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On the 12-13 June 2018, the Kaunas Science and Technology Park (Kaunas STP) hosted the 8^th meeting of the EmpInno project in Kaunas, Lithuania. All EmpInno partners from across the Baltic Sea Region took the chance to enhance their knowledge about implementation processes of RIS3 in their region and beyond. After some warm welcoming speeches from Tomas Černevičius from Kaunas STP, from the Leadpartner and a status-quo report of the overall project, the project partners exchanged their knowledge on how communication mechanism have been or should be implemented by strategy owners to get feedback from innovation intermediaries and further innovation actors regarding the implementation of RIS3. Three presentations of feedback mechanism from regional authorities in Satatunka Region (Finland), Östergötland Region (Sweden) and South Savo Region (Finland) enriched the knowledge exchange. Subsequently, an intensive working session on synergy and empowerment concepts to foster R&D transfer, economic cooperation and more outward mobility among innovation actors, SMEs, start-ups and researchers in the frame of RIS3 has been conducted. In this context, Kaunas STP from Lithuania and Prizztech Ltd. from Finland presented good practices from their own organisations. Kaunas STP presented “Breakfast for Innovators”, an regular event to connect relevant stakeholders in specific economic sectors and RIS3 areas and to foster R+D transfer by providing a platform of innovative knowledge transfer. Prizztech Ltd. presented the initiative Robocoast in the Region Satakunta in Finland that combines a range of regional initiatives with regard to industrial renewal, and which is acknowledged a digital innovation hub from the EU Commission. From Ieva Penelytė, Research and Higher Education Monitoring and Analysis Centre MOSTA and from Henrik Paape, advisor for the Department for Technology at the Ministry for Economics, Labor and Health in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the participants learned about the experiences in setting up and implementing RIS3 in Lithuania and Germany. Finally, the first day of the project meeting ended with a visit of the networking event “Kaunas Growing Business Awards (KAVA)” for the most successful Kaunas business product or service (see picture).  

On the second day the meeting started with a presentation of Heli Kurikka from the University of Tampere about the progress of renewing the RIS3 in the region of South-Ostrobothnia, Finland. A general discussion and working session followed under the motto “Strategy revolution or evolution: the future of RIS3 in your region?”. The EmpInno partners discussed the situation in their own region regarding the need or already initialised renewal process of RIS3. In general, the renewal process was seen as incremental by most regions and next steps of updating the respective RIS3s were discussed. The meeting came to an end with encouraging words by the project management team about the impact of the EmpInno project on initiated transnational partnerships and their support of the implementation of RIS3 in the EmpInno partner regions. In the afternoon, a study visit to historical sites in Kaunas City Center / Old Town concluded the meeting.  

Picture: Kaunas Science and Technology Park