Introduction

The antecedents of the modelling of the Landing Programme, a high-value service and networking platform, have to be found in 2004 when the Innova (Catalonia Technical University) and La Salle Programmes (Innovation Park of La Salle) were recognised as the two best technology springboards of the CIDEM network, with the success of their work in fostering a culture of innovation and a spirit of entrepreneurship, and aiding the establishment of technology-based companies.

Within this framework, and attempting to provide a response to some of the needs identified, and to address several of these requirements the Innova and La Salle-URL Programmes developed a new line, focussing on a programme to promote corporate growth and internationalisation: the Barcelona Global Entrepreneurship Platform, aimed to create and help companies grow in accordance with a global paradigm, a global mindset.

It is a Platform for entrepreneurship, innovation, internationalisation and accelerated corporate growth, an extension to the existing corporate set up promotion programmes. The Platform is to serve as a pilot for a system combining R+D+I+E, in the understanding that the current system needs to be made far “smarter”, more proactive and efficient, and acknowledging the requirement for the implementation of a synergy based model.

The Landing Platform, the inernational growth platform within the GEP, is being lauched from Barcelona’s district of innovation: the 22@Barcelona. 22@Barcelona is a project that is transforming two hundred hectares of industrial land of Poblenou into an innovative district offering modern spaces for the strategic concentration of intensive knowledge-based activities. The project is being designed to become a ‘compact city’. Having the Triple Helix as a model, it creates an environment and culture propitious to development and innovation relating The Government, University and Industry, where, each of the actors will both bring value to the Program and at the same time be the direct, priority recipient of the value proposition offered by the Landing Program. Finally, 22@Barcelona is fostering the development of thechnology clusters within the district, specifically ICT, MEDIA, MEDTECH and ENERGY. The infrastructure is being deployed, organizations and agents with research capabilities are settling in the district, and if territorial innovative capacity is displayed, as a virtuous circle, entrepreneurship and talent will be called and attracted. That’s one of the reasons why Landing Program connects from Barcelona to a high-value global network.