Partners: Chambre de Commerce et d’Industrie Bayonne Pays Basque, Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Navigation of Guipuzcoa, Sodena, Euroregion Aquitaine-Euskadi-Navarra
COMPET'plus aims to boost business competitiveness and innovation in SMEs through cross-border cooperation between the three territories involved (New Aquitaine, the Basque Country and Navarre) in the field of R+D+I, taking the results of the Competitiv’eko project as a reference.
The Bayonne Pays Basque Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Chamber of Commerce of Gipuzkoa, Orkestra, Sodena and the Euroregion of Aquitaine-Euskadi-Navarra have been working on this project since 1st January 2020.
Among the activities planned are the promotion of innovation and the creation of innovation platforms that will promote collaborative work between the driving companies (large groups or leading companies) and supplier companies (SMEs and local companies) in order to generate a joint innovative offer.
Orkestra's contribution
The consortium developing the project consists of a multidisciplinary and complementary team combining analytical and academic knowledge with business and field knowledge.
Orkestra carries out analysis and methodological support tasks in the understanding of cross-border collaboration; organises transfer sessions to reflect on the synergies between the theoretical and practical spheres; and coordinates the project's learning process.
The research team has carried out an analysis of the strategies and challenges that the RIS3 of the cross-border area face in their implementation. This work has served as a starting point to understand where the convergences and innovation challenges shared by the three regions lie in order to contribute to the challenge of economic growth based on cross-border cooperation as a key factor of territorial competitiveness.
The team has also designed a series of transfer sessions aimed at fostering synergies between theory and practice on critical aspects of the project and stimulating joint reflection on the practical implications within the project. To date, three transfer sessions have been organised:
- RIS3 in the cross-border area
The aim was to discuss and reflect on the analysis of the challenges of the RIS3 in the cross-border area and to identify cross-border convergences and opportunities. - Social progress and cross-border cooperation:
We introduced the analysis of social progress as a complement to the analysis of economic competitiveness, to understand where convergences and shared cross-border challenges are located, allowing progress to be made in a model of territorial competitiveness at the service of well-being. The reflections of the research team can be found in this Orkestra blog post and the presentation is available here. [PDF] - Hidden Champions:
Presentation on the concept of Hidden Champions to reflect on the usefulness of applying this concept beyond theory and around what implications these companies have for COMPET’ plus.
Upcoming project activities include two transfer sessions, as well as research on how the establishment of cross-border clusters helps to overcome innovation barriers and cross-border cooperation.
Funding
The COMPET'plus project, which will run from 2020 to 2022, is 65% financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Interreg V-A Spain-France-Andorra Programme (POCTEFA 2014-2020). It is a European territorial cooperation programme created to foster the sustainable development of the border area between the three territories.
