Aerospace sector innovation in Portugal and Andalusia: a search for cross-border collaboration opportunities

ABSTRACT

The aerospace industry is one of the main drivers of the economies of Portugal and Andalusia (Spain), where it generates more than 30,000 jobs and sales of over 4000 million euros. This study analyses the needs and capacities regarding innovation of companies and R&D centres in the aerospace sector of both regions. 277 entities of Portugal and Andalusia provided valid responses to a questionnaire concerning 107 innovation resources. Regional and cross-border collaboration opportunities have been detected utilizing the survey data. The results show that the productivity and innovation capacity of companies in the sector could increase in both territories through better use of the existing resources. A significant set of identified needs can be addressed by capacities existing in the neighbouring region, which supports the urgency to enhance cross-border collaboration. Additionally, a basis for the prioritization of future investments is provided through the identification of several fields with weak innovation capacity.

KEYWORDS:

• Cross-border collaboration
• cross-border regional innovation systems
• Portugal
• Andalusia
• aerospace industry
• needs and capacities assessment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Due to the nature of this research, participants of this study did not agree for their data to be shared publicly, so supporting data is not available.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the European Regional Development Fund through the AERIS project (0455_AERIS_5_E), belonging to the 2014–2020 INTERREG V-A Spain-Portugal (POCTEP) programme. The research was also supported by the Ministry of Universities of Spain through a grant for the Training of University Researchers (Ayuda para la Formación del Profesorado Universitario, reference FPU20/05584).