ABSTRACT
In February 2008, a mayor, one of his councillors, staff from Ezagutza Gunea and a researcher met to discuss how to improve the role local innovation policy was playing in supporting firms in the area. There was agreement on what should be done: a new organisation to support technological innovation was needed. There was a lot of energy in the meeting, and all elements seemed to be favourable for implementing this idea. Some time later, as a result of this process, a much larger meeting was held with many of the critical actors in the county. It was the opening celebration of a new foundation to support technological innovation in the area. This would have seemed easy were it not for the fact that three years and five months had passed between the first and second meetings. The mayor was no longer on the town council, and very few people at the second meeting knew about the initial reflections that had launched the process. This process was the decision to create the Loiola Foundation, which was presented in Chapter 1, as an organisation to foster technological innovation in Urola Erdia County.
