On 19-20th April, Baltic Development Forum, in collaboration with the University of Turku, had the pleasure to welcome representatives of the Industrial Research Centers (IRECs) business-support units, serving as an interface between analytical research institutes and companies. The training sessions, timely initiated and co-organised together with Baltic TRAM partners, focused on capacity building and transnational knowledge transfer within the framework of the INTERREG BSR project Baltic TRAM.
The workshop was primarily planned as a platform for sharing best marketing practices among the IRECs, for exchanging challenges on reaching out to the main target groups and for exploring a joint marketing approach for the upcoming 3rd Call for company applications. The workshop included discussions on what industries the IRECs should primarily focus on, what other regional organisations they should team up to jointly develop the collaborative actions aimed at business outreach, and how to improve a dialogue with the multipliers and their networks.
Besides the dynamic discussions on marketing strategies, IRECs had a chance to discuss how the IRECs network could sustain in the future, how to keep the existing network and its accumulated competence and network stock beyond the projects end. The business modelling dimension of the IRECs dialogue has a solid basis but requires further upgrade and the joining of forces. The discussions also covered financial issues, the revenue structure of the Network of IReCs, funding mechanisms and pricing policies of the network.
During the two working days Vaeksthus Copenhagen and the LINX Association joined the discussions and inspired the participants by sharing their valuable experiences on business outreach and insightful ideas on the IREC’s future.
For more information, please contact Viktoria Nilsson, vn@bdforum.org or Sari Stenvall-Virtanen, sarsten@utu.fi