Joze Gricar (Chair Department of Informatics, University of Maribor, Slovenia) introduced the session “Collaboration in Danube” talking about the Danube river, not as a boundary but as a connecting river. He explained that the Danubian region is a geographic region composed by the countries in which the river passes. He pointed out the importance of eCollaboration (collaboration in technology) as a relevant topic for the Global Forum.

Christian Kittl (Managing director, Evolaris Next Level, Graz, Austria & Mobile Living Lab & Steering Committee, ALADIN – ALpe Adria Danube Universities Initiative, Austria) then took the word talking about the ALADIN network project, that represents the linking between 19 universities and LivingLab. The goal of the project is to help nations in the Danube macroregion improving their innovation level by creating a flow of knowledge among the institutes. The action plan of the European Union strategy for the Danube region is to apply a methodology called Digital Business Ecosystem Model, that will help sharing technological knowledge between the region. He finally mentioned the Danube Business Forum, a place where new ideas can be shared and discussed.

Maurizio Fermeglia (Rector University of Trieste, Italy) analized the topic from the high education point of view. He highlighted the fact that italian universities form students focusing on single faculty, while the world needs experts in interdisciplinary fields. Then he talked about the Horizon2020, an European project, and specifically about investments on forming leadership in enabling industrial technologies. Therefore he concentrated the second part of his presentation on nanotechnology, a science where a lot of money will be invested into. According to Fermeglia’s opinion, money invested in research product results and not directly other money. From results comes innovation and only then new money come. He also stated that innovation is a discontinuity in knowledge, because people have to change their mind to reach a new innovation level. Finally he said that the question is not what the Danube region can do for Trieste, but what Trieste can do for the Danube region.

Jani Recer (Assistant Director for Informatics University Medical Center Ljubljana, Slovenia) talked about eHealth collaboration in the Danube region. He spook about initiatives in healthcare pursued by the European Union. In the Digital Agenda for Europe directives on the application of patients’ rights in crossborder healthcare are present. He said that we need to make eHealth tools more effective, user friendly and least but not last acceptable by patients.  He then provided prototypes of working systems that enhance collaboration among hospitals to face common problems like the drug event reporting.

Tomaž Breznik (Presales Specialist, SAP d.o.o., Ljubljana) exposed the SAP solution to improve the tourism sector, called Tourism Insight. Tourism has a lot of potential, as a consequence there is a need for optimize tourist pricing and offering. Institutions get a lot of data on tourism but doesn’t know how to manage and gain profit from it. The SAP prototype help regions improving their tourist offering. Then exposed the impact of the solution provided by his company by showing reports on the trend of that sector, focusing on the possibilities for the Danibian region.

Edi Kraus (Deputy to the Economy Development, city of Trieste) brought his real life case of collaboration between people from the Danubian region. He talked about his company that produces nylon. The company started in Trentino Alto Adige (an Italian region) and after few years opened a plant in Slovenia. Then the Slovenian division opened another factory in Croatia and from there it spread around the world (the last plant opened is in China). People in the company understood that internalization is a richness and not a risk, so the built an international mentality. It is a clear example of how people from the Danube region where able to gain success thanks to their collaboration.