter re-

lates to three meetings held within three

of the KIC (Knowledge Innovation Commu-

nities) which constitute the CITEK project.

First, the KIC on Energy Efficiency and Re-

newable Energy Meeting in Evora, Portu-

gal is presented. Then, KIC on ICT for

Tourism International Workshop in

Terrassa is detailed and, finally, a section

is dedicated to KIC on Creative Industries.

A transversal event, namely the Business

Event “Your Innovation Day”, held in Lyon

(France) last September concludes our

review.

PAGE. 1

During the 20th and 21st of March 2014,

the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Euro-

pean Integration (MFAEI) hosted an IPA

MED Capitalisation Seminar for the pro-

jects approved within the 7 Calls for pro-

posals of the Mediterranean Transnational

Cooperation Programme (MED).

MFAEI organized this Seminar once the

MED Programme had entered in a new

phase: the collection of lessons learnt and

orientations for the elaboration of the

new programming period. The capitaliza-

tion activities executed are necessary to

understand how to create the new pro-

grammes and it is based on results

achieved and in learning from mistakes to

improve for the future.

The most important objectives of the

meeting were to utilize, valorise and to

further build on the knowledge and results

of the MED projects working with IPA part-

ners; it also concerned addressing knowl-

edge-gaps by linking actors with com-

plementary thematic specialization, ex-

periences, methodological approaches or

geographical scope and to increase the

visibility of the projects and the Pro-

gramme in the IPA area. Further it rein-

forced strategic thematic networks be-

tween the IPA; encouraging the “use” of

IPA partners in building up synergies be-

tween MED, Adriatic and SEE projects

which could be utilized in the future and

to contribute for the development of the

future transnational cooperation in the

area were objectives discussed in the

event.

The two day meeting attended by several

guests including the Ministry of Foreign

Affairs and European Integration Govern-

ment of Montenegro; Kirill Diamantopou-

los, from Liaison Office Thessaloniki; IPA

Partners and Lead Partners of MED Pro-

gramme, National Contact Points of Alba-

nia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and

Montenegro. Attended the event, as well,

Tea Ivanišević (Regione Marche) from

CITEK; Vedad Suljić (REIC Sarajevo) from

URBAN MPATY and Ognjen Kuljača

(Brodarski Institute Ltd Zagreb) from CREA-

TIVE MED, along with other very impor-

tant guests.

Regarding the conclusions of the seminar,

maritime travel (local and transnational),

maritime accessibility and multimodal

transport were recognized as biggest re-

gional issues . It was established that the

topics to improve were the unification of

application process, the implementation

of training for project partner – before ap-

plication and during the life of the project.

This would reflect stronger implementa-

tion and stability of program officers on

national and transnational level.

MED-IPA capitalization seminar

in Budva, Montenegro

PAGE. 1

3rd Citek open data lab hosted by

HOMER project in Malta

The HOMER partners met on the 11th

and 12th of March in Malta. The Local

Government Association invited a sev-

eral local stakeholders important to the

topic of open data to be present and to

take part as speakers during the meet-

ing. At the event, aspects associated to

the results and progress of the project

among other issues were also dis-

cussed.

During the first morning of the meet-

ing, which was open to the general

public, a presentation about the state

of Open Data in Malta was presented.

This first part of the event was com-

pleted with the presentation of some

portals of HOMER partners as examples

of good practices and the presentation

of the project and HOMER Federation

in a video. During the day, an internal

meeting among HOMER partners was

undertaken, in order to talk about the

technical requirements to access to the

Federated Search Engine from the re-

gional Open Data portals, and the Fed-

erated Search Engine test page.

In the final lday of the event, the part-

ners presented their draft version of

the Open Data Action Plans, clearing up

the progress in a report write up, activi-

ties undertaken in order to obtain in-

formation for the action plan, barriers

and recommendations for improve-

ment and definition of the next road

map. Additionally, both pilot actions

were further analysed in working

groups, setting up the next steps to fol-

low.

The meeting was attended by some no-

table entities important for the themes

discussed, as for example The Faculty

of ICT from the University of Malta

(UoM) also took part the Malta Infor-

mation Technology Agency (MITA), the

CSI Piemonte and Government of

Aragon.

PAGE. 3

KIC on Energy Efficiency and

Renewable Energy

Meeting in Evora

On the 13th of March the city of Evora

(Portugal) hosted a meeting framed

within the KIC -Knowledge Innovation

Community—related to Energy

Efficiency and Renewable Energy, held

under the CITEK Project .

The event was organized by ADRAL –

the Alentejo Regional Development

Agency—and it was hosted, more

precisely, in the premises of CIMAC –

the Intermunicipal Community of

Central Alentejo - in the historic city

centre of the city of Évora.

KIC´s focus topics which mainly relate

to Energy Efficiency and Renewable

Energy were the basis for starting an

interesting debate among the actors

involved.

After a fruitful day of debates and

discussions, participants came up with

some key conclusions.

One of the principal outcomes was

that each region should assess their

capabilities and resources about

energy efficiency and renewable

energy and should define a

differentiation strategy to be built on

their own specificities.

Another important principle outlined

in the Evora meeting was the need for

each development strategy to be

based on the real potential of each

region. This conclusion appears even

more evident when it comes to

become competitive in the globalized

economy, contributing to the

encouragement and differentiation ac-

cording to the specific characteristics

of territories and promoting the

concentration of funding in areas

with international critical mass.

PAGE. 4

KIC on ICT for Tourism

International Workshop in Terrassa

The Knowledge Innovation Community

in relation to ICT for Tourrism of the

CITEK project, held an international

workshop Terrassa (Spain) 15th April.

Within this event, the participants

were asked to develop both ideas and

give their feedback on the needs that

the cluster and open data platform

should fulfill to be useful for the sector.

Essentially, participants were asked to

comment on what did they think that a

regional ICT and tourism cluster should

have to get the participants (may them

be public administrations, companies,

other organizations, etc.) to take part

of the cluster, to keep them in it, and

to generate an impressions of growth

for the agents involved in the cluster

as well as for the cluster itself.

The participants came up with many

suggestions to target the above

mentioned objective. In that sense, it

was highlighted: that detecting the

needs of the target entities is

fundamental for the cluster in order to

gain associates ; that supporting the

participation of their members in EU

projects is a good way to keep and

engage cluster participants ; and that

interconnect the cluster with similar

organizations at international level is a

good practice for growing the clusters

themselves.

Meanwhile, the other group of experts

discussec the potential of an open data

system related to the ICT-Tourism

sector.

The group worked on a base of

creating or using a platform of open

data and came to two main

conclusioons.

As for the ways to get participants for

the cluster, the Open Data expert

group arrived to the conclusion that a

change of culture and mentality is

needed so that stakeholders perceive

open data as an opportunity to

improve their services and not as an

extra load of work.

As for keeping entities in a cluster

generating impressions of growth,

instead, the expert group agreed that

the platform should be well

maintained, kept up to date, through

feedback from stakeholders.

PAGE. 4

KIC on Creative Industries

On June 8th 2014, the initiative on

Creative Industry was held in Ravenna

– Italy .

The main objective of the initiative is

to enable a knowledge innovation

community formed by companies and

private experts, researchers, and

representatives of public institutions

with the aim of creating a permanent

group able to identify actions and

projects suitable to be presented as

part of the European program 2014-

2020.

The article proposes an interview to

the coordinator of the KIC event on

creative industry, Phil Taylor, about the

definition of creative industry, its main

strengths and network opportunities:

“To be successful, a creative industry

needs at least 3 elements: creativity

(product), an administrative manager

(finance) and a marketing manager

(marketing)” – he said.

During the day, a main focus area with

two important outputs was identified .

Specifically, create better ways and

toolkits to develop Creative methods

and carry out Interconnection Focus

Projects.

Concerning ways to develop creative

methods, it was mentioned that is

necessary to identify the needs of

each organization and then start with

concrete needs in order to solve

concrete problems rather than focus

on the technology initially. In this topic

it is also very important to remember

the physical space and finally the

Three S model which includes:

strategy, smart and specialization.

Furthemore, some activities and

proposals were defined, in order to

establish future golas which could be

applied to the strategy direction. Four

broad topics were identified. The first

one was the need to promote the

inner regions, the importance of

packaging, and the unique project

profile and finally the use of smart

technology to speed up the flow

between universities and companies .

Among the several ideas proposed

during the round table working groups,

the following ones can be highlighted:

creation of a toolkit for recruiting

agencies, the definition of a sort of

"glossary of creativity", the need to

promote the inner regions and the

promotion of smart technology to

speed up the flow between

universities and companies .

PAGE. 4

Your Innovation Day

Transnational Business event

In Lyon

Your Innovation Day was an event for

the CITEK project hosted by the project

partner OXALIS and held on September

19th at L’Embarcader centre n Lyon,

France.

The event focused on two subjects,

n a m e l y i n n o v a t i o n &

entrepreneurship, through the analysis

of two main dimensions.

The first dimension was about the

other ways to innovate. It related with

many different forms of innovation,

not only scientific and technological

innovation, but also new forms, such

as social innovation and innovation by

the use.

The other dimension analyzed was

about other ways to undertake it. It

dealt with new schemes,and new

ways for economic development, not

only based on shareholding, such as,

for example, crowdfunding.

The event was also an opportunity to

gather the project’s partners and KIC

members, in addition to collectivities,

enterprises and all sorts of organisms

that work to develop innovation in its

different forms and allow them to

meet and exchange ideas.

During the event, different activities

took place.

First, an initial plenary session was

held. It dealt with the presentation of

social innovation and innovation by

the integrated use to the other forms

of innovation with particular focus on

the French region of Rhone Alpes. In

such sessions the support to

enterpreneurship was analyzed with

particular regard to the innovation and

the new form of enterpreunership.

In a second phase, debates moved to

two main branches. The first branch

was represented by success stories

from technological companies that

develop social innovations and social

enterprises that develop technological

innovations, together with the new

ways of creating start ups. For the

other branch, the role of clusters and

of new way of funding were analyzed.

Furthermore, Your Innovation Day

included some stands focused on the

main topics of the project and thus:

Open Data, Creative Industry,

Techtourism, Smart homes and active

aging, Energy efficiency and renewable

energy, financing tools for social

innovation.

These stands and the related activities

were a chance for participants and

stakeholders to discuss, compare,

exchange ideas and get inspired.

Some project idea and initiative was

presented and the external assistant

had the opportunity to get to know

the project and to join the KICs of

CITEK.