Together Stronger: IDEA Consult fostering inter-regional collaboration

IDEA Consult has previously supported the project between January 2019 and June 2020, and will continue to support the development and implementation of concrete collaborative action plans that will support the development of practical collaboration between regions to help entrepreneurs scale across the Single Market. The project initially counted with ten European Entrepreneurial Regions and eight new regions will join the renewal phase of the project: Pomorskie (PL), Helsinki (FI), Valencia (ES), Gelderland (NL), Northern Ireland (IR), Malopolski (PL), Asturias (ES), and Navarra (ES).

Strategic topic areas have been previously identified, based on mapping, analysis and interlinking of EER labelled regions. In an initial phase, the project will carry out an in-depth mapping of the eight new regional entrepreneurial ecosystems as it has been done in the previous project with the participating regions. The objective of the in-depth mapping it to deepen the analysis and to collect additional evidence to:

• Develop a comprehensive map of the entrepreneurial ecosystem and diagnose the maturity of the ecosystem
• Update the SWOT analysis of the regional ecosystem and identify the strength and existing gaps
• Analyse the linkages within the ecosystem and in the context of cross-regional collaboration
• Analyse the challenges and opportunities connected with the horizontal and thematic synergies for potential cooperation

Collaboration areas have been already extracted from the analysis and will adjust according to the analysis of new regions. The collaboration areas are developed into actions in Action Plans. The project moves from Action Plans to initial actions including fostering collaboration and exchange through workshops, online meetings and study visits.