Boris Meggiorin
On behalf of the innovation agency Conexiones Improbables (Spain) I contributed to the production of two cycles of international events to define the role of cross-sectoral innovation in different sectors of the economy and the society. These events in 2021 and 2024 were produced in the frame of the New European Bauhaus, the interdisciplinary platform for innovation and sustainability of the European Commission.
DeuS is an Erasmus+ Vocational Educational Training (VET) project, coordinated by the Matera – Basilicata 2019 Foundation, that aims to co-create a European-wide learning and training approach in critical thinking and entrepreneurship to find participatory, creative, and cost-effective solutions to local challenges, by unlocking the potential of the cultural and creative sector. The project brings together relevant players from the cultural and creative sector from Austria, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands, Slovakia and UK.
The DeuS project is shaped around the unique Open Design School, a pillar project of Matera 2019 (Italy), European Capital of Culture. It is a design laboratory using a peer-to-peer challenged based approach, where professionals of any discipline work together and share knowledge and expertise while designing, prototyping, delivering and testing design solutions.
The Open Design School methodology goes one step further than existing design thinking processes by applying real solutions to real problems, validated by real people: it transforms applied research in the real domain. In the process, DeuS works as a “think and do tank” where professionals with different backgrounds can upskill and re-skill while responding collaboratively to current societal and economic challenges.
My role in 2021 was to support the production of 10 Living Labs, one for each partnering organization, to test and integrate the Open Design methodology in solving local challenges.
In 2014, I was working at SAMOA, an Agency for urban regeneration on the Isle of Nantes (France). My colleague, Hélène Morteau, was finalising her PhD study on creative clusters and urban redevelopment while we were involved in the European Creative Industries Alliance. Among the tasks to perform, we had to exchange good practices and share the knowledge we were producing with our partners beyond the European continent.
We got in touch with the University of Chicago and its Cultural Policy Center , and we discovered that they were planning to expand their network in Europe, and namely in France.
This mutual interest resulted in the organisation of the 2015 Paris Convening of the University of Chicago on Urban Cultural Projects: Research, Practice, Policy.
During this time, world renowned experts met to discuss their findings about cultural projects in the urban environment.
My role, in addition to supporting the organisation, networking, and logistic effort, was to promote the urban redevelopment project of Nantes. This was a very good opportunity to reinforce its brand development.
The Regional Council of Pays de la Loire (France) built a strategic partnership with several universities, the University of Nantes among others, to create 13 thematic platforms working on Research, Training, and Innovation.
While working as a coordinator for the local Europe Direct Information Centre in Nantes (France), I was part of the Innovation programme devised by Alliance Europa, the platform devoted to the studies on the European Union and citizens’ rights and roles.
It supported their network, communication, and field studies throughout their first years of activities.
As the Head of International development at SAMOA, an Agency for urban redevelopment in Nantes, I was part of the European Creative Business Network, a network featuring prominent international partners in the field of cultural and creative industries. The aim of the network was to build the framework for the development of entrepreneurship and access to finance for SMEs all around Europe and beyond. http://ecbnetwork.eu/
We hear about the importance of knowledge and creativity in our daily life and in our working environment. But how we can actually support the cultural and creative sector, to thrive and contribute to a sustainable economic growth?
The European Creative Industries Alliance (ECIA) was an integrated policy initiative that combines policy learning with 8 concrete actions on innovation vouchers, better access to finance and cluster excellence & cooperation. The policy learning platform was the main achievement of the EU funded project. The European Commission integrated in its agenda the policy recommendations produced by the platform.
My role was to coordinate the project, from the operational and financial point of view, at SAMOA (Redevelopment agency of the Isle of Nantes) as one of the six partners.
In addition I steered the team working on the transfer of knowledge in the field of cross-sectoral innovation and internationalisation of SMEs in the sector of cultural and creative industries.
The project was financed by the Competitiveness and Innovation programme of the European Union. http://eciaplatform.eu/
