The 4HCreat project, funded by the Interreg Atlantic Area, is a consortium of 7 international partners, which includes ISCTE-IUL through DINÂMIA'CET-IUL, with local coordination of researcher Ana Rita Cruz. The methodology used focuses on user needs and the transfer of knowledge among the various actors involved in the development of the cultural and creative sector.

ISCTE-IUL integrates the 4H-CREAT project through DINÂMIA'CET-IUL. Can you explain to us its importance and the need to strengthen the relationship between public-private-research?

Ana Rita Cruz | Nowadays, research, understood as knowledge production, does not materialize if it remains within the University. It is crucial to ensure that research results and scientific knowledge are transferred to society and benefit the community.

In the 4H-CREAT project the fundamental starting point is understanding that the success of a particular sector, in the specific case of cultural and creative activities, depends on the strong interaction of universities, as institutions producing knowledge and human capital formation, with companies, especially industry, governments and other governance actors, at multiple levels of decision-making, as well as potential users of the knowledge produced, essential to the generation and dissemination of innovations. In regional development research this perspective has become widely known as the quadruple propeller and has progressively influenced the definition of regional policies, in particular the recent strategies of smart specialization.

What will be the role of ISCTE-IUL in this project / consortium? What are the expected results during the project and the impacts you are trying to achieve in the area?

A.R.C. | ISCTE-IUL, through DINÂMIA'CET-IUL, will participate in activities to evaluate the existing capacity in terms of cultural and creative resources in the Atlantic Area and particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises in this sector. At the same time, it will stimulate the development of a set of pilot activities of interchange between the four types of actors of the quadruple propeller.

Specifically, the DINÂMIA'CET-IUL team will develop an assessment of the demands and resources available in the cultural and creative sector for the Lisbon region, along with the other partner regions. We will also prepare a study that will seek to find models that are relevant to the transfer and exchange of knowledge in the cultural and creative industries. The project also includes a broad set of more practical actions. For example, the various partners will implement an internship programme in their regions so that the staff of different cultural and creative entities can understand the functioning of other types of actors.

Furthermore, the project provides for a set of communication and dissemination activities. In this particular aspect, DINÂMIA'CET-IUL will organize a series of workshops addressed to cultural and creative stakeholders in 2019. And in 2018, more precisely in October, the partners will hold a virtual fair of cultural and creative activities that will have two pavilions dedicated to the traditional creative industries and to gaming, with the participation of companies from all partner regions of the project consortium 4H-CREAT.

The desired impact of 4H-CREAT is to strengthen the interaction between the four types of actors mentioned above (University, Companies, Government and Society) in the cultural and creative sector. This greater interaction between actors will boost the dynamics of the sector, the sharing of knowledge and common collaborative projects. The analyses and evaluations carried out in this context will enable a more accurate image of the cultural and creative sector in the different regions and in the Atlantic Area in general, promoting a better understanding of how the dynamics of innovation can be stimulated in the cultural and creative sector.

It is mentioned that one of the objectives is the inclusion of 'end-users' throughout the process of production and innovation of new products, can you explain the added value of this methodology?

A.R.C. | In this project the understanding of "user" is relatively wide-ranging and refers, in general, to the public or society that can benefit from a certain activity or innovation. This perspective on the importance of being user -driven is related to the growing relevance attributed to organizational models of open innovation and knowledge exchange. Inclusion of the user is justified as companies, and other actors essential to development, find a differentiated context of competition.

We now have global competition structured based on technological solutions and tacit knowledge, and competitive advantages can hardly be ensured through a purely cost-centred approach. Creating quality offers therefore depends on our incorporation of knowledge on what users really want.