A delegation from the prefectures of Aichi, Hiroshima and Kyoto visit the Basque Country to discuss cooperation on regional innovation policies
A delegation from the Japanese prefectures of Aichi, Hiroshima and Kyoto are currently in the Basque Country, with the aim of exchanging good practices and knowledge in the field of regional innovation policies. The visit has been organised by Lehendakaritza, through the Commissioner for Science, Technology and Innovation, and is part of an interregional cooperation project jointly promoted by the European Commission and the Japanese Ministry of Territory, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.
The programme includes meetings with the Minister for Economic Development, Sustainability and the Environment, Arantxa Tapia, and the Minister for Education, Jokin Bildarratz, and their teams. In this way, the prefectures will be able to learn first-hand about the Basque Government’s strategic policies and initiatives in science, technology and innovation, within the framework of the Basque Country 2030 Science, Technology and Innovation Plan (PCTI Euskadi 2030).
Special attention will be paid to the areas of digital transformation and smart industry, entrepreneurship, start-ups and open innovation, energy transition, renewable energies and hydrogen and environmental sustainability. As well as Impact Science through the IKUR 2030 Strategy, in the field of scientific research of excellence and its emblematic areas: Neurosciences, Quantum Technologies, Neutronics and High Performance Computing and Artificial Intelligence and the University + Enterprise Plan.
Visits
The Japanese delegation also plans to visit the Donostia International Physics Centre (DIPC), Materials Physics Center (CFM), CIC nanoGUNE, Gipuzkoa Technology Park, Vicomtech, Cidetec, Basque Culinary Centre, Repsol-Petronor, Automotive Intelligence Center (AIC), Bizkaia Technology Park and Tecnalia.
The Framework Strategy for Internationalisation “Euskadi Basque Country 2025” considers Japan a priority country. Furthermore, 2023 has been declared the “Basque Country-Japan Year”. As a result of this cooperation project between the Basque Country and the Japanese prefectures, progress is expected to be made in the signing of new collaboration agreements or “Memorandums of Understanding” between different public or private institutions, which would join those already established by the Basque Government with the prefectures of Mie (2018) and Fukushima (2019).
Six European regions and five Japanese prefectures are participating in the cooperation project as a whole, which were selected by an evaluation committee that assessed the strength and progress of their respective regional innovation systems. From Europe, the regions of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Vallée de l'Oise in France, Emilia-Romagna in Italy, Ljubljana in Slovenia, and Euskadi and Catalonia in Spain are participating. From Japan, the prefectures of Aichi, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima and Oita are participating.
