Overcoming barriers for innovation in entrepreneurship ecosystems of Andalusia, Navarre, Extremadura and Madrid

The Commission is providing support to four Spanish regional authorities, namely Andalusia, Navarre, Extremadura, and Madrid, in order to design a scalable and replicable reference framework for supporting the entrepreneurship ecosystem at the regional level. In this context, the project supports the implementation of component 13 of the RRP linked to the provision of support to SMEs. Specifically, the reference framework aims to define the development of each Autonomous Community’s entrepreneurial ecosystem directly supporting the implementation of the national Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP). The project draws from the experience of other six European regions, such as Flanders, the region of Helsinki and Southern Ireland. The project is also providing targeted trainings to build the capacity of the regional Spanish authorities to carry out effective support to SMEs throughout the RRP implementation period of 2022-2026.

Context

Despite numerous actions to promote entrepreneurship and innovation among Spanish SMEs, they are facing numerous barriers related to innovation and entrepreneurship due to the public administration’s poor understanding of policy measures supporting entrepreneurship and due to the financial and health crises of the past years that adversely affected Spanish SMEs. Four sectors (i.e., circular economy entrepreneurship, collective entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship based on emerging technologies, and entrepreneurship based on innovation and technology) have been selected, given the current underdevelopment of entrepreneurship and its high potential for resilience in crisis and to enable the green and digital transitions. This support will help the four regions to align their plans to European programmes (e.g., under the European Structural and Investment Funds), national strategies (e.g., Spanish Innovation and Entrepreneurship Strategy), and national plans (Recovery and Resilience Plan).

Support Delivered

The Commission is providing support during a 20-month period. The support measures consist inter alia of:

• technical analysis of the entrepreneurship ecosystem in each of the four regions;
• lessons learned and recommendations from other 6 European regions;
• drafting and validating action plans for each region;
• establishing Key Performance Indicators scoreboards to assess and monitor the impact of the proposed solutions;
• capacity building for the four regional administrations.

Expected Results

The main expected outcome of the project is the development and implementation of a scalable and replicable reference framework in the four Autonomous Communities. The beneficiaries and the ultimate users include the regional public administration of the four Autonomous Communities and their different departments dealing with economic development and sustainable and innovative entrepreneurship as well as small and medium-sized enterprises pertaining to the ecosystems of Andalusia, Navarre, Madrid, and Extremadura. Autonomous Communities collaborate with the Regional Development Spanish Agencies Forum and the Spanish Directorate-General for SMEs to develop entrepreneurial action plans. Stakeholders involved in the project include universities and research institutes working on capacity building training for the digital transformation, facilitators, accelerator programmes and entities, and incubators. The outputs related to this project should contribute towards the successful implementation of Spain’s RRP.

More about the project

You can read the final report here:

The representatives of the four regions in the project have participated in the panel of the EU Regions Week 2022.