Enhancing Collaboration in the Baltic Sea Region

Regions and Clusters in the Baltic Sea Region will promote smart growth by enhancing cross-border collaboration between Life science industry and academic research. The main tools are shared business services and support in addition to promote the establishment of a Baltic Sea Region Fund for research, innovation and education. These points were discussed at a 2nd round table held in September at Szczecin, Poland, which aims
to implement an innovation agenda for ScanBalt BioRegion released by the EU FP 7 project Bridge-BSR (25th of June), in response to the EU Baltic Sea Region strategy. The innovation agenda is expected to influence the coordination between various EU funds like the EU structural funds, the EU 7th Framework programmes for research and technological development and the EU Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme. In addition it is expected to be a tool for the EU Baltic Sea Region strategy, not least the flagship project “health region”.

Professor Jan Lubinski who established the biotech company Read Gene SA and at the same time works at the Szczecin Medical University says “We need stronger interaction between companies and universities in order to exploit the potentials of Life sciences. This holds true for Szczecin and the Pomeranian Region as well as for the entire ScanBalt BioRegion. Crossborder collaboration is a lever to achieve this and today we took
a step forward”.

Professor Hans-Robert Metelmann, Chairman of ScanBalt adds “ScanBalt BioRegion will establish the service and support tools in collaboration with the clusters and regions. In addition we need a Baltic Sea Region Fund for research, innovation and education, if we have ambitious goals for the Baltic Sea Region as a globally leading health region and green valley. This is a task for the national and regional politicians.”

http://www.scanbalt.org/sw14944.asp