INDESCAT launches the INSHAPE project: European cross regional innovation for Sports & Active Healthy Lifestyle, with the aim of creating a European innovation hub and accelerating investments in high potential SMEs in the field of sport, fitness and technology. INDESCAT will support SMEs in the sport sector, through funding and services, to facilitate their access to the market in the commercialisation and expansion phases. The total budget of the INSHAPE project is almost 9.6 million euros and aims to reach more than fifty SMEs directly and more than a hundred indirectly. In addition to INDESCAT and ACCIÓ, the agency for business competitiveness of the Generalitat de Catalunya, the initiative involves around twenty partners from different European regions, including the company Onalabs Inno-Hub, a member of the cluster.
As a society we are challenged to get and keep people active and vital. In addition, we face challenges in the field of sport to remain competitive everywhere as an industry. Smart technology helps us to meet these challenges and to seize economic and social opportunities in today's globalised world. The INSHAPE project aims to strengthen the economy by accelerating investments in innovation related to sport and technology, and to help bring projects to market by connecting the different European regions involved in the project. Thanks to INSHAPE, innovations from SMEs and start-ups in the pre-commercialisation phase will be supported and accompanied to capture opportunities in this fast-moving global market.
The project, coordinated by the Sports and Technology cluster in the Netherlands, has a total budget of more than €9.5 million - 70% funded by EU-I3. This financial boost aims to establish an INSHAPE Innovation and Investment Centre, where companies, knowledge institutions and public administrations can come together around innovations that promote a healthier and more active lifestyle, even after the project ends.
INSHAPE, which has a duration of three years and has started in September 2023, will include a total of around twenty partners from seven European regions in five different countries: The Netherlands, Belgium, Hungary, Finland and Spain.
To kick off the project, INDESCAT travelled to Eindhoven on 20-22 September to attend the Elis Innovation Summit, the Sports Innovation Congress organised by the project partners Sports and Technology and Sport Innovator.
In the framework of the congress, INDESCAT participated in a round table: "Sustainable sports facilities for a sustainable and healthy society", an opportunity to learn how innovation will help to create a more sustainable and climate neutral sports environment.
INDESCAT will be in charge of carrying out WP3 (work package 3) of the INSHAPE project, representing Catalonia, and will also carry out the implementation of the support to more than fifty innovative SMEs, which will receive different grants, and of which some 24 will receive direct funding. INSHAPE members will have to contact their network of companies to identify and select SMEs with the potential to receive funding through specific calls for proposals. SMEs can present the development needs and technological and innovation challenges they would like to address and the project will help them to find potential co-development partners/SMEs.
Oriol Serra, cluster manager of INDESCAT, explains that "this project will be a great opportunity for those companies that are currently part of the cluster and are in a pre-commercialisation phase of some of their innovative solutions".
In addition, INSHAPE will also help startups related to the Barcelona Sports Hub, a project promoted by the Barcelona City Council and energised by INDESCAT.
I3-INSHAPE is funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
_20231003172646.png)
_20231003113532.png){kind=logo}
