MadewithAlpineSpace_2 – Alpine Space

#MadewithAlpineSpace

From June 2018 onwards, the #MadewithAlpineSpace campaign takes you on a journey to discover the best results of the Alpine Space projects. Every month a new programme message will be published and project highlights featured on this page, our social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) and our newsletter.

Keep posted and learn about impacts of successful transnational cooperation in the Alpine Space!

"Transnational cooperation builds trust across borders and fosters European integration for a more competitive Europe".

The Alpine regions share similar challenges and cultures, and a long history of cooperation. Since the 1950’s, Alpine organisations, businesses, and universities have found that when they work closely together, they become stronger and their regions and cities get more competitive.

BIFOCAlps: increasing knowledge transfers for a competitive Alpine Space

Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes is the most industrial region in France and among the most innovative, with 2,812 patents filed in 2016. Here, 96% of companies have less than 50 employees, so staying ahead of the curve is a challenge as well as a must. 46% of manufacturers in the region have already set up a Factory of the Future (FoF) strategy to improve company adaptability and reach the market in new ways, but they all need appropriate IT infrastructure and better value chain integration. To support these changes, BIFOCAlps works to enhance knowledge transfer between research centers, development agencies and businesses and to create a method based on the good practices observed at each level of the value chain. It also establishes standardised impact indicators in line with the smart specialisation strategies (S3) that have been set up in participating regions.

S3-4AlpClusters: competitive clusters of smart specialisation

When designing smart specialisation strategies (S3), Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes policy-makers must figure out how these strategies can help clusters stay competitive and how these, in turn, can become a channel for effective S3 implementation. To tackle this issue, S3-4AlpClusters has devised its S3-Innovation Model. The idea behind S3-4AlpClusters is that clusters can help narrow regional strategies from sectoral level to more specific topics. “For instance,” S3-4AlpClusters Advisory Board explains, “the whole automotive sector may be too wide a focus. Our diamond model will help find niches for smart specialisation like connecting cars to cloud services." The tools and methodologies of the S3-Innovation Model have been tested with 30 pilot clusters across the Alpine Space and constitute a set of validated new services to actively involve clusters at all levels of the process.

SMART-SPACE: strengthening the Alpine manufacturing innovation ecosystem through cooperation

The EU manufacturing sector, although being the first contributor to non-financial business economy and essential to the innovation chain because of its RD&I-intensive activity, is facing serious challenges impeding its competitiveness in the face of emerging markets (obsolete management systems, lack of automation and synergies, etc). In order to overcome these challenges, the contribution of digital technologies is crucial. However, this revolutionary dimension of industrial production needs to be adapted to the specificities and challenges of the Alpine area. SMART-SPACE project aims at strengthening cooperation within the Alpine manufacturing innovation ecosystem to promote smart digital solutions to traditional industrial sectors of the Alpine Space. To do so, its partners created a SMART SPACE HUB platform offering a powerful and strategic innovation environment to policy makers, intermediaries and SMEs undertaking the digitalisation path. The project is also developing an Alpine Smart Manufacturing strategy, which combines Alpine social economic challenges, geographical and industrial peculiarities and environmental sustainability and entrepreneurship.

CARE4TECH: for a less fragmented research and innovation landscape in the Alpine region

The Alpine Space area is becoming a leading destination for technology providers when it comes to smart living (i.e. homes equipped with heating and electronic devices that can be controlled remotely by smartphone or computer). Nevertheless, fragmentation in the research and innovation landscape prevents the Alpine region from becoming the centre of European excellence. CARE4TECH looks to bridge the gap in this fragmented landscape by fostering cooperation between quadruple helix players on the topic of smart living technologies. In practice, this means creating structures that improve the communication and transparency between research institutions, businesses, government, and civil society as a whole. By improving these ties, the project aims to align policy development with real civil and market leaders.

AlpLinkBioEco: linking bio-based industry value chains across the Alpine region

Although the Alpine Space possesses significant biomass resources and the necessary knowledge and technology to use these resources in sectors such as green chemicals, biopolymers or bio-based materials, a missing holistic transnational approach causes existing actors in the bio-based economy to operate disjointed. By operating disconnected, the relevant clusters are missing out on the opportunity to develop value chains capable of addressing a number of critical social needs (circular economy, environmental sustainability, local employment). The aim of AlpLinkBioEco is to tap into this potential by developing a cross Alpine Space circular bio-based strategy, establishing awareness, assessing, selecting and creating transnational/regional new value chains connecting all relevant actors, and demonstrating the implementation of succesful business opportunities.

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