Cluster GAIA, Basque Country, Spain

The Basque Country has recently updated its Smart Specialisation Strategy for the 2021-2027 EU funding period – the ‘Euskadi 2030 Science, Technology and Innovation Plan’ (EUSKADI 2030 STIP), addressing three main transition areas: (a) technological-digital, (b) energy-climate and (c) social and health. Accordingly, priority areas from the previous S3 strategy have been further developed and renamed. In addition to priority areas, the S3 stragegy highlights three so-called ‘niches of opportunity‘. The identified areas and niches can be broadly defined as “industrial ecosystems”, which encompass players from the smallest start-ups to the largest companies, from academia to research, service providers to suppliers.

S3 Priority Areas:

1. Smart Industry (previously Advanced Manufacturing)

2. Cleaner Energies (previously Energy)

3. Personalised Health (previously Bio-health)

Niches of Opportunity:

1. Healthy Food

2. Sustainable Cities

3. Creative Industries and Eco-innovation

EUSKADI 2030 STIP is fully aigned with the ‘Circular Economy Strategy of the Basque Country 2030’, which was launched in 2020. Circular economy is now integrated more transversally into the S3 priority area of Intelligent Industry and Clean Energy, with the objectives, by 2030, to (a) increase material productivity by 30%, (b) increase the circular material use rate by 30%, and (c) cut waste generation per unit of GDP by 30%.

In general, main strategic challanges, which have been identified by the Basque Country are:

1. Developing the Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3) further towards a “S4 approach” by integrating sustainability as key element

2. Digitalisation of regional industry

3. Filling the talent gap, especially in the industrial environment  

Cluster policy in the Basque Country started in the early 90’s and has since evolved into a cluster based policy making approach. Thus, Basque cluster organisations are pivotal elements of the regional innovation and economic development plans and strategies, such as the Basque S3 Smart Specialisation Strategy, bringing together small, medium-sized and large companies, academia and research as well as administrative entities. They operate in 16 clusters (see above table).

All 16 cluster organisations play an important role in competitive intelligence and strategy formulation, promoting collaborative innovation processes, internationalisation and trade-related activities, sustainability, skills development initiatives, and value chain development and diversification in the region focusing on, but not only, SMEs.

Basque Cluster Policy and Support Programme is within the responsibility of the Department of Economic Development, Environment and Sustainability, and is operated by its implementing agency, SPRI Business Development Basque Agency. The cluster policy entails financial support (which represents, on average, around 19% of the clusters’ budget), as well as capacity building services and cluster and cross-cluster development initiatives.

Different government plans and strategies, such as the Basque Industry 4.0 Strategy, Euskadi 2030 Science, Technology and Innovation Plan (EUSKADI 2030 STIP) or the Industrial Development and Internationalisation Plan (2021-24) acknowledge this key role of Basque Cluster Organisations as articulators of private-public efforts in economic development and transformation.

Further reading:

• Euskadi 2030 Science, Technology and Innovation Plan (EUSKADI 2030 STIP): https://www.euskadi.eus/contenidos/informacion/pcti_euskadi_2030/es_def/adjuntos/EUSKADI-2030-STIP.pdf

• Cluster Policy in the Basque Country: https://www.spri.eus/en/ris3-euskadi/cluster-policy/

• Basque industry launches first phase of actions to achieve net zero emissions: https://www.spri.eus/en/environmental-sustainability-news/basque-industry-launches-first-phase-of-actions-to-achieve-net-zero-emissions/

GAIA currently represents 302 cluster members with SMEs accounting for the largest share, in addition to large companies, start-ups, research institutions and universities and otherstakeholders. Considering the great diversity of actors in the GAIA cluster, there is a great deal of interest within the ICT and knowledge sector in ensuring that the government is aware of the strategic lines, programmes and projects promoted by the cluster initiative, as well as the challenges and needs faced by the sector. Based on that, a cooperative culture has been established between the cluster organisation and its members, and the regional government in order to jointly work out plans and support measures.

The cluster management team consists of 20 well-qualified staff members. The association’s governing body is represented by the Board of Directors with 20 members. In order to ensure strong collaboration and a great degree of mutual understanding, one person from the Basque government is part of the Board of Directors. The work of the cluster management, which is financed by (a) public funding for clustering and participation in local, national and European projects, (b) annual fees for the cluster members, and (c) fees for the provision of services, is oriented towards the three main strategic priorities.

Due to GAIA's cross-cutting strategic approach, with digitalisation as a key transition for the regional economy, the commitment to the development of key enabling technologies, and the orientation towards climate and social transitions, public-private partnerships (PPPs) have been initiated with other Basque clusters during the last years, as well as with other organisations in the Basque Country. An example of this is the Basque Digital Innovation Hub (BDIH) which is a connected network of advanced manufacturing assets and services. This infrastructure for training, research, testing and validation is available to companies and is promoted by the Basque Government-SPRI itself, of which GAIA leads the digital solutions node (DDS). What is more, GAIA has been actively involved in designing the EUSKADI 2030 STIP and has been part of the steering groups that have coordinated the development of the priority areas of the strategy such as the Sustainable Cities steering group or Socio-Economic Digitalisation.

The organisation has adopted the EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) model since 2004, and uses digital tools for its operational, project and financial management.

Advancing the digitisation of the economy as a lever for competitiveness, the design of social and energy-climate transition, and the build-up of resilience forms the medium- to long-term objective of the cluster initiative. In order to achieve these goals, the cluster management acts at two levels of the service portfolio.

1. Supporting Services: These comprise communication and marketing services for cluster members as well as the promotion of forums for networking and building cross-business partnerships.

2. Specialised Services: Unlike supporting services, these are more tailored to indiviual business and innovation needs. Specialised services include the following areas: (a) talent development and training, (b) the initiation and development of R&D&I projects, (c) the promotion of alliances for collaborative initiatives and innovation projects, and (d) internationalisation, accompanying companies in venturing abroad.

For many years, GAIA has been a crucial actor within the regional industrial ecosystem of the Basque Country, being the interface between the economic policy and the ICT and knowledge sector. Due to their proximity to the SMEs, the cluster organisation is well aware of their needs and can pass these on to policy makers. For this reason, GAIA, like other cluster organisations in the region, has also been closely involved in shaping industrial transition and digitalisation policies.

Especially in the field of internationalisation, GAIA has been very active in European programmes (e.g. COSME, ClusterXchange) and is among the core partners of the recently launched Silcion Eurocluster. Among other things, the organisation was involved in EU projects to analyse digitisation needs of different sectors, identify required skills for future-oriented and cross-sectoral fields such as smart cities, e-health and other future topics, and to develop digital business models for existing sectors in the region. This engagement and the experiences gained in the projects eventually led to increased internationalisation acitivities of member companies and paved the way for strong strategic partnerships at SME level. Furthermore, due to the success in the respective calls and increased participation in programmes and projects, it has been necessary to recruit more staff into the cluster management.

GAIA is committed to the creation of a data-driven digital economy in the region. The cluster management acts as a facilitator to help member companies become more innovative through digitisation – for example, through internationalisation measures so that SMEs can market their products better abroad, through talent development programmes together with universities and vocational training centres, or through initiating cross-sectorial cooperations. With regard to the latter, this also means that GAIA has opened up its digitisation services to companies from other clusters and has initiated some above-mentioned strategic public-private partnerships with other cluster organisations. For example, GAIA has recently promoted the establishment of BAIDATA in the territory – the Iberian initiative for implementing International Data Spaces (IDS)-based and Gaia-X-compliant data spaces –, and is working on the articulation of new networks specialised in the fields of cybersecurity, experiential Intelligence, quantum, artificial intelligence, in collaboration with the Basque Artificial Intelligence Center (BAIC), or IoT.

Further reading:

• GAIA’s Strategic Plan 2021-2027 (Executive Summary): https://gaia.es/web/content/38380?unique=19193149ea93ea03ba7c7fb70ba3dcd3f3c48cee&download=true (in Spanish)

• Basque Digital Innovation Hub: https://bdih.spri.eus/en/ • Service Portfolio of the GAIA Cluster Management: https://www.gaia.es/en_US/services-support and https://www.gaia.es/en_US/services-special

• The BAIDATA Association: https://baidata.eu/

The case of GAIA and the Basque Country highlights the important role of policy support for cluster-based regional economic development in order to succesfully design and implement industrial transition policies and strategies to strengthen regional economic resilience. What is more, it shows how important the strong interplay between regional economic policy and the cluster organisations is in order to generate added value both at the level of regional transition strategies and at the level of implementing need-based cluster policies and projects. The case also demonstrates how the active involvement in cluster programmes at European, national and regional level can boost the professionalisation of cluster management structures and services, ultimately leading to higher performance levels of the cluster management as well as real benefits for cluster members in terms of business development, managing corporate transformation processes and addressing the skills shortage.