A project of Steinbeis Danube Center, Austria

Milano, 26.11.2019: Steinbeis project manager Roxana Boboruta attends A-Ring kick-off meeting as observer. A-RING’s main project goal is to establish the basis for an effective and permanent transnational cooperation among different levels and actors, to develop a shared R&I policies for the Alpine Region (AR). The project fosters mutual recognition among policymaking, clusters, research and business, enhancing an active role of R&I bodies in local and regional development and innovation in strategic topics within AR.

Steinbeis Donau Zentrum located in Vienna is one of the 28 partner institutions involved as observers. A-RING is financed through Interreg Alpine Space program and it is aimed to build: a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) and roadmap for innovation in alpine space; an Alpine Region Open Science Lab; trainings and multi-stakeholder alpine R&I think-thank.

During kick-off meeting, expertise from Steinbeis was proposed to be delivered within Technical Panel (TP) gathering experts from the observers. Thus, Juergen Raizner – expert in Danube region and coordinating Danube Competence Group – is ready to share knowledge into activatian and implementation of working groups for Alpine Seed Labs. TP`s role is to provide work package leaders with technical guidance and suggestions.

Starting from the kick-off meeting proactive discussions in the form of design thinking were held between project partners. Concerning the subject which directly involves the observers but also the ones aimed to link alpine space with other macro-regions, questions targeted the best practices into implementing the „living lab“. How should be designed the Alpine SeedLabs? How to develop further a SeedLab? How digital and phisical space should be reconciled when implementing the concept?

Besides being available to contribute to smooth running of the project, Steinbeis Danube Competence Group through Donau Zentrum is ready to support dialogue with other stakeholders and contribute to macro-regions synergies, especially related to Danube region.

A-RING is a project with chances to achieve great results and develop a reliable SRIA (Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda). Cohesion was achieved starting with the kick-off meeting as all project partners were invited to visit the „Science & Technology Museum“ in Milan city centre. Museum offers amazing mind travel into the speed of innovation especially related to the past century: hosting 300t Toti submarine and a few miligrams of Moon rock from Apollo 11 mission offered to the President of Italy