On the 9th of February 2020, the INTECMED project - Incubators for Innovation and Technological Transfer in the Mediterranean from the ENI CBC MED Programme, had its first international press conference. The press conference was held in an online format and gathered around 70 people from the press. Each partner had the possibility to explain briefly in their national language (Spanish, French, and Arabic) the impact that the project will have in their territories. This multilingual approach highlighted the beautiful diversity of our Mediterranean, and how when we come together we can create big things!

The press conference started with greetings from the Joint Technical Secretariat from the ENI CBC MED Programme, Khaled ElSaadany, and the General Secretariat of the Board of Directors from the Chamber of Achaia, Theodoros Tsoumbelis. Soon after, the Lead Partner of the project the Chamber of Achaia, represented by the Project Manager Giotopoulos Konstantinos, made a short presentation of the INTECMED project. Subsequently, each partner of the project (Technological Corporation of Andalusia, Chamber of Commerce of Seville, Chamber of Commerce of Cap Bon, National Agency for Scientific Research Promotion, Confederation of Egyptian European Business Associations, SEKEM Group) presented themselves in their local language, their organisations and their role in the project. 

There is heterogeneity among the target regions of the project (Andalusia-Spain, Alexandria-Egypt, Cap Bon - Tunisia and Western Greece) in terms of innovation capacities and policies. Therefore, the project aims to overcome the obstacles of different actors working with innovation at the local level to coordinate their actions and to find synergies, initially in the mentioned regions, and afterward to create a base to be implemented in all the Mediterranean basin. 

For this reason, the main objective of INTECMED project is to develop an integrated innovation ecosystem at the local level to support technology transfer and commercialization of research results, in order to improve the linkages between the various innovation players, notably the science system and higher education, the government (especially at a local level), the private sector (mainly SMEs), and also the citizens.

The methodology of the project to develop this innovation ecosystem will be to create Regional Alliances for Innovation Transfer (RAIT), Regional Innovation Facility Points, Mentorship programmes, E-Bazaar of innovation, as well as Regional Innovation Transfer Exhibitions. 

Consequently, the mid-term impacts foreseen by the project are to set-up a stable and long-lasting decision-makers group at the local level composed by all interested actors to innovation processes; define an innovation strategy at the local level that could coordinate all actions of different players; create stable organisations that at the local level can support innovative ideas to convert in businesses; improve the competences in the field of business planning through the pilot projects mentorship programmes, and commercialize research results of at least 48 entrepreneurs/researchers. 

As long-term impacts, the project foresees to increase the innovation capability of the involved regions, and in particular those of the southern shore of the Mediterranean; to have a common targeting of innovation policies and spending in order to increase the added value of results and alleviate cross border inequalities; as well as to set-up 12 new initiatives and to create 12 new stable jobs, due to mentorship programmes and to the financial supported by subgrants. 

The INTECMED Project counts with € 3.6M funding (of which €3.3M of EU co-funding) in the framework of the Cooperating across borders in the Mediterranean ENI CBC MED Programme.