As part of the project BSR Stars S3, BDF and Nordic Council of Ministers organised a workshop on the 6th of April in Tampere, Finland. The event brought together 32 representatives for technology providers, business development agencies, policymakers and SME’s in Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Germany and Lithuania to discusse the interest and potentials for a broader access to test bed facilities across the region.
In particular, the workshop explored how small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) could benefit from access to testbeds when attempting to make new bioeconomy and digital economy products, services or processes market-ready. There is strong evidence of the correlation between the competitiveness of technology-based SMEs and their access to testbeds. Countries and regions in the Baltic Sea Region have complementary testbed excellence. By networking these excellence areas, opportunities arise for offering SMEs specialised testbed services that in the best way suit their innovation needs.
Two reports mapping out the test and demonstration infrastructure in the Baltic Sea Region were presented and discussed: one on digital test beds and one on test beds for bio-economy.
Main Conclusions
- There is an abundance of specialised test and demonstration infrastructure – and a big potential for knowledge sharing between these.
- There are many similarities and complementarities in testbed infrastructures and many opportunities for specialisation.
- Added value can be expected from sharing test and demonstration infrastructures and SMEs should be systematically encouraged to work across borders.
A comprehensive workshop summary as well as presentations from the day is available on the BSR Stars S3 website.
Further information: Torben Aaberg, Head of Public & Digital Affairs, ta@bdforum.org
Programme
About BSR Stars S3
The project BSR STARS S3, co-financed by the EU Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme, aims to support SMEs in gaining access to the test and demonstration infrastructures that best suit their particular needs when attempting to commercialise new products, services or processes in the digital economy as well as in the bioeconomy. In other words, BSR STARS S3 aims to provide opportunities for smart specialisation among test and demonstration infrastructures in the Baltic Sea Region.
