CatLabs work session in Lleida
CatLabs work session in Lleida. Author: Oficina de Dinamització. 2017. Font: Punt TIC. License: BY-SA.

The meeting started with the institutional welcome of the representative of the Government of Catalonia in Lleida, Ramon Farré i Roure. Has been attended by representatives of various organizations of the territory and has generated a lot of expectations.

The main objective in this first phase is to collect information to map the digital social innovation in Catalonia. Also identify opportunities, needs and synergies of the entities that make digital social innovation, collect lines of proposals and ultimately promote partnerships and joint network.

The session emphasized that we now have a new fracture, which refers to the innovation system and the people who are out of this system:

We must learn about innovative tools and methodologies; must broaden these instruments, because they are linked with what is called the Revolution 4.0 is the revolution that is linking industry with the digital sector and will be predominant in the future of work.

During the presentation, people representing different organizations and companies have shown the need for tools and technologies and infrastructures which enable innovation. They have stressed the fact that competition has lowered innovative regions and cities. For its part, Ricard Faura, Head of Digital Inclusion and Training of the Telecommunications, Cybersecurity and Digital Society Secretary, spoke about the implementation of various strategies and partnerships between governments, companies and organizations that help us balance the need for resources: henceforth the regions and cities will have to innovate if they want to continue receiving European funds and will invest.

Local innovation is important and should be linked to the citizen. The CatLabs program is the first program implemented in Catalonia with the aim of reaching the big and small players in the region. We want to implement an inclusive system.

It is planned in June to make a "day of co-creation" in Barcelona, ​​where it can deepen and subsequently held in a decentralized manner. It also engages a new training program with a small group of young people Youth Guarantee profile and with the participation of the local administration, which will validate and test methodology and content.

The program is framed within the strategies RIS3Cat and Smartcat. To design it, shape it and implement it, there is the creation of an innovative network of agents throughout the Catalan energized by different local references. To be a registered company or agent has provided a innovative web form.