RED.ES HAS AN ACTIVE ROLE IN THE DIGITAL AGENDA FOR SPAIN, WITHIN WHICH IT DIRECTS THE ICT PLAN FOR SMES AND E-COMMERCE AND THE PUBLIC DIGITAL SERVICES PLAN. WHAT ARE THE MAIN OBJECTIVES OF THESE PLANS AND WHAT ACTIONS IS RED.ES DEVELOPING TO ACHIEVE THEM?
The main objective of these plans is to help small and medium-sized Spanish companies to be incorporated into the new digital reality and, at the same time, to create the conditions in digital public services so that the Administrations continue to lead by example. It should be borne in mind that Spain's intermediate position in the DESI digitisation index published by the Commission each year, specifically 14 out of 28, is largely explained by the fact that we are the 6th country in terms of digital public services. This is why the answer can only be to maintain the effort in this area and, at the same time, to strengthen support for the digitisation of companies and citizens.
In the case of companies, it is not only a question of buying computers but also of reorienting the entire business model, internal management processes, customer and supplier relations, the development and promotion and sale of products and services, etc. The new digital environment changes the rules of the game, internationalises and interconnects sectors, facilitates management and democratises access to knowledge, empowering citizens and employees. For these new technologies and new ways of doing things to be a source of advantages, particularly smaller companies need support, which are the majority in our country has less than 10 employees, which greatly limits the innovative drive with their own means.
It is in this context that Red.es proposes a comprehensive strategy to support the Spanish business fabric and not only thinking of small companies but also of new ones, because if the former are responsible for a large part of employment, the new ones are responsible for most of the net employment generated in most OECD countries. One of the first actions of Red en Economía Digital has focused on the Cloud, an area where Spain is lagging behind other countries. And to this end, a few years ago, the entity launched a call for the promotion of supply, through direct aid to companies for the development of digital solutions that can put on the market. Cloud Offer has resulted in a Resolution of 18 M€ for projects for the development of Cloud solutions for SMEs. At the same time, in order to facilitate the adoption of these solutions by companies, a call to boost demand was launched, which we have recently resolved with a budget of €20 million in direct aid to SMEs.
Another of the programs currently being implemented by Red.es is oriented to the development of Digital Talent. Published in January of this year a first call for proposals with the Social Fund, in August we published the Resolution of the Digital Professionals - Youth Employment Programme, which has launched 20 M€ (as a whole) in subsidies to various entities that presented training and employment projects to Youth Guarantee students. The essence and novelty of the instrument is that it is the companies themselves who propose training curricula based on their needs to achieve direct employability of students. It is therefore a question of training guided by the demand for professionals. And we believe that this is the way forward, given the reception of the call for applications for €40 million, double the funds available.
Based on the experience accumulated, in the context of the Strategic Plan approved by the Board of Directors of the entity on April 20 of this year, Red bets on an end-to-end system vision to address the digitization of companies and sectors, both existing and new. At the same time, the need for training by entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs will be translated into a portfolio of instruments at three levels: People, Companies and Ecosystems that will be operational this year. Our approach is bottom-up because we believe that digital transformation is about people. Citizens must be the real protagonists of the digital change and that a sustainable change to be successful must be social and cultural.
RED.ES 2017-2020'S STRATEGIC PLAN ASSUMES THE COMMITMENT TO REMODEL THE INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL OPERATIONS OF THIS ENTITY, MOVING TOWARDS A MORE EFFICIENT AND COLLABORATIVE MODEL. THE MOST IMPORTANT SECTOR OF THE SPANISH SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY PARKS IS THE ICT SECTOR AND INCLUDES MORE THAN 1,700 ENTITIES. FROM YOUR POINT OF VIEW, WHICH POSSIBILITIES OF COLLABORATION CAN RED.ES ARTICULATE WITH THE SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL PARKS, LOCATED THROUGHOUT THE NATIONAL TERRITORY?
With the approval of the Strategic Plan 2017-2020 and the Annual Operational Plan by the Board of Directors, the process of digital transformation of our country becomes the"leitmotif" of Red.es. And with this, the institution is equipped with an instrument that it did not have despite its 15-year history.
This strategy aims to transform the Spanish productive sectors and contribute to the development of new sectors, including ecosystems in European platforms, as opposed to the leadership of the United States and Asia. For Red.es, the challenge is also twofold because this is the potential of these technologies: on the one hand, to connect and, on the other, to catalyse the digital transformation; or, if you want, to access and energise ecosystems. The network of Science and Technology Parks available in our country is an asset of unquestionable value that can only be gained if it finds points of attachment with the digital economy and society.
It is true that interface bodies such as Parks and Centres are relatively absent from many European and, to a certain extent, national debates, since they are entities with autonomous, if not local, governance and funding. And this is a paradox, because we know that what defines innovation systems and entrepreneurial ecosystems is the relationship function and an unresolved issue in Europe is the transfer and valorisation function.
Red wants to be the entity that sponsors the digital transformation and to do so it must rely on the facilitators and catalysts of change and innovation that are the two levers that precisely define the digital transformation. For all these reasons, I am sure that we will find ways of collaborating with APTE related to demonstration centres and entrepreneurship, which we are willing to revisit. In the meantime, Parks can participate in many of the calls we are launching. And in this way, perhaps we can address this duality between connecting and catalysing that ICTs make possible, something that I believe APTE and the most active Parks in digitalisation also value.
IN RECENT YEARS RED.ES HAS SUPPORTED THE CREATION OF DEMONSTRATION CENTRES IN SOME AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITIES WITH THE AIM OF ENABLING COMPANIES IN THE ICT SECTOR TO SHOW OTHER ENTITIES PRODUCTS AND SERVICES THAT CAN IMPROVE THEIR COMPETITIVENESS. HOWEVER, WE SEE THAT THERE ARE STILL 11 AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITIES WHERE THESE CENTRES HAVE NOT BEEN DEVELOPED. ARE YOU PLANNING TO DEVELOP NEW CENTRES IN THESE COMMUNITIES? DO YOU THINK THAT THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY PARKS, WHICH ARE BECOMING REAL LIVING LABS OF DIFFERENT TECHNOLOGIES, COULD BE THE IDEAL SETTING TO LOCATE THESE CENTRES?
Obviously, Red is evaluating the results of the first Demonstration Centre pilots in order to, in view of the experience accumulated, consider the best formulas to achieve the greatest impact. In a first level of analysis, it seems that the heterogeneity of the results obtained also reflects the different degree of commitment of the entities that sponsor the Centre for its future operation and dynamization. It is clear that providing a physical site with equipment does not guarantee a valuable contribution to the ecosystem, much less in international terms.
For all these reasons, we are studying a two-pronged approach that will lead to a model that also takes into account international trends, from the oldest (Living Labs, for example) to the most recent (Digital Innovation Hubs, in particular), through FabLabs, EIT KICs and our own experience with Digital Centres and Poles. The study that we propose to carry out should determine the model or models that Red.es can set in motion in general in the future and this with two objectives: guaranteeing the activity of the Centres once the public impulse is completed on the one hand and transforming the Centres into spaces of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, open to business reality and digital entrepreneurs.
WE OBSERVE THAT, AS FOR APTE, SUPPORT FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE INTERNATIONALISATION OF SMES ARE TWO IMPORTANT LINES OF ACTION IN RED.ES. CURRENTLY, THERE ARE NEARLY 1,000 INCUBATING COMPANIES IN THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY PARKS. COULD YOU EXPLAIN TO US WHAT THE MAIN ACTIVITIES THAT COMPRISE BOTH PROGRAMMES ARE AND WHAT SMES HAVE TO DO TO BE ABLE TO PARTICIPATE IN THEM?
Besides, the lines we are developing on the digital transformation in the context of the Strategic Plan, the digital sector is a sector that needs development in itself. In this field, promoting digital entrepreneurship becomes a necessity, identified as a strategic objective by the European Union. It is not only a question of encouraging or encouraging the creation of new digital businesses, but also of encouraging them to grow and consolidate internationally. This scaling phase has been identified by Red.es as a fundamental axis on which to build a strategy of scaling and business growth that has three areas of action, aligned with the paradigm that the World Economic Forum proposed a couple of years ago for a Europe of innovative entrepreneurship: stand, start, scale.
First, there is a perceived need to support start-ups in their consolidation in the marketplace. In general, there are already a number of initiatives in place to finance the early stages of a business start-up. There are prizes for entrepreneurship, incubators, accelerators and public aid for the development of technology. At the other extreme are the large private capitals that take on powerful rounds of financing in companies that are already starting to show good results. The most imperative market failure lies at the mid-point, the famous'valley of death', where companies no longer have enough financial lungs with start-up aid but are not yet attractive to venture capital and investment funds. This is the point of greatest mortality of new companies and where Red.es studies to launch new instruments to strengthen these companies in the consolidation of their business models. We are therefore not talking about developing technologies or participating in companies, which are areas well covered by the CDTI and ENISA respectively.
Secondly, business growth is an issue of importance for both Europe and Spain because it is clear that the problem is not in generating more companies, but in creating the conditions for some to at least climb to international leadership positions. In the medium term, Red.es is considering an instrument to support companies with high growth potential. Once identified, the necessary support will be put out to tender so that the identified potential can be realised in real growth of these companies. The third point consists of an instrument that we studied and called ´escaladores internacionales´ to offer aggregators (incubators, accelerators, etc.) both competitive intelligence and tacit knowledge through mentors that allows companies that sponsor both collaboration and competition with greater guarantees of success in the world.
ANOTHER COMMITMENT TO IMPROVING THE COMPETITIVENESS OF SMES IS BASED ON SUPPORT FOR THE DIGITALIZATION OF SMES AND IN THIS SENSE, THEY PLAN TO DEVELOP A PROGRAM TO SUPPORT THE INCORPORATION OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES IN SMES AND A PROGRAM TO SUPPORT TECHNOLOGY-BASED SMES. CAN YOU TELL US WHAT THESE PROGRAMMES ARE GOING TO BE AND WHEN ARE YOUR CALLS FOR PROPOSALS DUE TO BE PUBLISHED?
Indeed, one of the pillars of the new Digital Economy strategy of Red.es is focused on supporting the digital transformation of SMEs. In addition to the more specific initiatives carried out to date, such as Cloud, a generalist aid programme is being prepared to solve all the needs of SMEs in their digitisation process. The programme is also structured in three stages to facilitate the digital transformation of companies with a finalist logic: dissemination, definition and development.
On the one hand, a first level of support will consist of disseminating and raising awareness of the advantages of entering the digital world from business associations and groups that the Network will empower. Many microenterprises, due to the difficulties of their ordinary business, have neither knowledge nor resources. In this respect, Red.es plans to develop digital transformation offices that, in a relationship of proximity, will boost the possibilities of adaptation 4.0 to the companies in their environment. On the other hand, direct advice programmes are being prepared for SMEs that request it in order to facilitate"how" their systems and processes can be adapted to e-business, with direct, modest help, but allowing companies that wish to do so to hire an expert or resource to draw up a personalised plan. Finally, direct aid is being designed for companies' own acquisition of digital solutions.
Obviously, with the funds available, Red.es will be able to pave the way for a group of companies. The success of the entity will depend on this group serving as an example to others. And that these in turn find help in the system. Our work consists in investing and inspiring change so that other entities, also autonomous, find in the portfolio of instruments of Red the inspiration to implement complementary actions. In this respect, the magnificent first meeting that we organized at the UIMP with all the people in charge of the Autonomous Communities. last July encouraged us to think that we are all working together and that the actions of the Network could catalyse change. In fact, after the Meeting we have started a study to map the systems and ecosystems that support the digital transformation and the digital economy in each and every one of the Autonomous Communities in order to know and articulate our support with those of the Autonomous Communities. The second Meeting in 2018 will make it possible to draw up roadmaps on these maps to enable each Autonomous Community to advance in its degree of digitalisation, with active support from the Network for the exchange of good practices throughout the system.
