More than 50 attendees coming from Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Slovenia and Sweden overcame challenging weather conditions and met in the North West Ireland Region in a very fruitful event.

Under the title ‘Connecting Digital Hubs and Innovation Centres across Europe’ and as part of the ERUDITE project where ERNACT participates as partner, attendees met in the Gaeltacht area to participate in an interesting workshop at the innovation centre Áislann Ghaoth Dobhair. 

The session was co-opened by Mícheál Mac Giolla Easpuig representing Údarás na Gaeltachta and Brian Boyle from Donegal County Council, main responsible of the Donegal Digital Action Plan. Colm McColgan, General Manager of ERNACT presented the local context including the reality and plans for Donegal that are being carried out through the Donegal Digital Action Plan and where Digital Innovation Hubs is a pillar action. It was followed by inspiring presentations from other Digital Innovation Hubs and models in Europe, including business-oriented privately-owned initiatives (Ludgate), university-led like the Maker labs network in Slovenia, socially oriented like the Lab Altobello in Venice (Italy) and hubs for digital economic & social regeneration in Burgundy-Franche-Comté (France). Experts including representatives from the European Commission DG AGRI discussed on the vision of a Peripheral Digital Innovation Hubs Network working together and linked to other main Innovation Centres of Competence.

The day was complemented with a practical session applying the novel SEROI+ methodology developed in the ERUDITE projects where attendees discussed on the economical, environmental and social impact that the services planned will bring in the participant territories. 

The following day, the ERUDITE partnership held the interregional steering committee meeting to track project’s progress. The meeting took place at CoLab, based on the campus of Letterkenny IT where partners could also see in first-hand the activity carried out in this innovation ecosystem.