Intermunicipal Communities, the multitask innovation hubs

We will only be successful in decentralization and regionalization processes if we are able to do more and better with less

The digitization of many activities, on the one hand, and their territorialization, on the other, are the two faces of the regional problem and will not always converge in the intended direction, which is a harmonious occupation of the territory and the creation of wealth and jobs well distributed in the interior. from the country.

In this sense, the Intermunicipal Communities (CIM) are a window of opportunity for the future in that they will receive attributions, competences and resources from central and local administrations as a result of the application of law nº 50/2018.

However, this is only the starting line of a long process of territorial consolidation that, in order to assert itself, needs to be part of cooperation and innovation networks that give it structural muscle, networking enough and capacity for self-realization. One of these networks concerns the innovation centers multitask which, through a collaborative platform, can, for example, involve the various CIMs that a region contains.

Let's make a very brief foray into these innovation centers multitask which can be precious infrastructure and equipment for the future of the CIM and respective regions.

Nucleus of productive niches and added value chains

Productive niches and value chains are distinctive signs of a region, brand images of the territory. The CIM must enhance the local and regional production system by transferring to its production chains and to its price system the CIM added value created through its various territorial distinctive signs.

Center for biodiversity, functional ecology and environmental services

Without a natural heritage in conditions to be used there will be no sustainability in the local and regional productive systems and this is an irreplaceable task that, in itself, creates confidence and trust in the final goods of the CIM and the region, considered goods of merit and reputation.

Alternative energy center

Energy autonomy and low carbon emissions are hallmarks of our time. The energy matrix of alternative resources is a distinctive sign that digitizes and territorializes a CIM and its region. It is an unavoidable task of multitask innovation.

Circular economy core

A key task associated with the previous one is laying the foundations for a circular economy in each CIM and its region. Circularity is, from now on, one of the main bases of the local and regional productive system and a source of significant local job creation.

Center for professional education and permanent training

Another fundamental task concerns a circular network between intermunicipal communities of technical education and permanent training, which extends from the professional internship to active aging with the collaboration of business associations and academia.

Core of new residents

Without rejuvenating the active, fixed and mobile population, there will not be, in the long run, a consolidated CIM. The nucleus of new residents, neo-rurals and digital nomads, among others, needs a lot of creativity, from permanent residencies to research internships, from goods and services in the creative economy to new projects in the productive economy. Territorial and digital marketing will be fundamental to affirm this line of work of multitask innovation.

Center for home outpatient services

Home ambulatory network services are a form of intelligent regionalization that can be carried out by a platform of the respective intermunicipal community. In addition, the outpatient network can interact with small community centers of voluntary help and, in this way, de-industrialise the old age and disease that currently exist in public services.

Accessible and therapeutic tourism center

Along the same lines, the accessible and therapeutic tourism center can interact with small community centers of voluntary help and thus create a more effective and, above all, more empathetic proximity network for a category of people who are more vulnerable and have special needs. .

Center for traditional arts and crafts

Another fundamental task concerns traditional arts and crafts which, in addition to recreational and educational aspects, need to proactively interact with the marketing of the CIM territory and thus generate added value for the local and regional production system. The core is a fundamental asset and a central place of the CIM.

Active Aging Center and Community Service

Finally, a core task of the CIM concerns the promotion of active aging and voluntary service in support of the community. It is a strategic unit of the CIM and a distinctive sign of the community, as it cuts across all the other nuclei horizontally. It is an unavoidable task of multitask innovation.

Final grade

The innovation centers multitask, by their very nature, no longer belong to the vertical silo administration, as we still know it today, that is, they will interact with the municipal administration and the regional administration and imply, on the one hand, a more intelligent and imaginative intermunicipal federalism and, on the other hand, a profound reform in the State's deconcentrated administration at the regional level.

It is not, as you can imagine, an easy task, but we will only be successful in the decentralization and regionalization processes if we are able to do more and better with less.

It is in this philosophy that the multitask innovation centers are inscribed, a networked and circular administration inserted in a territorially based collaborative digital ecosystem.

 

Author António Covas is a Retired Full Professor at the University of Algarve

 



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