Barcelona promotes a global alliance to promote innovation districts
- 09 March 2023
- Business Center
22@Network promotes a global alliance to promote innovation districts, under the name "Innovation District Alliance" and CINC is part of it as president of the association, led by Enric Urreta.
Barcelona City Council together with 22@Network and the International Association of Science Parks and Innovation Areas (IASAP) have created a global alliance of innovation districts to promote this sector.
Barcelona has been the city chosen to coordinate this alliance by the company 22@Network, an announcement made last Thursday at the Mobile World Congress by the president of 22@Network, Enric Urreta; the CEO of IASP, Ebba Lund; the head of development projects of strategic areas of Barcelona Activa, Josep Miquel Piqué and the representative of Melbourne Innovation District, Patricia Lora.
Under the name "Innovation District Alliance", it will be a platform to share good practices, deepen the analysis and data of the districts, and promote international connections of the agents of innovation ecosystems.
The alliance is born with 10 founding members from ten different countries: Australia, Argentina, Brazil, China, the UK, Italy, Germany and Spain, and is expected to grow to 30 platform members during this year, with organisations empowering innovation around the world.
Innovation districts are those based on the knowledge economy, which have a set of agents in the same space (universities, businesses, research centres, ecosystems and community) and are capable of jointly generating new opportunities.
22@: A benchmark model
Barcelona Activa places the 22@ district as a reference model of "international success in innovation which, with economic and urban planning policies, has been exemplary and has allowed the Barcelona brand and the city's entrepreneurial image to be strengthened".
The 22@ district has promoted economic clusters in the bio, tech, design, energy and audiovisual sectors, and since its creation 20 years ago it has managed to generate 115,000 jobs, 60% in knowledge-intensive activities, and is home to 11,500 companies, 10 university campuses, four student residences and 15 R+D and innovation centres.
