Rural RDI milieus in transition towards smart Bioeconomy Clusters and Innovation Ecosystems

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The goal of the project is to support smart, sustainable and inclusive growth of the bioeconomy in rural areas of the Baltic Sea region. RDI2CluB aims to help innovation actors apply EU smart specialisation approaches to their specific field and region. The transnational partnership and network of the project plans to, for instance, support new business development in rural areas and create bio-business hubs to improve innovation management. Our mission: Bioeconomy means economic activities that utilize the biological natural resources and turn them into food, energy, and other products and services providing jobs and business opportunities. The rural areas of Baltic Sea region have a great potential for bioeconomy as they have abundant natural resources. However, these regions struggle to reach their full potential due to limited human capital, business networks and clusters. So far, the small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) in bioeconomy are mostly in traditional, resource-based industries that have not taken full advantage of latest technology and service innovations. Our solution: RDI2CluB unites authorities, research, development and innovation (RDI) institutes and business development bodies from five regions to a joint quest of boosting smart and sustainable bioeconomy development in the rural regions around the Baltic Sea. At the core of RDI2CluB is a transnational learning process that results in regional bioeconomy profiles and joint action plans for developing innovation capacity and enhancing smart specialization. Thereafter, the partner regions build a joint innovation model and a digital platform that functions as a virtual working environment for collaborative development of new products and services. The platform offers an interface to access data on natural resources and bioeconomy potential that can spark new ideas and market entries both at regional and transnational levels. Finally, piloting with the SMEs provides feedback on the smart specialization potential in bioeconomy as well as helps to validate the usability and functionality of the transnational innovation model and to scale up the digital platform.

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