The aim of the project was to attract companies to invest, locate and operate in the Southeast Finland – Russia CBC region. The project aspired to improve sustainable economic growth in the cross-border region by supporting entrepreneurship and business cooperation in the field of biotechnology and circular economy. The project aimed to increase cooperation between companies and the capacity to create new businesses and commercialise scientific research results. In general, the objective was to improve the skills and competitiveness of Finnish and Russian companies and actors in the biotechnology and circular economy sector to enable them to succeed in cross-border markets.
The activies were targeted to companies, university students, researchers and experts of biotechnology and circular economy sectors in Finland and Russia. The project activities were implemented between two strategic Finnish-Russian alliances: 1) the universities ITMO and Xamk and 2) the business development organisations MikseiMikkeli and AsEP, which in turn worked in close cooperation with each other. The project consortium worked smoothly together – the universities provided courses, competitions, hachatons, lectures and acceleration program for students and businesses, improving their business skills and stimulating new innovations.
The business development companies supported the growth and internationalization of new and existing companies, provided up-to-date market information, created important networks and contacts for companies and developed the digital EcoSairila platform to make the EcoSairila concept internationally more usable as a testing, piloting and learning environment. The business development organisations organised a large number of match making events for Finnish and Russian companies and represented companies at the EBC exhibition in St Petersburg. They promoted also actively cooperation with other projects and major players in the sector. Thanks to the awareness raising activities and organised visits to EcoSairila, the EcoSairila concept e.g. digital EcoSairila platform became a significant international platform for circular economy activities and communication in South Savo region, which will continue to operate after the end of the project. Generally public awareness of the circular economy was widely promoted, for example through cooperation with educational institutions.
As the political situation changed significantly in spring 2022, the duration of the project and the measures had to be reassessed. The project remained with the Finnish project partners MikseiMIkkeli and Xamk. Central Asia became the new target area and the geographical scope of the project was also extended within Finland outside South-East Finland. The cooperation with Estonian actors was also started. An comprehensive and concrete market survey of the Central Asian biotechnology and circular economymarket opportunities and specifities was prepared and published for the use of companies. The project objectives were achieved, with a different geographical area than planned.
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