A brief about Zaragoza Activa (ZAC), an entrepreneurship and social innovation ecosystem, lauched by Zaragoza City Council (Spain)

1. ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SOCIAL INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM
LA AZUCARERA + LAS ARMAS + CENTRE FOR NEW ECONOMIES
zaragoza activa
(zac)
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
intro ZAC FOCAL POINTS
ENTREPRENEURSHIPINNOVATION
INSTITUTO
PROCOMUN
BRASIL
OPENLAB
MEXICO
SANTA FE
ARGENTINA
NARIÑO
COLOMBIA
LEÓN
NICARAGUA
MINISTRY OF
CULTURE
COLOMBIA
MY WAY -UE
PARALELO 9MX
UNESCO
CREATIVE TRACKS
EUROPEAN CREATIVE
HUB NETWORK
AECID
COMMUNITY
CREATIVITY CITY
+450
+9,800 ZAC MEMBERS
+90/MONTH
€3.14 (in taxes, employment, etc.)
for each public Euro invested
EMPLOYMENT
INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS
AWARDS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
IMPACT
ZAC ECOSYSTEM
IN A TWEET
Zaragoza Activa (ZAC) is a public entrepreneurship and social
innovation ecosystem whose main objective is to improve
the city’s social and economic conditions. It aims:
1. To promote entrepreneurial spirit by providing the
necessary tools to develop their ideas, while retaining
and attracting the human resources available in the city,
strengthening entrepreneurial acceleration and routes
to employability.
2.To strengthen and involve communities in the search
for and application of solutions to their own challenges
by incorporating the wealth of citizens’ innovation into
public services using bottom-up planning dynamics.
3.To enhance spaces for socialisation and education,
which promote open knowledge and open learning from
childhood to adult life.
4.To promote spaces for collaboration and cooperation, as
a foundation and support for a general strategy of transition
towards a more inclusive economy of knowledge.
• 2017 URBACT Good Practice City - La Colaboradora
• 2016 Eurocities Award in the cooperation category - La
Colaboradora
• 2015 Ouishare Award in the P2P Finances category - La
Colaboradora
• 2015GoodPracticebySecretaryofIberoamericanStates(SEGIB)
• 2014 Good practises by FECYT - Countdown
• 2013 Aragoneses del Año [Aragonese of the Year] -ZAC
• 2013 Good practices by Cideu - Made in Zaragoza
• 2012 Small Business Local Act by the Ministry for Employment
• 2011 One of the 57 global examples of good local policy
practises by Fundación Alternativas - Semillero de ideas
ZARAGOZA ACTIVA IS AN ECOSYSTEM OF PEOPLE,
COMPANIES AND PUBLIC PROJECTS, WHICH FOCUSES ON
ACTIONS BASED ON THE PRINCIPLE OF COLLABORATION.
zaragoza activa (zac)
COMPANIES
COMMUNITY
ACTIVITIES
SROI
LA
COLABORADORA
CUBIT
LIBRARY
MADE
IN ZgZ
SEMILLERO
DE
IDEAS
YUZZ
LA AZUCARERA
INCUBATOR
OF COMPANIES
RESIDENT
gROUPS
INFO
ACTIVA
LA REMOLACHA
HACKLAB
LABS
MIE
MEDIATORS
ROTATINg
SHOP
LAB
SPACE
SLOW
CAFÉ
LIBRARY
OF THINgS
SAN
AgUSTÍN
CENTRE
FOR NEW
ECONOMIES
LAS ARMAS

3. LA AZUCARERA
CENTRE FOR NEW ECONOMIES
THINKZAC LAS ARMAS
ZAC IN THE CLOUD
Zaragoza Activa (ZAC) has two centres in the city and is
working towards opening a third. ZAC’s main centre is La
Azucarera, a former sugar mill in the Rabal neighbourhood
(c/Mas de las Matas 20). This refurbished factory located on
the north side of the Ebro measures 4,000m2
and has been
the heart of the ecosystem since it opened its doors in 2010.
Inside La Azucarera you will find:
//Red ZAC// Hundreds of activities and a community of
+9,800 people.
//Vivero de Empresas// An incubator of companies housing
17 offices for entrepreneurs.
//Semillero de Ideas// A public business school.
//La Colaboradora// A collective intelligence coworking with
a skills swap system based on a time bank.
//BJCubit// The first 2.0 library for young people in Spain
(Municipal Board).
//La Remolacha - HackLab// Open learning workshops in
collaboration with Etopía. Kitchen Garden + Craftsmanship +
DIY + Robotics.
//MIE// Mediation/Innovation/Entrepreneurship with the
University of Zaragoza.
//Made in Zaragoza// Local creative economy and innovative
commerce. Artistic transition corner.
//Employmente Zone// Guidance and advice for the
unemployed (IMEFEZ [Municipal Institute of Employment
and Business Promotion of Zaragoza]).
//InfoActiva// Advice for entrepreneurs, by prior
appointment.
//Education// FlipAndDo, Córner Educa, Guided Tours
and more.
The other centre is ThinkZAC Las Armas (c/Las Armas 72),
which opened its doors in 2012. It has been developing
since then and has now become a citizens’ innovation lab
and an incubator for communities to face the challenges
posed by the information and knowledge society. ThinkZAC
acts as a connecting platform, which offers alternative
solutions to the social, economic and urban development
of the city by means of social design, creative thought
and new collective narratives. This all occurs within
an individual ecosystem composed of the Centre for
Music, Zaragoza Vivienda residential programmes, civic
collectives, social NGOs, eight business premises for
creative and cultural industries, and more. Within ThinkZAC
Las Armas, you will find:
//Resident groups// Research, experimentation and
production in the community:
• Tráfico de Ideas - Ideas for improving the city.
• Hackeo Urbano - Reappropriation of urban goods.
• Economías Feministas - Critical economy with a gender
perspective.
• Ecología Urbana - The city as sustainable land.
• Mapeo Colaborativo - Open maps, data and inclusive city.
• Civic software - Free software at the service of the city.
//Labs// Meetings to analyse and plan a disruptive urban
economy. LAB2034, LAB12/50, LAB5/5
//Microseminars// Specific training for entrepreneurship by
means of the ZAC network.
//InfoActiva// Expert advice and guidance for entrepreneurs
by prior appointment.
In addition to the three physical spaces, we have generated
a fourth virtual space composed of a group of channels
and networks which enables us to construct open and
transparent dialogue with our community, listen to what they
say, consider all of their suggestions, and review criticisms
and complaints. And that is not all - by means of our own Red
ZAC network, users can interact with each other, evaluate
activities, and contact other members or speakers. One of
its strengths is the possibility to download the “portfolio
of cross-sector skills”. This is a document that details all
of the training that a participant has taken part in from the
time they register, and which they can add to their CV. In the
virtual space, you will find:
//Red ZAC// Our social network, activities, community,
gamification and portfolio of cross-sector skills.
//Blog ZAC// Informal communication, thoughts published
on the internet, curated sections and dissemination.
//Website// Formal communication, announcements,
programmes.
//ZAC bulletin// Information in your inbox every Thursday.
//ZAC Twitter// Information in real-time.
//ZAC Facebook// Weekly summaries, photos and videos.
//YouTube// Repository of videos online.
//Storify// Stories online and more.
In addition, we are working towards launching a new project
in 2017-2018 in the former house of the Director of the
sugar mill, on the same street as La Azucarera (calle Mas
de las Matas). The aim is for it to function as a space for
promoting a collaborative and circular economy. These
are required to redefine socioeconomic relationships in
the worlds’ metropolises over the next decade, opening
up an unprecedented window of opportunity to improve
sustainability, social cohesion and the management of
common goods. At the moment, the Casa del Director
(provisional name) project includes:
//Slow Cafetería// Coffees made with a lot of care, slow food,
local produce, and a social inclusion project.
//Library of Things// Neighbourhood parts and tools lending
and borrowing centre.
//Rotating shop// Pop-up and rotating commercial space.
//Classroom// Presentations and workshops about new
economies in the Red ZAC network.
//Sharing City Commission// International accelerator for
urban projects.
//Lab space// Inter-generational collaborative space.

4. THE ZARAGOZA ACTIVA MODEL
An entrepreneurship and social
innovation ecosystem
SOFT TRANSITIONS
Routes to entrepreneurship,
employability and learning
THE FOURTH SECTOR
Creating spaces for convergence,
combination and hybridisation
Zaragoza Activa defines itself as an ecosystem of people,
companies, social organisations and public projects, which
promotes entrepreneurship and social innovation based
on the principle of collaboration. It has two centres (La
Azucarera and Las Armas), is working on a third and also
has a virtual space on the internet and its own social
network (Red ZAC).
An additional strength of the Zaragoza Activa model
is its system of soft transitions to favour routes to
entrepreneurship, employability and learning. A 16 year-old
boy comes into La Azucarera, attracted by the comics in the
library Biblioteca Cubit. Another 29 year-old woman comes in
to work in her own company within the Vivero de Empresas.
The evolution of the Zaragoza Activa model can be described
as an attempt at connecting both situations, generating a soft
transition that makes it possible for the whole world to create
their own route, by means of different steps (programmes)
that compose a large access ramp, which redefines the social
elevator metaphor, not so much so that the whole world can
go up (the objective is not that the whole world establish
companies), rather that those who want to go up can do so,
and meanwhile, map out their own routes of emancipation, by
means of employability, or through learning, with an approach
based on entrepreneurship or social activism. In this manner,
we can consider the story of Zaragoza Activa as one of the
construction of steps.
In 2013, we realised that the key to the ecosystem
working well was to have a strong community. With this
aim in mind, we established La Colaboradora, the Red
ZAC network and the ThinkZAC Las Armas.
One of the main strengths of Zaragoza Activa’s
entrepreneurship and social innovation ecosystem is that
it operates at the point where the public, private and social
sectors meet. At Zaragoza Activa the following all coexist:
companies in the Vivero, entrepreneurs learning in the
Semillero de Ideas, Made in Zaragoza shops, Biblioteca
Cubit library users, MIE mediators and researchers, and
its open innovation communities connected with the
University; La Colaboradora’s community, organised as an
assembly that selects its Connectors and Managing Board;
La Remolacha Hacklab’s makers; members of ThinkZAC Las
Armas’ Resident Groups, streamlined by the facilitators; and
AJE entrepreneurs. They do so with allies from the social
and financial sector such as the Chamber of Commerce of
Zaragoza, CEOE [Spanish Confederation of Entrepreneurial
Confederations], IAF [Aragonese Development Institute],
IAJ [Aragonese Youth Institute], ECODES [Ecology and
Development Foundation], REAS [United and Alternative
Economy Network] and, above all, with thousands of
individual citizens given that the Red ZAC network already
has 10,000 members.
SOCIAL/
COMMON
PUBLIC PRIVATE
FOURTH
SECTOR
29 YEARS OLD,
HAS SET UP HER OWN COMPANY
(IN THE VIVERO)
16 YEARS OLD
HE LIKES THE COMICS
(IN LIBRARY CUBIT)
WHAT IS THEIR RELATIONSHIP?
HOW CAN WE BRIDGE
THIS WIDE GAP?
ACTIVITIES, EVENTS, WORKSHOPS, HACKATHONS...
semillero de ideas, BUSSINES SCHOOL
cubit LIBRARY for young people- EMPLOYMENT ZONE
made in zaragoza network
LA COLABORADORA
ACTIVITIES, EVENTS, WORKSHOPS, HACKATHONS...
semillero de ideas
THINKZAC LAS ARMAS
vivero (incubator of companies)
vivero
2010-2013
2013-2016
cubit LIBRARY for young people- EMPLOYMENT ZONE
MADE IN ZARAGOZA NETWORK, CREATIVE ECONOMY
RED ZAC NETWORK

5. THE FUTURE OF ZARAGOZA ACTIVA
From local development office to
entrepreneurship and social innovation lab
THE TWO FOCAL POINTS OF
ZARAGOZA ACTIVA
The evolution of the Zaragoza Activa ecosystem, based
on the system of soft transitions, to facilitate routes
to entrepreneurship, employability and learning has
resulted in the combination of two organisational
philosophies. On the one hand, Zaragoza Activa
continues to act as an office for local development,
promoting economic activity in the city, by means of
programmes within the active employment policies
- such as Semillero de Ideas, or the Non-Master’s for
Entrepreneurs. On the other hand, Zaragoza Activa has
become a social innovation lab where the innovations
of citizens converge - such as La Colaboradora or the
ThinkZAC Las Armas’ resident research groups - with
innovation in the public sphere, such as the Red ZAC
network or the LAB2034, LAB 5/5 labs and so on.
At the moment, we are working on our 2016-2019
plan, with new projects that emphasise this dual
organisational principle, mapping out the X and Y axes,
as a development office and as a lab, which responds to
quantitative and qualitative dimensions respectively,
and that continues to build the stairway of soft
transitions to the point that it appears a ramp.
The two organisational focal points of Zaragoza Activa
also correspond to a dual quantitative and qualitative
principle. On the Y axis we work on intensive processes
with a limited number of people, who we generate strong
commitment links with, enabling us to operate as an
innovation and social entrepreneurship lab/accelerator.
On the X axis, on the other hand, we work with a multitude
of people, many thousands simultaneously, in order to
create an impact across the city. We have defined this as
the Lab of the Multitudes. This dual focus also enables us
to overcome the hardware (infrastructure) and software
(programmes) logic that are characteristic of traditional
entrepreneurial growth policies, and begin to reinforce
what we define as the transware of organisations
(intangible like feelings, principles, or collective ethics)
which would be the key to the ecosystem.
The three new projects for 2016-2019: MIE (Mediation-
Innovation - Entrepreneurship), La Remolacha HackLAB
and the Centre for New Economies (Casa del Director);
which have been designed to strengthen the essential
points of the model. MIE, to enhance links with
Universidad de Zaragoza, as the central talent repository.
The Remolacha HackLAB, to attract the public from a
young age, build educational innovation, and eliminate
the cognitive digital gap; and the Centre for New
Economies to connect at the same time with the city’s
strategies (circular economy and collaborative economy)
and the Rabal neighbourhood, where the centre and La
Azucarera are located.
THE Z AXIS, TO COMPLETE ZAC
The finishing touch to the model was to incorporate the
ZAC CV, a map of 9 cross-sector skills in all of our activities
and programmes. As from just a few months ago the almost
10,000 ZAC members can download their own personal
portfolio which details their full history of training at ZAC,
adding up the millions of hours that they have worked on
these 9 skills.
THINKZAC LAS ARMAS
LA REMOLACHA HACKLAB
RED ZAC NETWORK
MIE - UNIVERSIDAD ZARAGOZA
semillero de ideas,
BUSSINES SCHOOL
cubit LIBRARY for young people - EMPLOYMENT ZONE
SHARING CITY COMMISSION
ZAC AS AN
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
AND SOCIAL
INNOVATION
ACCELERATOR
AND LAB
ZAC AS A
MUNICIPAL OFFICE
FOR ECONOMIC
AND SOCIAL
DEVELOPMENT
SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION
ICT AND SOCIAL NETWORKS
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
LEADERSHIP
TEAMWORK
MANAGEMENT
INNOVATION
COMMUNICATION
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
More commitment
Specialisation
Qualitative processes
Sense of belonging
Community
Transware logic
(feelings, networks,
conéctomas)t
Service for the city,
urban impact, open
spaces, accessible
activities, multitudinary,
initiation, hardware
(buildings) and software
(programming) logic
Y axis
Y axis
X axis
X axis
Z axis
VIVERO (INCUBATOR OF COMPANIES)
2016-2019
LA COLABORADORA
ACTIVITIES, EVENTS, WORKSHOPS, HACKATHONS...
MADE IN ZARAGOZA NETWORK
CENTRE FOR NEW ECONOMIES - SLOW CAFÉ - ROTATING SHOP...
ZAC AS GLOBAL
ECOSYSTEM
MetaLab, ex-tuitions,
transition towards the
knowledge economy,
initial designs of the new
hybrid institution model

6. LA AZUCARERA (ZARAGOZA ACTIVA CENTRAL HEADQUARTERS)
C/ MAS DE LAS MATAS 20
50014 ZARAGOZA
976 724575
THINKZAC LAS ARMAS
C/ LAS ARMAS 72 50003 ZARAGOZA
976 721710
LA CASA DEL DIRECTOR - CENTRO DE NUEVAS ECONOMÍAS
C/ MAS DE LAS MATAS 30
50014 ZARAGOZA
INFOACTIVA@ZARAGOZA.ES
WWW.ZARAGOZA.ES/ACTIVA
WWW.ZARAGOZA.ES/ZAC
WWW.BLOGZAC.ES
RAÚL OLIVÁN
JAVI FERNÁNDEZ
JOSÉ RAMÓN INSA
MILA ARRÉBOLA
BELÉN GRACIA
JESÚS ALAVIANO
MAPI GRACIA
REBECA SORIA
RUBEN CASTRO AND ANA ALONSO
ANA SALAS AND Mª JOSÉ GREGORIO
JOSÉ MARI RODRIGO, ENRIQUE CAPAPÉ, CHELO PASCUAL,
ALICIA ESCANILLA, ANTONIO HERNÁNDEZ, JOAQUÍN PUEY
Director
La Colaboradora Coordinator
Think ZAC Las Armas Coordinator
Made in Zaragoza Coordinator
Production Coordinator
Communication Coordinator
Resident groups - La Remolacha
Programming Technician
Infoactiva,Yuzz, Semillero de Ideas
Administration
Production Team
COMPANIES - EXTERNAL SERVICES
SAÚL AND JAIME
JORGE, LUIS AND ESTHER
PAOLA FATAS
Mª CRUZ (DIRECTOR) INMA (LIBRARIAN) PILAR (TECHNICIAN)
CRISTINA AND MARTA (MANAGERS), PILAR (TECHNICIAN),
TERESA AND MARÍA (ADMINISTRATION AND CUSTOMER
SERVICES), DANIEL AND PILAR (ADVISORS)
Milenium - Vivero de empresas
Innovart - La Remolacha
MIE, Universidad de Zaragoza
Biblioteca para jóvenes Cubit
Employment Zone