O-City project, funded by EU programme Erasmus+ has taken its first steps after the kickoff meeting in Gandia (Spain).

Gandia (Spain) hosted the first meeting of O-City project, that promotes local development using orange economy, innovation and technology on natural and cultural heritage. The project gets thirteen partners together from six different countries (Spain, Greece, Serbia, Slovenia, Colombia and Italy). Partners are universities, companies and cultural institutions.

The aim is clear: to inject technical and professional knowledges in natural and cultural promotion of the cities involved, creating useful models for every city in the future. The project materializes on two related virtual platforms: an educative one and the public one.

On one side, the goal is to detect, dynamize and improve the professional profiles within educational systems and training plans that can boost local economy through creative industries and culture. On the other hand, a web platform -Orange planet- is being designed and will be accessible publicly to promote multimedia items which represent cultural and natural heritage elements.

The project is a three-year journey for reaching all the set goals, and meetings will be hold in the six participant countries. The partners involved are the Polytechnic University of Valencia (leading for the first time an Erasmus+ project); Thessaly University (Greece), Università degli Studi (Italy), Universidad del Norte (Colombia) and the CEIPA Business School (Colombia). Are also part of the project Meus MarkEUtSkills (Spain), an organisation aiming for the improvement of professional skills; the International Institute of Competences for Sustainable Development (Spain); the Business Suport Center Kranj (Slovenia); the Business Incubator Novi Sad (Serbia); Materahub (Italy), that works internationally for European projects with start-ups, companies, and entrepreneurs; the media production company Global Media Films (Greece); the Foundation Novi Sad 2021, manager of the European cultural capital 2021; and Layer House (Slovenia), an urban cultural art centre managed by the NGO Zavod Carnica.

After the first meeting in Gandia where the project bases were stablished, as well as workgroups and leading teams, the partners will meet together again next summer in Matera (Italy), European Culture Capital 2019.