Andorra International Living Lab
Andorra, as any other European country, has suffered intensely from the effects of the pandemic, in particular due to the fact that its economy has been historically focalized on tourism and commerce. However, since 2011 the Principality has initiated a race towards economic diversification, attraction of foreign investment and the implementation of new economic sectors, which over the years has consolidated itself. It must be said that the pandemic has also contributed in a certain manner to perceive Andorra as a country with safety, protection, health and quality of life: a perfect ecosystem to develop knowledge and attract talent.
Indeed, the pandemic has put in evidence and accelerated in a definitive manner the digitalization dynamic of basically every area of our life and the necessity to innovate in an ever-changing environment. New technologies, digital transformation and sustainability have become the main axes of a new economy that aspires not only to survive but rather to reach progress and success.
It is upon these grounds that Andorra Business and Andorra Recerca + Innovació have invited the actors of the innovation and business ecosystem to design, consolidate and implement an action plan which, along with the legal regulations currently being adopted, will channel talent and new business initiatives in a surrounding that encompasses new innovation, research, technology, new digital economy and knowledge.
How should it be done? With the famous theory of the “four helices”, through work in cooperation between the Government, research and innovation institutions, private sector and citizens, in order to build the foundations that allow to attract and develop talent, creating the adequate infrastructures and, of course, the areas of reflexion and ethics, governance, decision making and action to implement a collective innovation that implies actors from the private sector, public sector, academicians and citizens.
Why Andorra? Because the size of our territory allows us to implement an open innovation system that, thanks to optimum legal conditions and virtual and real infrastructures of last generation, provide a support for interaction, co-creation and joint experimentation. Along these lines, Andorra seeks to become a reference as an open “Internacional Innovation Living Lab” characterized by the strategic advantage of agility, scalability in a flexible environment, which is adaptable and quick to develop; which allows building prototypes, test them and implement idees, products and innovative services.
What strategy? Attracting local and international talent and developing it; support to companies and to businesses through attracting national and international start-ups and scalable products and services with an increase of Andorran companies’ competitiveness. Increase in the financing of innovation; creation of intangible infrastructures, along with the connection with institutions of international research and implementation of mechanisms to stimulate innovation of Andorran companies; the construction and implementation of areas that promote and enhance a technologic ecosystem, innovative and business oriented.
Which sectors to focus on? The ones where Andorra can provide a differential value: sports, health and wellbeing; sustainability, circular economy and mountain economy; biotech and energy; greentech and agriculture; tourism and mobility; education and society.
It is not difficult to imagine this new Andorra International Living Lab, successfully facing the process of economic, social and cultural transformation. Business people from around the World: Andorra awaits you with open arms to jointly initiate this incomparable experience!
The Management
Augé Legal & Fiscal
