On 23 and 24 April, Fomento San Sebastian hosted the follow-up meeting of NOTRE project (Novel Methods Improving Production Innovation Potential with Examples of Senior Care- Related Solutions), financed within the framework of the Interreg Europe programme.
The main goal of NOTRE, in which 11 partners from different European countries - Finland, Hungary, Romania, France, Italy, Ireland and Spain - participate, is to improve policy instruments targeting healthy ageing related innovation to advance in supporting the development of new products or services in order to strengthen the health ecosystem.
During these two days, the project partners took stock of the implementation of the activities carried out so far and worked on the planning of the actions to be implemented over the coming months.
The first working day focused on monitoring the technical aspects linked to the management of the project. Afterwards, from a more practical point of view, the participating entities had the opportunity to discover the global framework of the San Sebastian ecosystem and the strategic axes on which the development of the city is based, mainly in the field of healthy ageing.
This approach to the reality of the city was completed with first-hand knowledge of two innovative start-ups in the city (Oroi and Ingevital), offering the participants a more detailed vision of the potential of local innovative entrepreneurship in the field of health and the competitiveness of the business fabric in San Sebastian. This contact in turn allowed local start- ups to have a first approach to new markets for their solutions.
The first day concluded with a study visit to ISS Biogipuzkoa, which served to provide the project partners with a broader perspective of the current state of the innovative ecosystem linked to research in Gipuzkoa, with a special emphasis on the field of ageing.
The second day began with the presentation of some start-ups coming from Romania and Italy and dedicated to providing innovative solutions aimed at improving the quality of life among the elderly people and concluded with a thematic training on how to overcome cultural, legal and societal business challenges when approaching another ecosystem.