Bilbao Ekintza, at the Urban Development Area, coordinates the Bilbao Next Lab project and the project for the Urban Innovation District of Zorrotzaurre.
Bilbao Next Lab
Bilbao Ekintza seeks to become a facilitating agent of economic development in the city in the smart specialisation area. In this framework, Bilbao Next Lab is the research and action laboratory which promotes growth and development projects in different areas based on the collaboration of stakeholders.
The objectives and areas of work include:
- In collaboration with other public and private stakeholders –Bilbao Local Group-, to facilitate and promote the economic transformation of Bilbao towards a sustainable urban development. Bilbao City Council, through the municipal society Bilbao Ekintza, and Orkestra-the Basque Institute of Competitiveness work together to achieve this objective.
- To attract, develop and retain talent in the areas of priority in the smart specialisation strategy from the urban area and linked to the RIS3 Euskadi.
- To bring together the research-action areas in the area of urban competitiveness. In this respect, it aims to establish Bilbao Next Lab as a pioneer process in promoting the relation between universities and city policy makers to promote smart specialisation in the city, and to contribute to the development of a research-action community in the area of urban competitiveness.
- To encourage learning among European projects and cities for the international positioning, mainly aimed at contributing to the development of the future Urban Innovation District of Zorrotzaurre (DUIZ).
