On 29th June, ATANA, apoyada por Sodena, gave the opportunity to several business agents to present their proposals to the public that attended the conference ‘Presentation of AI solutions in Navarra’, held at the headquarters of the Confederación Empresarial Navarra (CEN).

The event highlighted the future challenges that these companies will face and the alignment with the European Union, and the other ICT companies were invited to participate in the catalog and enrich it with their products. In addition, the interest of the sector in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) line of work was highlighted, as well as the importance of mutual support to create synergies.

When we talk about technology, we always highlight its transversality and strategic role for the rest of the sectors; therefore, it is important to take into account the actions outlined in the Artificial Intelligence Strategic Plan launched in June 2022 by the Government of Navarra through Sodena to boost the development of the strategic sectors of the S4 and strengthen competitiveness in ICT, facing the current challenges they present.Based on these principles, we find the new Artificial Intelligence Catalog of Navarra, a tool that seeks to bring together AI-based solutions and disseminate them to the business fabric of the region.

The 11 speakers (Vision Quality, Tasiva Visión, Conasa, Data Value Management, CYC, Larraby, Veridas, Neuraptic, iAR, Intensas Networks and Helphone) presented the solutions structured around five thematic blocks: quality control, production control and planning, security, information analysis and AI for recommendations.

First, new technologies were presented for detecting contaminants in food, identifying foreign bodies and predicting the quality with which a material will reach its destination, as well as controlling machinery maintenance.
In the second block, the presentation focused on optimizing stock maintenance, enabling manufacturing companies to forecast the demand for their products and options for converting data into valuable and accessible information.
Thirdly, remote identification and biometrics solutions were detailed, and a multimodal artificial intelligence for SMEs that allows access to databases with normal language and several solutions for smart cities such as passenger counting or neurointepretation for people with a certain degree of blindness were also presented.

Finally, a generalist and personalized recommendation engine that can be parameterized for different commercial purposes was presented.
The day ended with the presentation of Emotional Films, a new film format that generates films in real time based on the emotions of its viewers, an initiative of the studio Dr. Platypus & Ms. Wombat, in collaboration with the Public University of Navarra (UPNA), the University of Navarra (UNAV), ADItech and Creena.

To keep up to date with the latest news in Artificial Intelligence you can access to Catálogo de inteligencia artificial de Navarra – Empresas navarras que dan solución a problemas actuales (atana.org)

Gender equality as a factor in the competitiveness of industry is the objective of the Debuting project, co-financed by Interreg Europe, which in the first half of its implementation is carrying out study visits to the project partner regions to share good practices.

On this occasion, the region of Lapland has been the host of this visit, a region with a low population index that has a large forest mass and that, in addition to wood, bases its economy on metal industry and mining. This is a sector in which women do not predominate. In its new strategy, the region is firmly committed to the circular economy.

Gender inequality is compounded by the region’s difficulty in attracting talent in general. Therefore, the region has several programmes to help companies to be more attractive and attract job seekers, programmes to support entrepreneurship, and the attraction of women to the mining sector.

On the other hand, during the visit, the partners had the opportunity to discuss and define the next steps of the project, which includes a measurement of the labour climate in terms of equality in order to know the reality of the companies in each region.

A series of workshops have also been defined around 6 axes that will be held for all the regions and their stakeholders. The first of these, on 30 August, will focus on attracting talent.

The ultimate goal of Debuting is to develop or improve public instruments to promote gender equality in the industry.

Sodena hosted the second regional meeting of the Interreg Europe ‘DEBUTING’ project (Developing Business Through Inclusiveness and Gender Awareness – New Cluster Competences) on Friday 9 June, where it presented everything it had learned during its visit to Värmland (Sweden), a leader and benchmark in this project.

At the meeting, the participating regional entities delved into the different lines of work to orientate gender equality as a factor of competitiveness in Navarre. The Directorate General of Labour of the Government of Navarra, the Navarra Institute for Equality, SNE, AMEDNA, CEN, AEDIPE, the Functional Print cluster, the Directorate General of Vocational Training and Sodena will join forces with the aim of proposing improvements in public instruments to improve gender equality in Navarre’s industry.

Thanks to the sharing and learning of policies and good practices, the definition of different themes to be tackled to achieve gender equality was defined, with six key axes, areas or points to work on at both a business and a structural or general level:

1. Recruitment of talent.
2. External and internal company communication.
3. Corporate culture and structure.
4. Innovation through the user.
5. Business models.
6. Sustainable development.

Last May, in the framework of the Partnerships for Regional Innovation (PRI) project, the S3 SUMMIT meeting on Smart Specialisation Strategies (S3) was held in Ponta Delgada (island of São Miguel, Azores), organised by the Azores Regional Directorate for Science and Technology (DRCT, GRA), the Portuguese National Innovation Agency (ANI) and the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission.

The aim of the meeting was to reflect on the coordination and directionality of regional, national and EU innovation policies and to implement the transitions towards a digital and sustainable economy and address the innovation divide, with sessions on new transformative innovation and open discovery processes (ODP). Sodena participated in the panel on experiences in regional missions.

The main conclusions on the new transformative approach to regional innovation strategies highlighted at the event were:

1. Right timing: it is urgent to tackle climate change leaving no one behind and securing the EU’s position in the economy of the future.

2. Complex times: we cannot avoid complexity, therefore it is mandatory to move out of the “control zone” into the “zone of influence”.

3. Innovation policy called to address a new generation of problems: climate, demographics, economic divides…. These cannot be tackled in isolation, we need a social innovation and green innovation perspective.

4. Changes to improve impact. Europe must transform or be transformed (not an option): if we continue to tackle problems with the same methodology, we will lose impact.

5. Transformative innovation. Incremental adjustments and improvements with a linear perspective are not enough: they have to be addressed from the industrial, social, skills policy, regulatory, market, demand… fields.

6. “Mission” as a sticky (and flexible) concept that facilitates commitment and coordination: it has to be inspiring, rewarding and challenging, so that everyone wants to join in and have a stronger impact.

7. Mission and opportunity: missions are an opportunity for discovery and coordination, but also for capacity building and policy transformation. The aim is to define acceptable pathways for change with a local mission focus.

8. Time and perseverance: Change requires both. The good news is that missions can lead to marginal changes, creating a virtuous circle in policy: start small with pilot projects, test models and grow.

9. Public competences. Urgent need to rediscover and strengthen capacities in the public sector to understand the challenges and address them.

10. Need for coordination: innovation agencies are key, but they cannot do it alone. They need the involvement of sectoral actors, orchestration skills and good political support.

We still have a long way to go, with much to learn and put into practice. We will continue on this path towards transformative innovation, moving out of our control zone of traditional policies and projects, into the zone of seeking greater influence and impact.