Public support to boost the creation of DIHs, Galicia Spain

In January 2018, the Galician Innovation Agency initiated a process to support the establishment and proper operation of Digital Innovation Hubs (DIH) considered strategic for the region. The process was articulated along four consecutive steps:

• Mapping exercise: it was made through direct contact with the whole innovation ecosystem in the region, and it also served as an awareness-raising campaign.
• Call for expression of interest: 12 expressions were received and presented in a open seminar, participated by all organisation involved in the proposals. The aim was to foster collaboration among all expresion of interest and to identify weaknesess for efficient DIH implementation.
• Training program: Based in the outcome of the afore mentioned seminar, all participants were offered to a training program on DIH concept and management.
• Call for proposals: Finally, a call for proposals was launched in December 2018. Five tenders were received, being two of them declared as strategic DIH and, thus, selected to get financial support by the regional administration.

Besides the digital capabilities and expertise, the selected DIH were considered strategic based on their contribution to the RIS3, the wide support by the innovation ecosistem and their transnational collaboration strategy.

The two selected DIH are:

DATAlife is the DIH for Life Sciences in Galicia. It aims to accelerate the digital transformation of entities in sectors such as agro-sea food, biotechnology forestry-wood and healthcare. It focuses on helping companies introduce AI, IoT, HPC andCybersecurity. It has been labelled EDIH and co-funded by the EC.

DIHGIGAL aims to boost the digital transformation of the regional manufacturing industry. With a technology focus on AI and HPC, it brings together more than 500 organisations and promotes cross-sector collaboration in key sectors: ship-building, textile, automotive and food.