The Government of La Rioja, acting through its Department of Industry, Innovation and Employment, has begun to prepare the Third R&D&i Plan for La Rioja, 2008-2011. In order to guarantee a plan of significance for the region, the region’s government is encouraging the participation and collaboration of the whole of La Rioja. As part of this strategy, it has launched a range of initiatives in order to reach a social consensus, which will bring La Rioja to prominence among the top innovative regions.

To draft the plan, previous technical studies and projects were evaluated and diverse panels of experts, industry-specific forums and working groups were set up. A total of twelve working groups were created: six industry-specific and six cross-cutting. The two main conclusions of the working groups were that the Third R&D&i Plan for La Rioja must introduce an innovative culture across the community of La Rioja and that it must focus on people as the driving force of innovation. Thus, the Third R&D&i Plan for La Rioja will be a product of the participation and consensus of the diverse agents involved in the innovation system of La Rioja, national and international experts and of society in general.

The Third R&D&i Plan for La Rioja is expected to be approved by the regional government in June 2008.

The main lines of the draft Plan reflect the series of ideas that have inspired it and the main dynamising elements of the innovation system of La Rioja in order to produce a coherent and effective unit with its own unique personality.

1. To raise awareness of and publicise the innovation culture of the community of La Rioja.
2. To generate and attract talent: the region’s most important capital must be its people.
3. To use technology and innovation as a basis to transform and diversify the business make-up of La Rioja.
4. To increase the critical mass.
5. To set up and institutionalise strategic spaces of participative research between business and the research system of La Rioja. In other words, the incorporation of the system of knowledge generation into the production system must be one of the pillars of regional growth in the immediate future: “investigate to grow”.
6. To make it possible to carry out research based on excellence that considers the European Research Area as the natural framework for science and technology relations in La Rioja.
7. To equip research and innovation in La Rioja with a European and global dimension (internationalisation) 8. To develop a model of economic development based on innovation that allows for continued and sustainable social enrichment.
9. To administrate and manage the strategy and the Plan in a transparent, joint manner and on the basis of evidence, facts and measurable results.
10. To focus on business activities that are based on new technologies (Nano/Bio/ICTs) and NBIC technological convergence.

The Third R&D&i Plan for La Rioja 2008-2011 is split into the following points: