Detailed description

Background/Project idea

Life Sciences and Environmental Technologies belong to the most promising fields of innovation for the economic development inEurope. The academic centers around theBaltic Seahave earned a lot of expertise in the recent years and shows potential for the development of a strong KBBE Knowledge Based BioEconomy – a key vision stated by EU.

In the project Eco4Life the partners from Szczecin in Poland, Klaipeda in Lithuania and Greifswald in Germany as well as the associated partners are going to promote the regional potential and will bundle their strengths to create a strong and competitive South Baltic Region by mobilizing cross border cooperation in science and business. The activities will be realized in strong cooperation with the regional administrative bodies (“triple helix”). Eco4Life will lead to increased regional and crossborder networking, growing number of crossborder cooperation, mobilise awareness and interest for the South Baltic, faster access to cooperation with the North Baltic Sea clusters (ScanBalt), and boost scientific and economic development. Eco4Life will serve as an important tool for the development of the Baltic Sea Region.

Activities

Eco4Life will realize the following actions:

„Eco4Life“ – Contact Points & Local Valley Agenda – a „one-stop office“ will be initiated in each of the cities as the center for information exchange, regional activities and transnational networking. Results of the local agendas and international activities will be developed in the frame of BSR strategy and assembled to a Eco4Life cross border cooperation agenda, fixed as a formal agreement by a regional consortium of administration, politics, academic research, entrepreneurs and companies.
Training and Project Incubation – the needs of special business training modules for Life Science-entrepreneurs will be identified and a training program established.
Crossborder Cluster Development – by the exchange of best practice examples between the partner regions and by studying successful cluster initiatives in South Sweden and USA bottlenecks in the South Baltic will be identified. A joint action plan will be developed to overcome these and an international advisory board will guide and consult these activities.
Communication & Dissemination -activities of the project will be communicated to the target groups by using all relevant tools, e.g. press tour, press releases, conferences, internet.

Project target groups

Entrepreneurs, potential company founders (e.g. students) and scientists with interest in cooperation with industry are the main target groups. Entrepreneurs will be embedded into a vital environmental and life science platform to exchange experiences and demands with decision makers from science, administration and government. The direct, organized contact with scientists can be regarded as a virtual project incubator of mutual interest for entrepreneurs and scientists.
On the regional level the Eco4Life contact points will serve as one stop agencies with profound knowledge about actors and their activities in the region and in BSR. They will establish a network of reliable and trustful personal contacts as the basis for future cross-border cooperations. After end of the project key competences of the contact points may be integrated in existing institutions, e.g as part of existing technology transfer organisations in the region. The “Eco4Life” directory of resources in the South Baltic will be published in the internet as a subdomain in ScanBalt web and periodically updated after project´s end as it is realised for other projects since 2001. The region will profit after the project period from the new built up service, e.g. new transnational networks, partners and projects, new technologies and stimulated entrepreneurship. The results of Eco4Life will be integrated into the activities of ScanBalt as the central frame for life science in the BSR. Awareness for the
region as “Eco4Life” region and the actors will be increased (e.g. for customers and investors).Eco4Life will on the political level give direct impulses for changed regional policy strategies to develop the essential environment for KBBE in the South Baltic region to flourish. The strategic documents will be elaborated with decision makers in the region and will serve as an input for regional development plans and for implementation of the and into the EU Baltic Sea Strategy. encourages academia to cooperate with SME´s and internationally, sensibilizes students for the options to start their own business and gives overview on support help the actors may receive. The target groups may participate in training modules with general and environmental/life science topics for direct support in financing, legislation, technology transfer, contract negotiation, intellectual property issues and general business development. Students are thus stimulated and educated fo entrepreneurship. A further target group is politicics/administration. Administrative bodies will be informed about the potential of environmental/life sciences (e.g. infrastructure, product and service development, tools for financial support and intellectual property management). Joint regional development strategies will be developed based upon a triple helix type consultation process. Finally, “Eco4Life” will inform generally about commercial potential of modern life and environmental science.

Project lifespan

The project runs from 01.07.2010 until 31.12.2013.

Project financing

The project is part-financed by the EU-South Baltic Programme.