Projects

Nordic-Baltic collaboration to boost the bio- and circular-economy

Nordregio, together with the Nordic Council of Ministers offices in Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania have jointly developed a research and practice project aiming at strengthening Nordic-Baltic development and cooperation around the bioeconomy and circular economy

Key goals are:

Generate better understanding of the state of deveoplment of forms of bio- and circular-economy models
Peer-to-peer learning amongst key actors, (using the quintuple helix model)
Capacity buidling (including students, businesses, authorities and others)
Exploring business opportunities

Both – _Nordic and Baltic countries are rich in biological and renewable resources and have a long tradition in utilizing these resources for generating economic growth through the traditional sectors, such as forestry, agriculture, and fisheries, as well as related sectors including food processing, tourism etc. The Nordic countries, particularly, have also become strong in establishing partnerships amongst key players to enable circular bioeconomy initiatives. Many successful examples of multi-actor partnerships in the Nordic Countries have shown the way for speedy development of the bioeconomy.

The Baltic countries have a significant potential for developing further the bioeconomy through innovation, knowledge exchange via multi-actor partnerships and capacity building. Bringing together companies, research, public sector and cluster-type organizations, as well as different social groups and generations via joint practical collaboration arenas could facilitate the green transition. Nordic-Baltic cooperation can enable knowledge exchange on different forms of on multi-actor collaborative frameworks. In addition to boost innovation in terms of technologies, processes, products and services around circular bioeconomy.

Duration of the project is 24 months.

Project received funding from Nordregio.

Urban Tech

Tehnopol together with 10 other partners have launched a new international project called Urban Tech that focuses on Smart City, Green Tech and Health Tech. The project aims to support the acceleration of competitive success of European SMEs through market launch of new or significantly improved products and services with higher value (with higher quality, increased access, eco-innovative, resource efficient and internationally scalable). In long term perspective (strategic objective), URBAN TECH will innovate and increase the competitiveness of European Health Tech, Smart City and Greentech industries globally.

Advanced partnership of 11 cluster and innovation support organizations from 9 countries, entrepreneurial and innovation support measures providers to SMEs and start-ups, mediators between the societal stakeholders needs and solution providers. Partners’ network bringing together 3 500 start-ups and SMEs and wider outreach to 20 000.

Members of the consortia:

Civitta Eesti As Ce, Estonia
Tallinn Science and Business Park Tehnopol, Estonia
Turku Science Park Oy Ab, Finland
Kaunas Science Park, Lithuania
Technology Park Ljubljana, Slovenia
Cyberforum, Germany
Eneregies Parverband, Austria
Unicorn, Austria
Pomeranian Special Economic Zone, Poland
Globaz, S.A. Loba, Portugal
Maelardalens Hoegskola Mdu University, Sweden

Duration of the project is 36 months. See more: urbantech-project.eu

The project received funding from the European Union’s science and innovation programme Horizon 2020 based on the grant contract no 101005301.

GreenTech 2.0

GreenTech 2.0 project aims to enhance the collaboration of cluster organizations through learning from each other to form customized unique business support services which are provided or channelled to SMEs. GreenTech 2.0 will empower green tech clusters to support SMEs in exploiting growth opportunities, service innovation, resource efficient solutions, market traction, finding investments and internationalisation. This will be accompanied by strategic partnering between clusters and specialised ecosystems and cities resulting in new, joint GreenTech Services 2.0 service portfolio for participating clusters, including the implementation of the “ClusterXchange” Programme.

In collaboration with partners from Lithuania, Poland, Finalnd and Sweden a unique cross-border portfolio of services GreenTech Services 2.0 will be developed by the GreenTech 2.0 project, that is specifically targeted at green tech SMEs that already have some market traction and maturity, but need support in the uptake of innovation, scaling their products and services and going to international markets. GreenTech 2.0 will strengthen ties with other European ecosystems and cities across regional and sectoral silos with the view to support a sustainable interregional partnering and strategic collaboration between SMEs, investors, public authorities, community and corporations.

Duration of the project is 24 months. See more: greentech-project.eu

The project received funding from the European Union’s COSME programme based on the grant contract no 101037914.

P4SME

The objective of Peer for People, Planet, Profit in SMEs (P4SME) project is to improve the support in terms of sustainability that European STPs, incubators, innovation agencies or similar organisations are providing to their tenants or client companies.

For that purpose, the consortium will identify and analyse tools, programmes or initiatives that might help SMEs to become more sustainable and will implement in the medium-term an efficient method based in those inputs to be applied through pilot actions in their territories.

In order to achieve this objective, peer-learning activities are designed to facilitate cooperation and knowledge transfer among the involved STPs (FUNDECYT Science and Technology Park of Extremadura, Johanneberg Science Park, Tallinn Science and Business Park Tehnopol) within the project time frame of one year.

All partners of P4SME are Science and Technology Parks (STPs) that belong to the International Association of Science Parks and Areas of Innovation, whose mission is to respond to new needs of companies in new market conditions to drive growth and internationalisation. The integration of the sustainability approach into their portfolio of services will allow STPs to provide SMEs hosted in their facilities with a more complete support, helping them to seize new opportunities and to introduce their sustainable products and services into the market to achieve a steady growth. Thus, the main goal of the P4SME project is to improve the support services that partners are currently offering to SMEs by introducing the sustainability concept and by helping companies to integrate the sustainability into their business strategies.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under grant agreement No. 970887

EIT InnoEnergy

The challenge is big, but EIT InnoEnergy’s goal is simple: to achieve a sustainable energy future for Europe. Innovation is the solution. New ideas, products and services that make a real difference, new businesses and new people to deliver them to market.

The EIT InnoEnergy project supports and invests in innovation at every stage of the journey – from classroom to end-customer. With a network of partners, the project aims to build connections across Europe, bringing together inventors and industry, graduates and employers, researchers and entrepreneurs, businesses and markets.

The programme focuses on three essential areas of the innovation mix:

Education to help create an informed and ambitious workforce that understands the demands of sustainability and the needs of industry.
Innovation Projects to bring together ideas, inventors and industry to create commercially attractive technologies that deliver real results to customers.
Business Creation Services to support entrepreneurs and start-ups who are expanding Europe’s energy ecosystem with their innovative offerings.

Bringing these disciplines together maximises the impact of each, accelerates the development of market-ready solutions, and creates a fertile environment in which we can sell the innovative results of our work.

Find out more!

EFFECT4buildings

The goal of EFFECT4building is to increase the number of energy efficiency measures implemented in buildings in the Baltic Sea Region. The project will connect public property owners with suppliers of solutions to reach a larger market and more efficient use in the Baltic Sea Region. Financial tools and methods are developed through various real cases among partners participating in the project. The result will be a toolbox with financial methods that can improve profitability, facilitate funding and reduce the risk of energy investment in real estate.

Partnership consist of 10 partners from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Poland and 18 associated partners representing regional and local public authorities acting as real estate owners, clusters involving actors from the whole building chain, science park, etc.

Tallinn Science Park Tehnopol from Estonia represents good knowledge on technological smart city and smart house solutions. They possess the knowledge on how to involve and supportSMEs.

Smartup Accelerator

The SmartUp Accelerator project launches a transnational consumer cleantech innovation ecosystem driving the Baltic Sea region’s level strategic and operative partnerships and new commercialised innovations. This in turn shall create success stories on the EU and global consumer cleantech markets, leading to increased prosperity, well-being and sustainability around the Baltic Sea region.

The project addresses innovation actors in order to strengthen their innovation capacity in consumer cleantech: to help them identify brilliant ideas, and foster teams committed to creating new businesses and reducing the environmental burden of consumption. This is done by transnational training programmes and supporting activities, such as testbeds.

The project triggers networking and cooperation, training programmes for intermediaries, small and medium sized enterprises and start-ups. It creates strategic and operational partnerships between organisations and stakeholders, and strengthens knowledge and awareness of consumer cleantech within the innovation and investor scene. All this is being gathered within a model called SmartUp Accelerator.

Project Partners: Innovatum AB (SE), Demos Helsinki (FI), Alexanderson Institute (SE), Foundation for Technology Entrepreneurship (PL), European Institute for Innovation reg. assoc. (DE), Johanneberg Science Park (SE), University of Latvia (LV), Foundation Tallinn Science Park Tehnopol (EE), St. Petersburg Foundation for SME Development (RU), The St. Petersburg House Property Owners Association (RU).

SmartUp Accelerator is a collaboration project funded by Interreg Baltic Sea Region as part of European Regional Development Fund.