South Savo innovation stakeholders learn about the EmpInno progress
On 28th February 2018 the South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences (XAMK) Small Business Center of Mikkeli, Finland, and their associated partner Mikkeli Development Miksei Ltd invited local stakeholders to share experiences and progress on the implementation of RIS3 within the EmpInno project.
Sinikka Mynttinen, RIS3 expert from the Small Business Center, presented the organization’s good practices for how to improve the RIS3 implementation. For internal communication, the Small Business Center appointed a RIS3 expert, edited regional RIS3-informations and communicated them internally and via the organizations website. To foster the implementation in the region, information events by regional authorities, network meetings by industry branches and diverse events customized to the business needs of SMEs were organized. To facilitate R+D transfer and to promote co-operation between research and business actors, Sinnika Mynttinnen pointed out to regular meetings, workshops and international conferences, presented good practices of the EmpInno project in Finland and other regions and highlighted several matchmaking events as possibilities to expand business networks in the Baltic Sea Region. Other good practices for the empowerment of SMEs from other partner regions were also exchanged such as Hackathon events or the MI Lab event in Finland, the Tartu Mobile Monday in Estonia or the SHOPA-workshop in Poland.
Furthermore, other experts from different sections presented their perspective on the implementation process of RIS3. Tomi Heimonen from the South Savo Regional Council presented three regional specialisations: FOREST (New Products for Forest Biomass and production processes), WATER (Clean Water Technologies and Concepts) and FOOD (The food chain's cleanness and security). The research manager of sustainable wellbeing from South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences shared her experience on the S3 Platform Agri-Food and highlighted the networking opportunities and Horizon2020 partnerships initiated by the S3 Platform. Likewise, Kari Aalto, Janne Uusivirta and Sointu Räisänen from East & North EU-office called attention to S3 thematic platforms as networking opportunities and presented the Horizon2020 program as a successful opportunity to foster co-operations between research and business actors. They stated that companies and organizations in South Savo have received about three million euros from Horizon2020 funds so far.Copyright @ Juulia Aschan