The work session was led by Ricard Faura, Head of Digital Inclusion and Training of the Ministry of Telecommunications, Cybersecurity and Digital Society, and Artur Serra, deputy director of the Foundation i2cat. Attended by thirty representatives of universities, training centers, companies, local authorities, coworking spaces and Pun TIC, which the Government has invited to interact and weave a network in order to promote innovative projects with social impact.
The participants were very active throughout the session and have shown interest in the dynamics that provides the program for boosting the network. They were interested also in the timing, next steps and the role of vocational training centers. During interventions, they have highlighted some shortcomings in terms of infrastructure and the need to coordinate projects in the region. CatLabs offers, in this sense, an umbrella that covers and coordinates the various initiatives detected.
Before the appeal to the need for public participation, representatives of Punt TIC (Smart Center of Santa Barbara and Telecentre Network of Ribera d'Ebre) claimed responsibility for their role in the detection of needs from daily care for different groups of citizens (young, elderly, women, the unemployed...).
The main reason for creating this program stems from the new social paradigm that allows the emergence of new structures and collaborative open innovation, which identifies new jobs and new ways to generate business, always conjunction with citizen participation.
It is a long-term program that seeks to identify new actors and users of the Catalan innovation system; increase the number of people who are trained in innovation; promoting interaction between universities, colleges, technology centers, public authorities and companies and promote the internationalization and consolidation of Catalonia as a benchmark in digital social and collaborative innovation.
The idea of the program is divided into two objectives: firstly, the new forms of digital social and collaborative innovation, to respond better to the challenges of the economy and society; and secondly, participation in the innovation system, with special emphasis on youth and micro business.