The Minister of the Presidency, Economy and Business, and Actua’s President, Jordi Gallardo, signed an agreement with the Fundació Universitat i Tecnologia LA SALLE on Friday, October 9th in Barcelona to promote the Strategic Plan for Innovation in Andorra.

Gallardo stressed that “the goal is to boost the promotion, economic diversification and innovation in order to increase the competitiveness of Andorran companies, their economy, as well as to attract foreign investment”. In this regard, the minister emphasized “the desire to lay the foundations to support the development of this strategic plan with the participation of the Government, the universities, the research centres, the companies and the organised civil society, based on the methodology developed by La Salle, which has already been implemented internationally”.

This process will enforce the Andorran Innovation Ecosystem for the formulation of an Innovative and Entrepreneurial State model, and will create the necessary conditions for its implementation. To coordinate all the work, a follow-up commission will be set up consisting of representatives from Actua (Invest in Andorra and Innovation Hub Andorra) and LA SALLE.

The general director of LA SALLE Campus, Josep M. Santos, stressed that “it is a win-win. Andorra is asking for our participation, but we will learn a lot and it will be an experience for our researchers”.

During the following two years, with the option of extending the agreement, the objectives to be developed will mainly consist of:

  • Building a joint agreed vision of the Innovative and Entrepreneurial State based on the capacities of the current Innovation Ecosystem and the territorial and temporal opportunities.
  • Aligning the agents of the Innovation Ecosystem (Universities, Companies, Government and Organized Civil Society) in the design and physical, logical and technological implementation of Andorra.
  • Identifying and evaluating the conceptual requirements and incentives for the creation of a technology park in Andorra.
  • Identifying the territorial, economic, social and government challenges and promote actions driven by the Ecosystem agents to solve the challenges.
  • Contributing to the design of the governing bodies to involve, align and evaluate the projects and progress in the construction of the Andorra’s Innovative and Entrepreneurial State.

The agreement also provides for the development of a comprehensive strategy for the Area of Innovation that can be recognised by the International Association of Science Parks and Areas of Innovation. A worldwide network made up of 400 science and technology parks and innovation ecosystems.