Innovation is most likely to happen at the borderlines between different industries. The project "CCC reloaded: CREALAB" aimed to develop and implement a multidisciplinary, cross-sectorial and transnational method using creativity to stimulate innovation by bringing together traditional industrial sectors with the creative industries and science. In this way, the development of new services and products as well as the creation of new value chains was fostered. 

Aim
CCC reloaded: CREALAB aimed to:

• Generate mechanisms for letting SMEs translate research results and innovative ideas into products, services and business models that meet global market demand and provide solutions to societal challenges
• Create new values chains

Background
The current economic crisis and on-going global business transformations have highlighted the need to modernise regional business structures and build new business competences in order to respond to global competitive and societal challenges. The question that regional policy makers are faced with is how to best develop regional industrial and SME policies and smart specialisation strategies in order to build a more robust and resilient business base within their region. Following a traditional approach (top-down), regional public authorities would spend a lot of resources for developing new policies, strategies and action plans addressed to the industry for sustainable growth.

The project “CCC reloaded: CREALAB” proposed an action plan (implemented together with local authorities, research institutions and private businesses – triple helix) in order to support the development of more innovative environments in which businesses (especially SMEs) would combine creativity with the use of new technologies and more resource efficient solutions in order to develop new services and products. In this way new business opportunities might arise that could result in smarter and more sustainable growth.

Implementing pilots (innovation workshops, partnering platforms, joint projects dealing with problems/ needs from industry and crowd sourcing) at different North Sea Regions contributed to a strong programme of transnational policy learning, collaboration and networking with businesses from different industrial sectors (cross-sectorial and transnational partnering) and entrepreneurial support for service incubation and internationalization.

For the long term, regional public authorities shall adopt completely or at least partially the action plan of the project as a support instrument for an economic sustainable growth at the region (bottom-up approach).

“CCC reloaded: CREALAB” contributed to a sustainable economic and societal growth in the North Sea Region. Due to the nature of this project – support of entrepreneurs and SMEs – the project was addressed to the Priority 1 of the North Sea Region Programme and was in line with the objectives laid down in European Communication’s “A stronger European Industry Growth and Economic Recovery” as part of the Europe 2020 Strategy as well as with the “Small Business Act” which supports the participation of SMEs in innovative clusters.

Moreover, the project supported the “Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan” recently published by the European Commission, which aims to create an environment where entrepreneurs can flourish. 

The project “CCC reloaded: CREALAB” built up its method using the results and experiences obtained from the project Creative City Challenge (CCC). CCC implemented transnational activities using creativity as a tool towards territorial integration and the achievements of the goals set in the Gothenburg Strategy and Lisbon Agenda in order to increase the sustainability and competitiveness of the North Sea Region.

• Innovation workshops that facilitate constructive, transnational, collaboration between the creative industry and SMEs to find industry applicable solutions to providing economic growth
• A transnational network which stimulates the interaction and collaboration between innovators and established companies within an international context and provides best practices, methodologies etc. including regional contact points respectively in Bremen, Groningen, Dundee, Kortrijk, Gothenburg and Copenhagen
• Best practices and guidelines for setting up successful innovation workshops between science, business and creative industries in the North Sea Region and Europe in order to foster innovation in businesses
• Best practices, guidelines and a hands-on tool to the overall industries of the North Sea Region in order to set up effective collaborations between different stakeholders which will improve innovation