CEIN and ANEL Sign an Agreement to Promote Innovative Cooperative Entrepreneurship with the Support of the Department of Industry
Among other initiatives, the agreement provides for collaboration between CEIN’s Innovation Incubators and the COALEA Entrepreneurship Center of ANEL and UCAN.
The public entity European Center for Business and Innovation of Navarra (CEIN), which reports to the Department of Industry and Ecological and Digital Business Transition, and the Association of Social Economy Enterprises of Navarra (ANEL) have signed a collaboration agreement to jointly promote initiatives related to innovative entrepreneurship, cooperatives, and business creation in Navarra.
The signing ceremony was attended by Mikel Irujo, president of CEIN and regional minister of Industry and Ecological and Digital Business Transition; Uxue Itoiz, managing director of CEIN; and Ignacio Ugalde, president of ANEL.
Although both organizations have a history of ongoing collaboration in these areas, they have decided to update and strengthen the existing cooperation framework to adapt it to the new needs of our region’s entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem. The new agreement focuses on fostering cooperative dynamics that support high-impact entrepreneurial initiatives.
At the signing ceremony, Councilor Irujo highlighted “how our ecosystem thrives on synergies between models of community engagement, entrepreneurship, and innovation, alongside initiatives deeply committed to the economic and social development of Navarre. CEIN and ANEL, with their respective working models, are a clear example of this.”
Itoiz emphasized that “at CEIN, we support all entrepreneurs, regardless of their business model, and we advise them, always seeking to help them stand out through innovation.” “Partnerships like this one with ANEL allow us to collaborate with other organizations so that people who want to start a business can receive specialized advice tailored to their interests,” he concluded.
For his part, Ugalde noted that “cooperativism is not a model tied to specific sectors; it is a form of entrepreneurship that can be applied to any field of activity.” “Our goal is to make cooperative entrepreneurship a model for people who want to develop innovative, sustainable projects with a strong commitment to the local community,” explains Ignacio Ugalde.
Within this framework, and in accordance with this agreement, CEIN will promote the social economy business model among its entrepreneurs for the creation of new businesses and will refer to ANEL those projects that are suitable for becoming businesses under that model. It will also facilitate access to its business incubators and incubation spaces for innovative companies arising from initiatives promoted by ANEL.
For its part, ANEL will provide CEIN with its specialized knowledge of the cooperative business model and worker-owned companies, and will participate in events organized by CEIN to promote this model among people interested in entrepreneurship. In addition, it will offer the Entrepreneurship Cooperative and the COALEA Entrepreneurship Center to groups of aspiring entrepreneurs referred by CEIN who are interested in the cooperative entrepreneurship model.
Similarly, both organizations will share regular updates about their services and participate in training sessions, conferences, and programs organized by the other organization.
