Project results

During the three years of successful cooperation of the BaSIC project partners and its regions more than 200 innovative fast growth companies have been served and brought in contact with potential business partners.

BaSIC main activities and results are as follows:

Provision of Market information instruments regarding legal aspects, tax regulations, company forms, etc. for companies that want to settle in the Baltic Sea regions (BSR) by

• developing a Market Access Guide
• organising training events for companies for how to establish a business in the BSR

Provision of technology information by developing Cluster reports showing the potential in the BSR markets

• “Photonics, Micro and Nano Technologies in the Baltic Sea Region”
• “Information and Communication Technologies in the Baltic Sea Region”
• “Life Sciences in the Baltic Sea Region”

Organisation of four Road Shows in order to promote the project and to reach a better visibility of the hosting regions

• Riga, Jun 2009
• Sankt Petersburg, Sep/Oct 2010
• Oslo, Apr 2011
• Tallinn, Sep 2011

Organisation of Brokerage events (b2b meetings) especially for companies in order to find cooperation partners. This has been executed in three cities, for three topics and with three different approaches:

• Matching in the field of optics/photonics/micro/nano in Berlin, March 2010. This has been organised in close connection to Laser-Optics-Berlin fair and congress. The brokerage event itself was organised in cooperation with Enterprise Europe Network - 82 participants, thereof 32 companies and R&D institutions and 9 cluster organisations from the BSR. Furthermore a joint BSR booth was set up with 21 exhibitors in total.
• Pitching for ICT and mobile companies in Stockholm, November 2010, organised in connection to MobileFuture fair and congress. An OEM pitching event for companies was organised at Sony-Ericsson and TeliaSonera as well as a network session with company presentations, combined with a fair presentation for companies and the BaSIC project. 19 companies and research institutions and 8 cluster organizations from the BSR attended this event.
• Panel for life science and e-health in Oslo, April 2011, connected to e-Health conference. A panel discussion with representatives from science, industry and politics was organized; key notes from Microsoft, Google and public healthcare institutions were given. In total 116 participants attended the event including 8 cluster organizations from the BSR.

Organisation of Cluster Events for the three selected technology fields for presenting the competencies and cooperation potential in the BSR markets

• Optics/photonics/micro/nano: during Laser-Optics-Berlin, March 2010
• ICT and Media: during MobileFuture event, Stockholm, November 2010
• Life Sciences/Biotechnology: during e-health conference, Oslo, April 2011

Strengthening twinning activities of partner regions. Due to BaSIC activities Warsaw and Berlin have fixed an agreement on partnership and Warsaw now will be the partner region for the next Laser-Optics-Berlin fair and congress in March 2012. The city administrations of the two capitals Berlin and Warsaw have organized a joint visiting program and exchange on how to build innovative sites.

Establishment of Market Access Points (MAP) – one per each BSR region – for piloting fast growth innovation companies into new markets. This includes synchronized market access services for companies for a) guidance for own region’s companies outwards and b) foreign companies inwards to markets in the region. Each region offers a so called Local Case Manager service, which welcome firms interested in doing business in the Baltic Sea metropolises. Each Local Case Manager guides their own region’s companies outwards and foreign companies inwards to the markets in the region. Supported by a network of experts, the Case Manager guides each company with personal service and opinions relevant to their case. The above mentioned market information, technology information etc. are strong parts of the MAP service. One main point – in order to create sustainability – is that the BaSIC MAP Network is a strong alliance of cities, science parks and clusters.

Policy recommendations will be drawn to make regional policies (city administration etc.) aware about the strength of the MAPs and therefore to reach sustainability of the results.