カテゴリー: General-jp

The meeting will take place at Parador Nacional in Gredos on the 16^th and 17^th of January and is one of activities of the European initiative StartUp Village.

SEGITTUR will talk about the cultural tourism as an alternative that will help the inhabited but very rich in cultural and historic patrimony areas of our country to grow up.

15.01.2020. The European Conference of Provincial Councils, Town Councils, Island Councils, Autonomous Regions and the State General Administration for the Territorial and Rural Population and the Signature of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Pact for Rural and Territorial Repopulations will take place at Parador in Gredos on the 16^th and 17^th of January. This meeting continues the actions started in the 1^st European Congress of Rural Repopulation that took place at Villahoz (Burgos) last July and is one of the activities in the European initiative StartUp Village.

In this meeting, D. Carlos Romero Dexeus, manager of SEGITTUR’s I+D+I department   promotes the innovative initiatives in the tourism sector in Spain and he will present the NAPOCTEP project. NAPOCTEP was approved in the 2^nd call of the European Programme Interreg-POCTEP and its main aim is to highlight the importance of the extraordinary Napoleonic heritage that exists in the border region of Portugal and Spain. And it wants to create a quality tourist product.

NAPOCTEP thus has the intention of using the patrimony as an attraction spotlight for the rural areas’ visitors and, at the same time, can contribute to diminish their depopulation, helping them to make their gastronomy, heritage, trade and their hotel establishment to become more well-known. It also wants to attract more entrepreneurs interested in developing new ideas in the tourism and cultural sector along the previous routes.

The project is established in areas of Spain and Portugal which suffer aging and depopulation problems and it can be a great opportunity to help them to grow. Heritage, landscapes and gastronomy are local resources that cannot be relocated and attract more visitors who look for the most real and genuine experiences during their travels.

You can find more information about the meeting in the following link:

The aim of the seminar was to address the main issues that project beneficiaries face in the second call for proposals under the cooperation programme

Brussels, 12.12.19.- This morning, the technical team of the NAPOCTEP project attended the Seminar of Main Beneficiaries of the 2nd Call of the Cooperation Programme Interreg V A Spain-Portugal (POCTEP) 2014-2020, held at the Higher Technical School of Engineering in Seville.

The event, organized by the POCTEP secretariat, has been aimed at addressing the issues related to the Second Call and resolving the main issues raised by project beneficiaries. These topics include project management, indicators and results focus, information tasks, communication and visibility, and eligibility rules. The seminar also featured a presentation of Coopera 2020 and a meeting of beneficiaries with their respective UC.

This seminar was aimed at Principal Beneficiaries and other Beneficiaries of the second call of POCTEP, with the exception of those Spanish beneficiaries whose Coordination Unit is the Directorate-General for European Funds of the Ministry of Finance. On behalf of NAPOCTEP, the CIM Região de Coimbra, Finnova Foundation, Siglo Foundation and Santa María la Real Foundation, all beneficiaries of the Napoleonic Routes Project, attended.

In addition, the NAPOCTEP technical team carried out an internal meeting yesterday to analyze the progress of the project and prepare the 2nd Follow-up Committee to be held in February in Ciudad Rodrigo.

110 exhibitor and guests from 14 countries participated on Startup Night 2019, the largest startup event supported by the city council. Startup Europe Awards Hungary has been presented to the most promising startups on this event.

Budapest is the best place for startups in Europe, according to Startups.co.uk, and also the winner of the Startup Europe Awards 2018 in the category of The Best Public Administration for Startups. It was the fifth time that the Budapest Enterprise Agency (BEA), which has been founded by the municipality, organized the Startup Night, the event which aims to become a meeting platform for the actors of the Budapest innovation ecosystem, as well as for those Hungarian and international guests who are eager to know more about this scene. BEA’s chair of the board, Ms. Piroska Szalai told that this year 80 startups and 30 organizations – among them enterprise promotion organizations, universities, and large companies like the Tungsram Group – presented themselves in the venue called Balna Budapest. Next to the Hungarian companies startups from Ecuador, Romania, Slovakia, and Ireland; the city of Düsseldorf, the Irish-Hungarian Business Circle, the Embassy of Israel, and the Vienna Business Agency were also present.

Presenting startups have been selected on the Be Smart startup competitions that the BEA organizes twice a year. On these competitions those innovative Hungarian companies can participate, that have a marketable product, or at least a prototype. During the night the visitors might take a look for example on the Beachegg beach safe, the lunar rover of Puli, the smart incubator from Creo Medical, as well as numerous interesting applications, from smart hotels to online factoring to sidewalk maps for the disabled.

On the event a keynote speech was delivered among others by Ms. Enikő Győri, Member of the European Parliament, as well as by H.E. Ronan Gargan, the Ambassador-Designate of Ireland in Hungary, while in the panel sessions we could great Mr. Csaba Borboly, member of the Commission of European Regions, Mr. Lorenz Gräf, founder of Startplatz Düsseldorf, and organizer of the Rheinland Pitch startup competition, or David Uhlir, president of the EBN – European Business & Innovation Centres Network.

The final act of the official programme was the presentation of the Startup Europe Awards Hungary, due to the fact that BEA has become the Hungarian country manager of SEUA in 2019. The winner startups by category are the following:

· Agritech: AquaShield Control (optimization of hydroponic systems)

· Creative: Flywear (innovative eyewear for helmets), Proworx Digital (intelligent system for microsite development)

· Digilearning: ExaMe (marketplace for exam preparation materials)

· EdTech: Darts Maths (gamified mathematics education)

· E-Health: Mindtech Apps (EEG-based health solutions), Végtagmentő Applikáció (app for those living with diabetes that helps preventing amputation)

· FinTech: GB Solutions (digital banking solutions), Péntech Solutions (online factoring)

· Gastronomy: Flavor (app to discover new flavors)

· Green: Casp – Computer Assisted Super Pipeline (optimization of closed loop geothermal systems), W-Heat (fire resistant, eco-friendly insulation made of wheat)

· HR Innovation: Blue Colibri (internal communications solution), Talentuno (recruitment crowdsourcing platform)

· Industry: Pozi Technologies (positioning solutions for the industry), Sincroll Drive Technologies (innovative solutions for gearboxes)

· Marketplace: DynamO Pricing (dynamic pricing of event tickets)

· Medtech: Dental Scanner Solutions (3D intraoral scanner), E-Fásli (smart heat therapy)

· Mobility: Parkl (a city parking solution that also involves private spots), Route4U (sidewalk maps for people with disabilities)

· Music: Bandmap (social platform for the music industry), Phonic Chat (social app for making music)

· Social: Gyerekkel.com (app for finding child-friendly programmes)

· Tourism: Bonomi (virtual AI assistant for hotels, TMRW Life (smart hotel solutions

On top of the main categories, the Best Female Entrepreneur (Ms. Melinda Szegedi of E-Fásli), the Best Media Partner for Startups (the show ‘Forint, fillér’ of MTVA, the daily Magyar Hírlap, and the online portal Startuplap from Blogstar), and the Best Public Administration for Startups (the municipality of Kecskemét) have also been awarded.

After the awards ceremony the space was open for networking. As one of the winners told: ‘The night was about constant and intensive meeting, on a great place, but more importantly with a lot of important persons from New York to Norway, Düsseldorf, Manchaster, Vienna, London, and, of course, Budapest.’

This year marked the first time when the Startup Night got side events. During the afternoon, on a separate venue, participants of the Startup Afternoon discussed the news of four highlighted topics: application development, fintech, e-health/medtech, and music. Co-organizer of the app development and e-health events, Mr. Tamás Králik of Mindtech Apps reported that on these topics they have managed to link the actors of the startup ecosystem, resulted in an active conversation and successful workshops.

Main sponsors of the Startup Night and the Startup Afternoon were the Municipality of Budapest, and the National Research, Development and Innovation Office, sponsors of the events were the HEPA Hungarian Export Promotion Agency, and the Pallas Athéné Foundations.

CIM-RC Coimbra, Finnova Foundation, Siglo Foundation and Santa María la Real Foundation will attend the seminar on behalf of NAPOCTEP

Brussels, 05.12.19.- The NAPOCTEP team will attend the Seminar of Main Beneficiaries of the 2nd Call of the Cooperation Program Interreg V A Spain-Portugal (POCTEP) 2014-2020 on 12 December. The event, organised by the Secretariat of the programme, will take place at the Higher Technical School of Engineering in Seville.

This seminar is aimed at Principal Beneficiaries and other Beneficiaries of the second call of POCTEP, with the exception of those Spanish beneficiaries whose Coordination Unit is the Directorate-General for European Funds of the Ministry of Finance.

At the conference will be present the CIM Região de Coimbra, the Finnova Foundation, the Siglo Foundation and the Santa María la Real Foundation, all beneficiaries of the NAPOCTEP Napoleonic Route Project.

The seminar will address several topics related to the Second Call, such as project management, indicators and results approach, information, communication and visibility tasks, and eligibility rules, among others. In addition, there will be a presentation of Coopera 2020 and a meeting of beneficiaries with their respective UC.

For their part, the NAPOCTEP partners will hold an internal meeting the day before the event to analyze the progress of the project and prepare the 2nd Follow-up Committee to be held in February in Ciudad Rodrigo.

To see the provisional program of the event in Seville, click here.

12.02.2019. CILIFO project financed by the ERDF funds through the Interreg VA Spain-Portugal POCTED (2014-2020) Cross-border Cooperation Programme will participate, represented by the lead beneficiary (Andalusia government, Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Sustainable Development) and the Finnova Foundation in the United Nations Climate Change Conference.

On the occasion of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (https://www.ifema.es/en/cop25) and within the framework of the CILIFO project, Finnova Foundation will organise in Madrid, on December 11^th from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. at the IFEMA’s Mare Nostrum Space (Av. Capital de España, 7, 28042, Madrid, Spain), a round table entitled ‘Cooperation and governance for innovation in prevention, fire-fighting and restoration of burned spaces’.

The CILIFO project will be presented at this table as a case study regarding the need or not for international partnership methodologies. CILIFO is a pilot project of cross-border cooperation between Spain and Portugal in the EU. With a budget of 25 million euros, is the largest budget in the field of fire funded by the Interreg VA Spain-Portugal POCTED (2014-2020) Cross-border Cooperation Programme. CILIFO is a centre for promoting, training and cooperating in innovation in the field of forest fire prevention and fighting. Latin America is a region that suffers from important forest fires in the Amazon, so Chile affected by the scourge of fires will share its experiences by the hands if their mayor and business representatives.

COP25 will host the official launching of Firefighting Open Lab, an accelerator-incubator of business innovations – startups, scaleups – in forest firefighting and climate change mitigation and adaptation. The Firefighting Open Innovation Lab is an accelerator operated by Finnova Foundation, based in Sevilla and with the aim of promoting incubator networking – under public-private partnership – at global level for fighting forest fires and climate change mitigation and adaptation. In addition, the European Union’s financial tools for innovation in firefighting such as Horizon Europa and the LIFE Programs will be under discussion.

The closing ceremony will be held by a representative of Startup Europe Awards (SEUA), moment in which the Firefighting Cop25 Global Awards will be launched, within the framework of SEUA (startupeuropeawards.eu) – Open Innovation methodology within the Startup Europe of the European Commission. This call will identify disruptive innovations and is operated by the Europe Startup Awards Belgian entity. 

The event has been an opportunity to publicize the project of Napoleonic routes outside the eligible territory in the space POCTEP

Brussels, 27.11.19.- Between the 26 and 27. November, the Palace of Congresses of Jaca has been the scene of POCTEFA y tú: cooperemos para seguir creciendo, the first event focused on the results, good practice and the future of the projects of the European cross-border cooperation programme between Spain, France and Andorra (Interreg POCTEFA).

The event has served as a showcase for disseminating and sharing the good results of the projects that have been part of the programme since 2007, as well as publicizing its good practices and positive impact on the territory. The meeting has also served to foster dialogue between actors in the territory, to create synergies between project promoters, learn the keys to collaboration and have examples of good practices and learn how to use the new online tool with which you can learn about projects with common interests.

Íñigo Bilbao, Director of Sustainable Cities at the Finnova Foundation and coordinator of NAPOCTEP, attended the event to present and disseminate the good practices of the project. Finnova is a beneficiary of the Napoleonic routes project, and one of its tasks is the implementation of the project’s International Information and Communication Plan, in addition to establishing synergies and networking for the capitalization and exploitation of project results. This working forum held in Jaca within the framework of POCTEFA has been an opportunity to raise awareness of the NAPOCTEP project outside the eligible territory of the Cross-Border Cooperation Area 3 of the POCTEP Programme (Castile-Leon – Centro de Portugal).

This event has also served to facilitate possible collaborative lines between entities interested in the NAPOCTEP project for its future replication in the POCTEFA space, so as to extend the tourist route outlined in the NAPOCTEP project to other areas and areas of cooperation, thus favouring the enrichment of the territories, safeguarding the environment and creating jobs in rural and hinterland areas.

The European project has been shown together with other national projects in the world of inland tourism

Brussels, 22.11.2019-. This morning, the NAPOCTEP project was exhibited at INTUR, the famous International Inland Tourism Fair in Valladolid. The project of Napoleonic routes through Spain and Portugal had its own space in the stand of the Junta de Castilla y León, beneficiary of the project. Íñigo Bilbao, Director of Sustainable Cities in Finnova and coordinator of NAPOCTEP, presented the project as a good example of good practice in sustainable, quality and strategic rural tourism, which helps to boost the rural world by enriching the territory, safeguarding the environment and creating seasonally adjusted jobs in rural and inland areas.

The presentation was attended by personalities from the municipalities of Burgos, Ciudad Rodrigo and Medina de Rioseco, technicians from Astorga, travel agencies of cultural routes, technicians of the Fundación Santa María la Real and Fundación Siglo, and technicians of European projects of the Junta de Castilla y León, among other rural tourism professionals.

Bilbao highlighted the visibility that the international fair provides to NAPOCTEP: “our participation in INTUR is very interesting and allows us to make known the project and to contact many interested entities and people”. He also stressed the need to have municipalities, tourism companies and tour operators to build a tourism product, and expressed interest in coming back next year “with the product already created to start marketing it”.

NAPOCTEP is on display until 24 November, when the fair ends, together with other projects concerning the national level in culture, enogastronomy and nature, the key themes of rural tourism.

NAPOCTEP presented its good practices in brand promotion during the project meeting organised by the Interreg Programme POCTEP

Brussels, 21.11.2019-. This morning has started FEHISPOR, the historic Badajoz fair in which every year the best Spanish and Portuguese contents are presented in the IFEBA facilities – Badajoz Fair. From 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. took place a meeting of Interreg Spain-Portugal Tourism Projects, in which a networking session and good practices were carried out to capitalise on the results of various projects in the programme.

The meeting was attended by Nuno Pomar, coordinator of the CIM-RC COIMBRA, the main beneficiary of NAPOCTEP, and José Manuel Requena, representative of the FINNOVA Foundation, also a beneficiary of the project. Both have presented the good practices of the NAPOCTEP project and have given a presentation on the brand “Napoleonic Routes in the Iberian Peninsula”.

NAPOCTEP will continue to be present at the fair at the stand of the Interreg Spain-Portugal Programme, exhibited in the TURIBERIA section. This section is the first thematic space on Spanish-speaking tourism, in which various projects related to tourism and heritage destinations are presented. Visitors will be able to get to know the Napoleonic route project first hand until the 24th of November, when the fair ends.

More than 225 exhibitors and nearly 30,000 visitors are hosted each year in FEHISPOR. In addition to TURIBERIA, the fair also has other themed salons that reflect the cooperation between Spain and Portugal, such as the Salón de la Gastronomía Hispanolusa, the Feria de San Mateo de Elvas or the Salón de la Artesanía.