Seven years of strategic work resulted in the biggest automation project ever in Europe. Anders OE Johansson, CEO of ProcessIT Innovations, explains that the foundation for the success was built when Sweden and Finland got together to coordinate their work within the field of automation. “If we want to influence the European Union we have to be coordinated both within the region, the nation and the EU”. So some years ago Anders OE Johansson and ProcessIT got involved in Artemis, a European Technology Platform. “Through Artemis I met a former colleague, Nils Leffler, from ABB. He asked me why there was no cooperation between Sweden and Finland to promote automation within Artemis.” That became the starting point for establishing cooperation… Read more
13 nominees involving at least ten countries compete for the BSR Innovation Award, the most distinguished award in the Baltic Sea region for cross border innovation. The award goes to a public or private organization, such as a cluster, business association or SME network that has proved itself to be innovative and reached across not only national borders but also crossing different fields of science and industry sectors. The winner will be announced at a ceremony in Riga on Wednesday 29 May, during the gala dinner at the 15th Baltic Development Forum Summit. The Award, with an award sum of 5 000 Euros, was founded in 2011. Last year Finnish Demola Open Innovation Platform Concept received the award for being… Read more
The BSR Innovation award is the most distinguished award in the Baltic Sea Region for cross border innovation within sustainable growth and global development. The aim of the award is to highlight the importance of innovation in a Baltic Sea Region context. It is an appreciation of dedicated work done by organisations, networks, projects or public bodies that have contributed to the innovative development of the region. The BSR Innovation award is presented by BDF and BSR Stars. The following distinguished jury has been appointed by BSR Stars High Level Group together with Baltic Development Forum: Kerli Gabrilovica, Commercial Director, Lattelecom, Latvia Dr. Christian Ketels, Principal associate, Harvard Business School & Stockholm School of Economics Christian Vintergaard, CEO | PhD,… Read more
Around 170 experts on environmental, transport and innovations issues gathered in Berlin and Riga in April to discuss the priorities for the Baltic Sea Region Programme 2014-2020. Erik Bunis from the Swedish innovation agency VINNOVA, Sander van der Molen from the Lithuanian Innovation Centre and Agnieszka Mierzynska from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in Poland represented the BSR Stars and the priority area for Innovation during the workshop. Presentations, agendas and the list of participants from the workshops can be found on the Baltic Sea Region Programme website. A summary of the discussions will be available there around mid-May.
Early last week, 165 participants from more than 70 clusters in 16 countries gathered in Copenhagen for the BSR Innovation Express cluster-to-cluster conference. The event was dedicated to matching clusters (and SME networks) with each other, and supporting them in finding relevant funding for international activities. With 225 pre-scheduled “dates”, 5 workshops to develop project ideas addressing grand challenges, loads of ad hoc bilateral meetings and informal networking over the course of the event, many new matches were made in the BSR. In connection with the BSR Innovation Express call supporting the internationalization of SMEs through clusters, NetMatch (supported by the Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation) led the organization of a Cluster-to-Cluster Matchmaking and Funding Conference in Copenhagen,… Read more
The BSR Stars’ Clean Water-project was represented in Finland’s largest chemical fair together with Lahti Region Development LADEC Ltd and International Advanced Water Technology Center–project and four Finnish companies from the water industry. The project had a stand on the “Water Street” of the ChemBio fair, serving as a meeting point for relevant visitors working with water management. ChemBio 2013 took place on 20-21 March in Helsinki’s fair centre. In ChemBio 2013 fair, there were over 5000 visitors from such fields as production, product development, planning, marketing and sales, financing, purchasing and procurement, safety matters, universities and many other representatives from businesses that use chemistry or biotechnology products and services.
Representatives of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region visited Stockholm this week to exchange experiences with colleages working with the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region. The dicsussions focused on the work within the priority areas dealing with innovation, competitiveness and research in the two macro-regions. As the BSR Strategy was the first macr-regional strategy adopted by the EU the experiences and learnings done in the Baltic Sea region were presented. The development of the BSR Stars programme and its projects were also discussed.
The workshop “Green corridor as a platform for innovation in seaports” is organized by the MARCHAIN partner Latvian Logistics Association on 24 April in Riga at RIGA IT DEMO CENTER . The aim of the workshop is to facilite best practice exchange on Port community system (PCS) and innovation development for seaports and hubs based on ITC means, green corridors metodology and national Maritime clusters as a partners network in BSR countries. Several PCS related case studies are foreseen be presented and used for discussion during the workshop, e.g.”National Single Window system “SafeSeaNet” as unified IT platform for public and commercial data processing for Latvia harbors”. The workshop is targeted to logistics and ITC service providers, shippers, intermodal transport companies, policy makers,… Read more
The Federal Government of Germany considers it an important goal to open up innovation potential in international cooperation. International networking can increase the success of companies, research institutions and universities in international competition. Therefor the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Germany has a call open for proposals for the establishment and development of innovative R&D networks with partners in the Baltic Sea region. Applications may be submitted for maximum funding of €80,000 for the entire funding period. The funding procedure consists of two phases. In the first phase, project outlines are to be submitted in German or English by 30 April 2013 at the latest. Read more at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research’s website.
Product development is a risky and expensive business. Few companies can afford to focus on innovation and development. But at the same time the competition is increasing and more and more students want to combine their theoretical studies with practical skills. Therefore the universities in Lund, Malmö and Kristianstad, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and the cluster organization Mobile Heights with support from the Swedish innovation agency VINNOVA have decided to create a common platform where companies share their challenges. The universities contribute with academic credits, interdisciplinary student teams and skilled coaches. Mobile Heights contributes with market expertise and contacts. The inspiration comes from the Demola programme and New Factory in Finland. “We are creating an open arena that… Read more