André Freitas, Fundão , Altran Project Manager 

1. Why did you join the Osiris activities? 

I was appointed by  my company Altran to be involved in the OSIRIS project from 2016, due to my experience with EU projects and willingness to embrace this challenge. As Altran, I believe that open and social innovation are key to improve public policy and private business in a sustainable growing economy - specially in sparsely populated areas as the FUNDÃO region.

2. What did you learn from participating?

It’s always very rewarding to be part of such Open & Social innovation projects, the ability to be part of a broad network of innovative thinkers is particularly important for Altran as our values promote  such traits. Due to this enthusiasm and bursting cloud of new ideas, it´s highly important now to make choices that could promote more sustainability in the FUNDÃO region.

3. How can you transfer this knowledge to your own work?

The action of networking with other regional stakeholders has allowed Altran to better position itself in order to continue being an active party of the Social & Economic growth in our region.

4. Did you get new useful contacts for your own work? 

Yes, I have gained an important number of useful contacts.

5. Given the lessons learned – how do you see that the innovation system in your own region can be improved? 

In the FUNDÃO region OSIRIS has been highly successful by being able to involve a wide range of stakeholders both of public and private nature. This has empowered each meeting with a more meaningful conclusion – I believe that this will enable further strategic definition and actions that could promote other effective innovation systems on this region.