Description
Description (EN): CB2East aims at strenghtening Central Baltic Areas economical competitiveness by creating commercially targeted open innovation platforms in between Latvia and Finland. Key areas are sustainable eco-efficiency and water expertise solution needs in North-West Russia and Central Asia.
Both target market areas have already shown remarkable market potential for Finnish and Latvian SMEs but the lack of critical mass and needed capabilities have created an obstacle for successfull commercial entries to the markets.
CB2East catalyses transnational innovation collaboration for clusters based on challenge-driven and smart specialization approaches. New element of the approach is the use of inclusive model of collaboration, co-creative innovation processes including open innovation test-beds and new communication tools.
It creates unique combinations of (meta)clusters complementary competences with good potential to develop specialized solutions to the target market needs. These strategic platforms support transnational clusters intermediaries on their operational projects helping companies in their business development and fruitful commercialization of joint ideas internationally. Platforms help to create concept and capability development, improve resource management, knowledge sharing, new market exploration and help companies to plug in to global value chains.
Expected outputs are transnational coaching programmes for cluster intermediaries and SMEs including tools for building and strenghtening the cooperation and increasing cultural understanding and business capabilities. For partners benchmarking trips to targeted areas, joint events, market intelligence tools and long-term strategic action plans are made. Final output is a continuous and commercially succesfull transnational state-of-art cooperation in between two countries and a model that can be spread to the neighbouring CB countries in the future.
Read more Achievements (EN): CB2East – new business opportunities for Finnish and Latvian companies:
The project CB2East - Central Baltic Cleantech Clusters expanding to East of EU markets - generated Latvian and Finnish meta-cluster platforms, where complementary competences have leveraged partner’s capacities to enter new market and support SMEs internationalization strategies. More specifically, Baltic Cleantech Alliance provided functional collaboration aimed to increase export in Central-Asia; whereas in North-West Russia were developed collaboration models with local clusters to support the same targets. Baltic Cleantech Alliance became valued in the target markets and enhanced status of participating SMEs. Baltic Cleantech Alliance was largely recognized in target markets especially due to events that gathered large and high-level audiences.
In overall, meta-cluster activities enhanced information on target markets situation and business opportunities increased competences and capacities to enter new markets for participants, including better understanding of financial instruments, cultural awareness, support for strategy development providing platform and tools for transnational cooperation, communication, match making and knowledge sharing
joint projects and other transnational cooperation formats of meta-cluster and its companies new business value chains and commercially viable projects increased involvement of companies into meta-cluster activities.
Moreover, the project innovated new market entry strategies and business models, including local representation offices, consortia approach etc. The project has improved capacities on national clusters to work in the transnational environment and adapt to the emerging challenges; developed their cooperation skills and capacity to innovate new collaboration models. Around 10 cooperation agreements and MoUs were signed during the project. The participating companies from both countries achieved real business deals and at least 5 companies have succeeded to have sales on target markets.
In more deteail, during the project it was identified well over 100 business leads from which 66 were relevant to companies. This led to 40 new business value chains including projects, pilots or submitted offers or tenders. The project provided deep market knowledge of Central Asia and North-West Russia and created clear vision how to integrate our interests in the target markets. As such, Baltic Cleantech Alliance elaborated clear service pallet to companies towards the new target market.
During the project lifecycle (2015-2018) several Finnish and Latvian companies agreed on cooperation and successfully participated in tenders, as well as cooperated with Russian, Central Asian and other European companies and organizations. The project developed collaboration patterns with local clusters and market entry integrators, for example in Northwest Russia. Moreover, FIN-LV collaboration improved significantly due to the project.
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Website: http://centralbaltic.eu/
Expected Results (EN): R1.3. Number of cluster co-operations exporting to new markets
Expected Outputs (EN): CB2East project creates transnational meta-cluster platforms resulting in new collaboration, transnational value chains and business pilots in the chosen target markets between the businesses in the partner countries.The number of created cluster co-operations exporting to new markets is four: Water/ Central Asia, Water/ St. Petersburg/North-West Russia, Eco- and energy efficiency/ Central Asia, Eco- and energy efficiency/ St. Petersburg/North-West Russia.Created meta-clusters bring added value for participating existing national clusters by enhancing their market knowledge and business processes and understanding better the challenging and continuously changing target markets. The project creates new models for transnational collaboration and participants learn how to use inclusive, challenge-driven innovation methods combined with smart specialization and open innovation testbed thinking.Main results are four new transnational meta-clusters doing commercially viable projects in new markets in innovation and business collaboration, new competences and capabilities for participants, increased involvement and information flow. Meta-clusters intermediaries'' capabilities are strengthened and they are able to adapt new transnational challenge driven innovative concepts in their thinking and strategy formation and hence implement them to their everyday operations with other cluster parties.Specific tools for transnational communication, cultural awareness and transnational cooperation skills, benchmarking and evaluation, knowledge how to access different finance sources, strategy development and implementation tools, knowledge sharing and matchmaking tools are also a part of the results. All these project results raise significantly meta-clusters` awareness and skills. They jointly create new methods on how to form and operate successfull and profitable processes to enter new export markets and also together join the global value chains.
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Thematic information
Specific Objective:
More exports by the Central Baltic companies to new markets
Thematic Objective:
(03) enhancing the competitiveness of SMEs by:
Investment Priority:
(03d) supporting the capacity of SMEs to grow in regional, national and international markets, and to engage in innovation processes
Partners (3)
Lead Partner:
Finnish Water Forum/ Suomen vesifoorumi ry
Department:
International affairs
Address:
Arkadiankatu 16 C 1, 100 Helsinki, Finland
Legal status:
private
Website:
http://www.finnishwaterforum.fi
Total budget:
EUR 355 230.33
ERDF budget:
EUR 266 422.75
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Latvijas Biotehnoloģijas asociācija
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Name:
Latvijas Biotehnoloģijas asociācija
Department:
CLEANTECH LATVIA
Address:
Dzērbenes 27, LV - 1006 Rīga, Latvia
Legal status:
private
Website:
http://www.cleantechlatvia.com
Total budget:
EUR 298 435.00
ERDF budget:
EUR 253 669.75
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Green Net Finland
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Name:
Green Net Finland
Address:
Elannontie 3, 1510 Vantaa, Finland
Legal status:
private
Website:
http://www.greennetfinland.fi/en
Total budget:
EUR 245 400.00
ERDF budget:
EUR 184 050.00
