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Stakeholder MeetingsA number of Stakeholder Meetings have been taking place since the beginning of the BSI process. You can find the summaries of the meetings under the subpages. Report of Activities 2005-2006
During 2004 and 2005 stakeholders of the BSI meet in Timmendorfer Strand, Malmö and Gdansk to discuss topics of mutual interest. Ahead of the BDF Summit in 2005, a new structure for the BSI was agreed upon as an intermediatory way of continuing the work. A core group was established with participants more directly involved in areas of the highest priority, namely:
The organizations in the core group has been Baltic Development Forum, Vinnova, Tekes, BIPA, Scanbalt, CBSS Buisness Advisory Council, Ministry of Economic Affairs in Poland and the Nordic Council of Ministers (chair). The following presentation is an extract of various activities in the region the previous year within the above mentioned areas and where core group organizations have been more directly involved. It goes without sayings that in addition to activities mentioned in this report a wide range of activities have also been initiated by stakeholders throughout the region, in areas not directly covered by the above mentioned priorities. 1. Improving conditions and competitiveness of industrial clusters in the region Several organizations in the region have joined forces in order to form an exclusive learning and development process with regard to clusters in the Baltic Sea Region. Partners in this process are the following organizations:
The aim of the project is to support a coherent development in the Baltic Sea Region by strengthening innovation capacity and integrating innovation programs. The activities will focus on practitioners, policymakers and analysts respectively. The organization of the activities could the described as follows:
WP 6 - Policymakers’ Working Group The Nordic Innovation Center has the role of administrative coordinator of the project. 2. Improving conditions for market (user) driven innovation in the Baltic Sea Region Innovations can be the direct results of research activities, but are just as often results of direct interaction between business and the market.
The project is organized in two pillars. Industry and Awareness-Raising Pillar Innovation Labs address this need. Innovation Labs bring together companies (that employ or are interested in ‘trying out’ user-driven innovation approaches) and researchers in a facilitated forum. Companies are able to learn from each other, and researchers are able to observe and publish their findings regarding companies’ approaches. Together, companies and researchers are able to develop new methods (to be tried) or further develop existing approaches. Activities within this pillar are:
Given the varied approaches, there is a lack of both a common vocabulary and a common general understanding of what is meant by the term user-driven innovation. It is therefore imperative that awareness-raising activities be a part of all efforts to support user-driven innovation. Research and Education Pillar Educational activities should be pursued in concert with other activities in innovation programmes. Particularly with regards to user-driven innovation – which combines skills sets in business, engineering, design and social sciences (skill sets that are generally not taught together) – it will be necessary to pursue new avenues in the area of education. Activities within the area of research are:
Educational activities are:
3. Enhancing research corporation in the region The potential of Research Corporation in the Baltic Sea Region is substantial. World class scientific environment are already at hand. By joining forces, these environments can gain additional strength. ScanBalt, with focus in life science, is a frontrunner in this field. ScanBalt have 29 Founding members and 22 Institutional members representing major science institutions in the region. In the past year ScanBalt has increased co-financing for the projects with one million Euro. Four million Euro have totally been attracted to ScanBalt projects since 2002. Three new projects were granted external co-financing this year: • The Boost Bio systems is co-funded by EU FP 6. The project is a collaboration between SME´s and academia and will initiate RTD consortia in the cross disciplinary field of Bio systems technologies and network the players for a thematic cluster in the ScanBalt BioRegion. • The second project is Trayss Prime, likewise co-funded by EU FP 6. The project will train some 250 young ScanBalt Life science and health scientists in Project and Innovation Management and Economic Exploitation. • The last project to attract co-financing this year is “Communication in ScanBalt BioRegion” co-funded by the Nordic Innovation Center. The project will strengthen ScanBalt as a one-stop entry to competencies in ScanBalt BioRegion via precise, targeted in-time external communication and improve understanding of ScanBalt among decision- and opinion makers.
One project was “ScanBalt – a network of networks within life sciences”, co-funded by the Nordic Innovation Center. The project had a number of key deliverables. A second project, the “ScanBalt Clinical Research Network” project – co-funded by the Nordic Innovation Center - was successfully finished in April 2006. The ScanBalt Clinical Research Network was a pilot project with two main objectives, one to map the resources and competencies of clinical research in the region; second to identify the persons for continued activities in the network. The project has mapped competencies and resources in the field of pre-clinical research, clinical trials, and mobile ICT solutions for conducting clinical trials. Based on this a database with a search engine for competencies and partners was created. The project was coordinated by Jaanus Pikani, the Estonian Genome Foundation and ScanBalt vice chairman. The vision of the follow-up is to set up a working patient recruitment network in the ScanBalt region embracing one disease area - diabetes. The new organization will be based on the interconnection network of academic clinical research infrastructures, hospitals and industry. The past year also brought important results from ongoing projects. The “ScanBalt Competence Region”-project, co-funded by EU FP 6, have created a paper called “Benefits of Biovalleys” which contains a detailed argument of the advantages of biovalleys for industry and public institutions, biotech companies and for research institutes and universities. A number of round tables discussions on have been held in St. Petersburg, Tallin, Riga, Gdansk and Vilnius. The aim is to identify potential partners and actors in the ScanBalt Region within the new EU member states and North-West Russia in the field of Life Sciences and Biotechnology. A mapping have been conducted identifying so called “drivers” and “enablers” for cluster development. The mapping serves as basis for a scorecard concept and an analysis of the life science networks. “ScanBalt Campus”, co-funded by Interreg lllB, has initiated 7 Knowledge Networks approved by ExCo, while 2 are still pending. The Knowledge Networks provides critical mass in education, research and tech transfer on a transnational basis in the ScanBalt BioRegion. In addition, the Networks promote the use of ScanBalt Campus shared curricula. “ScanBalt Academy” has been initiated with a president, Kaare Norum, and a vice president, Leena Peltonen-Palotie. In addition the first members have been accepted into the ScanBalt Academy. An important role of the Academy is to act as an independent advisor to ScanBalt Campus and ScanBalt and, in addition, review ScanBalt activities with focus on quality. A ScanBalt Campus web site, www,scanbaltcampus.org, has been established, giving information on education activities in ScanBalt Campus and information to students how to come and study in the ScanBalt BioRegion. The “Boosting Baltic FP6”-project, co-funded by FP6, has held a number of FP6-training workshops in the new EU-members states within the ScanBalt BioRegion. The “ScanBalt IP-Knowledge Network”, co-funded by EU-FP 6, to increase the global competitiveness of the biotech industry in the Nordic and Baltic Sea countries by facilitating the development of a sustainable intellectual infrastructure capable of creating value from bioscience research. The project has conducted an extended mapping of supply and demand of biotech IP management strategies in the Nordic-Baltic Sea region. In Tallin, March 2006, the project initiated a series of five seminars on “Intellectual Property Strategies in Bioscience” with more than 40 participants. The “ScanBalt Agro Biotech network” organised the second Baltic Sea region symposium and postgraduate course focusing on Root Infection Biology: Pathogenic Interactions in Hamburg, February 25 - March 3, 2006. Altogether, 66 participants from 13 countries attended the course. Other initiatives to promote Research Corporation have been taken by the Nordic Council of Ministers (NCM). The NCM on the 1 of January 2005 joined a partnership with the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) in the lead of "The Northern eDimension Action Plan (NeDAP)"within the framework of the Nordic Dimension. The CBSS and NCM have a joint leadership responsibility for the implementation the partnership. The participating partners are responsible for their own part, -one or two action-lines- of the action-plan. Together with the Nordic National Statistical Bureaus, the NCM has established a collaboration to evolve a number of statistical indicators regarding the development of the information-society in the Baltic Sea Region, ”Indicators for the Information Society in the Baltic Region”. The indicators shows that the Baltic Sea States together with the Nordic countries perform better than the average of European countries regarding the spread and use of a large number of information and communication technologies. The Baltic countries are at the moment rapidly catching up the Nordic countries traditional lead on the ICT-area. During 2006, the NCM has together with the Baltic countries governments, discussed how the Baltic countries could participate in relevant activities on equal conditions with their own financing. In the area of research and education efforts have been made in order to open up a series of Nordic programs for Baltic participation. With this background, it is expected that there will agreements between the Nordic and the Baltic countries during 2006/2007 to join forces, based on co financing, on a joint mobility and network programme (Nordplus) and the research program Nordunet3 The Baltic countries have a joint observatory in the board of NordForsk (the Nordic Research Board), the aim is that the Baltic countries should have the opportunity to participate in NordForsk initiatives. As a starting point, every research corporation between the Baltic Countries and NMC will be related to NordForsk. To explore how regional research corporation in Northern Europe could be integrated in the European Research Area (ERA), the NCM and the European Commission organized the conference, “Investing in research and innovation- Exchanging European Experiences in a Nordic Context”, in October 2006. The conference aims at building momentum for investing in research and innovation, with the brand new 7th Framework Programme straight around the corner. The event, offered a major European meeting place for exchanging experiences on crucial issues and best practices and explored possibilities to use regional research corporation as an instrument in a wider EU concept. 4. Enhancing the Integration of the Financial markets in Baltic Sea Region During the last few years considerable structural changes has occurred in several segments of the financial markets around the Baltic Sea. Acquisitions have led to fewer banks but also more banks with operations in several of the countries around the Baltic Sea. Through the enlargement of the EU the basic conditions for the financial markets in all Baltic Sea States, with the exception of Russia, are to a considerable degree ruled by the aquis communitaire. A group of academics led by Dr Erik Berglöf of SITE (Swedish Institute for Transition Economies), has studied the economic integration in the financial markets. In the group’s contacts with banks and other financial institutions, it was revealed that there is considerable frustration among banks and other financial companies over the remaining barriers to financial integration. To identify those barriers and to persuade regulatory authorities and lawmakers to review procedures and statutes in order to be able to handle customers in the different countries in similar a way, thus reducing the administrative costs of conducting financial business in the countries in the Baltic Sea Region, an initiative has been taken by the CBSS Business Advisory Council. The aim is to present detailed examples of the obstacles caused by present conditions and outline a possible way towards similar or integrated rules to be discussed with relevant authorities. The initiatives has started with a pilot group consisting of high-ranking representatives from five banks that all have substantial operation in three to six countries in the Baltic Sea Region. The first pilot group is based in Stockholm. It is expected that similar groups will be started in other financial centres in the Baltic Sea Region. In a second and third phase there are plans for extending this effort to barriers on the stock markets and to barriers for insurance companies. At present the group of high-ranking officials from the five banks have set their staff at work compiling a list of barriers and obstacles. This list will be communicated to the regulatory authorities and will be the basis for structured discussions with national regulatory authorities. These discussions will be reflected at an expert forum held in Stockholm. The aim is to get the various national regulatory authorities in the Baltic Sea Region to start a process of aligning requirements, definitions, and routines. FI, the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority and the Riksbank, Sweden’s central bank, have both expressed support for the efforts mentioned. 5. Marketing and branding in the Baltic Sea Region At an early stage, the Baltic Sea Initiative acknowledged the need to market the Baltic Sea Region and its qualities to the outside world. As a key stakeholder in this initiative, Baltic Development Forum, has taking the lead to initiate, facilitate and coordinate an overall branding of the region encompassing all the countries around the Baltic Sea. The overall purpose of branding the Baltic Sea Region is to increase economic development and prosperity by positioning the region in the best way possible in Europe and globally. Despite all of its achievements, the Baltic Sea Region still has a somewhat unclear image and is little known in the global. That is why this branding initiative is paramount: to fully unlock, develop and communicate the potential of its people, companies, organisations and institutions. - To achieve more effective investment promotion Branding the Baltic Sea Region is about crystallizing and promoting a stronger and more competitive identity for the region through a clearly articulated sense of common purpose. It is a long-term plan for earning and maintaining a distinctive, positive and competitive regional reputation, both within the region and around the world. These aims will be achieved through a strategic, harmonised and audience-aware approach to innovation, policy making, international relations and public diplomacy, investment and export promotion, tourism and cultural relations. With point of departure in the discussions within the frame of BSI, coupled with an enormous interest from key stakeholders throughout the region, a number of conferences and seminars were held during 2005: • BSI Meeting II – Malmö 23-25 February, 2005 In 2006, Baltic Development Forum, together with leading experts and stakeholders, formally set the branding initiative in motion. This was done at a meeting with key stakeholders and experts in Timmendorfer Strand, Germany, in March 2006. Please view the short-term process below for details. Two of the leading nation branding experts, Simon Anholt and Wally Olins, are acting as advisers to this initiative. A small Action Group was established in April 2006 to kick-start the project. The group has met 3 times during the spring/summer/autumn. The three main objectives of the Action Group are to: • Spearhead the project by acting as advisors and good-will ambassadors
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