Since the last economic recession, there has been an emergence of initiatives based on collaboration. These projects, both promoted by the public and private sectors, represent an alternative to the traditional competitive model. Through cooperation, they look for answers to current challenges, such as social and educational innovation, climate change and citizen participation.
Within this framework, the INCOME research project is set up, in which Europimpulseparticipates, a company of the University of Valencia Science Park. Funded by the ERASMUS+ program, it proposes to investigate models based on the promotion of coworking as a possible solution to the problems of social and professional inclusion of European youth.
"Our goal is to better understand this reality of work, detect the needs of these spaces and establish the opportunities offered to European students to encourage their entrepreneurship and participation," said Jeff Alberghi, head of Europimpulse.
During the 20 months of the project, collaborative work experiences, either physically or virtually, will be investigated in eight European countries. The objective is to analyze the wide variety of formats, audiences, management models and dynamization of coworking.
32 meetings in eight countries
Throughout these months the eight countries participating in the INCOME program are exchanging visits to learn about the different European proposals. This is the case between Spain and Portugal. From January 27 to February 3 the Portuguese partners, the Clube Intercultural Europeu of Lisbon, are visiting Valencia, exploring, together with Europimpulse, the different collaborative projects implemented in the city and its surroundings. Later, at the end of February, a delegation of Spanish professionals, coordinated by Europimpulse, will close this study program by visiting a coworking circuit in Lisbon.
These exchanges will be extended until next May. In addition to Spain and Portugal, France, Italy, Sweden, Slovenia, Croatia and Greece also participate in this project.
Disclosure of results
After this experience, Europimpulse will carry out the disclosure of the results of the project "to contribute to the improvement of collaborative processes in the city of Valencia", explained Alberghi. Europimpulse is a network of social, cultural and/or educational people and organizations interested in internationalizing their activities through funding programs of the European Union. It encourages the exchange of experiences and knowledge through collective intelligence processes and supports the incubation of projects from civil society.