Fundación LAB Mediterráneo presents LAB Live, an assessment of the actions carried out in 2024, and offers a preview of its upcoming projects

Valencia, 24 September 2024.- Fundación LAB Mediterráneo, a project promoted by the Employers’ Association of Valencia (AVE), has held the second edition of LAB Live , an informative meeting to involve the media in all the actions that are being carried out by the Foundation.

The meeting took place at 9:30 am at the headquarters of the Foundation’s patron, Sesame HR with the participation of Héctor Dominguis, president of Fundación LAB Mediterráneo, and Enrique Soto, director of the Foundation.

Héctor Dominguis recalled that the LAB Mediterráneo Foundation, whose board of trustees is made up of 25 leading entities and companies in their respective sectors, has the mission of positioning the Valencian Community as a benchmark in the fields of entrepreneurship, innovation, technology and research and stressed that “the objectives that the Foundation has set itself since its inception are to promote the creation and attraction of technological startups, attract technology companies that create a pull effect, accelerate the digital transformation of non-technological companies, increase private investment in innovation and R+D, and promote research. These are part of the measures contained in the Draghi Report to reduce the competitiveness gap that separates Europe from the US or China, so they are becoming,  if possible, more relevant and timely”.

To achieve these objectives, the Foundation carries out various actions in four work areas: communication, dissemination, generation of knowledge and support for existing initiatives in the Valencian Community that are aligned with its areas of action.

In the area of communication, it was pointed out that the most visible action this year sought to respond to a verified fact: the low degree of penetration of technologies in SMEs. With the campaign “This is how it is”, an audiovisual series of 4 chapters, the aim is to raise awareness among SMEs about the fact that the use of certain technologies and within reach can take companies to another level, and that “in relation to digital transformation there is no choice: either you transform and adapt, or you are left behind”, in the words of the director of the Foundation.

Also in terms of communication, the Foundation launched its podcast “Unlimited Visions” this summer with the aim, on the one hand,  of generating information, knowledge and debate on the Foundation’s areas of action and  highlight the existing talent in the Valencian Community in entrepreneurship, innovation, technologies and research, on the other.

In the section on dissemination actions,  all the actions that try to connect the various groups that are part of the Valencian Innovation System were valued, based on the conviction that “exchange and collaboration are the true catalysts for innovation”, in the words of the Foundation’s president. Along these lines, the usual meetings have already been held this year to connect researchers and entrepreneurs, large corporations and startups, and businessmen and university students. In this respect, the spokespersons of the Foundation stressed that “in the Valencian Community every year there are 9,500 graduates from the STEM branch. However, only 2% of employment in Valencian companies corresponds to specialist ICT personnel, so the use of this specialised human capital is one of the aspects that needs to be improved by companies.

Along with the informative session on how certain Valencian companies are applying AI to improve their business models, the next actions to be carried out were set forth. First of all, the III day of Unlimited Mentoring, whose purpose is to make sure the participating SMEs have  at their disposal all the experience of the companies of the board of trustees in relation to the challenges they have in terms of innovation and technology. It will be held on October 15 in Alicante.

Secondly, relating to dissemination, the next destination of the business mission, following those to Israel and Silicon Valley, was revealed to be South Korea (from November 11 to 16). It was recalled that the missions are carried out to learn from those territories that are leaders in the Foundation’s  areas of action. In this sense, the lessons learned from the mission to Silicon Valley were highlighted, on the one hand: the crucial role of entrepreneurs and how existing business talent works as a lure to attract more business and innovative talent; the role of advisors, mentors and guides who accompany entrepreneurs during their journey; and that of investors and universities,  “the quarry of entrepreneurs”. As a learning experience, the Foundation  stressed “the need to bring companies closer to the educational system, at all levels”.

On the other hand, the choice of South Korea as the next destination was motivated by the country’s great economic evolution in recent decades. South Korea, which has become the country, after Israel, investing the highest percentage of its GDP in R&D, is at the top of the different rankings with respect to innovation in the world. The Foundation valued the leadership of its technology sector as factors that have driven this innovation, with companies such as Samsung, LG or Hyundai, an educational system that focuses on science and technology and considerable government support that promotes technological innovation and the creation of startups.

In the third of the lines of activity, knowledge generation, emphasis was placed on the presentation on the 12^th of the LAB Observatory, a set of indicators that will help measure the annual evolution of the VC in entrepreneurship, innovation, technology and research, and compare this evolution with other regions of reference. With this Observatory, the Foundation aims not only to offer useful information and knowledge, but also to provide proposals and recommendations for all those actors who make decisions in their areas of action. This year the Observatory also includes an analysis of the perceptions of Valencian companies in terms of attracting and retaining technological talent, a talent “for which we compete with companies from all over the world”.

In the last of the lines of action, support for existing initiatives, the activities that have received the support of the Foundation were mentioned as they are help fulfil its mission, such as FTalks Food Summit or Somma connect, and the next events in which the Foundation will participate were announced:  The Gap in Between and Valencia Digital Summit.

Fundación LAB Mediterráneo