Read about the findings of the GRETA project in the newsletter! (PDF)

The GRETA project developed policy tools for sustainable Smart Specialization innovation strategies in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR), supporting green transformation (GT) in ways that are aligned with the European Green Deal (EGD), issued by the European Commission.

The Interreg BSR project GRETA builds on experiences with methods to support growth developed in the LARS project with environmental targets in two areas: energy (reduction of CO2 emissions, green energy production) and circular economy.

In this last Newsletter we report on piloting new practices in regions and on the project messages. The project partners have been involved in academic communication writing articles on the findings and involved in the international dialogue on regional innovations.

The ambition of smart specialization in the Baltic Sea Region is to create regional growth through better ways of combining and using place-based resources and improved macro-regional networks. A key element of achieving this is improved regional governance and partnership coordination.

The policy advice centers on the most important conclusions of the project. The LARS project partners have found that transnational learning may be applied in practice and that it complements smart specialization in the quest for new and innovative solutions.

The LARS project is looking for improvements supporting innovation in public sector policies.

In this 5th Newsletter of the LARS project we report on the work on policy transfers between regions. Regional economic performance is fostered by well-targeted policy instruments and it may well be that transnational learning is the fastest path to policy development.

In late April, the LARS project held its fifth partner meeting and transnational learning seminar. The meeting was originally scheduled to take place in Riga. However, due to the corona pandemic, the partners met digitally. Still, the two-day meeting was a success and the partner eagerly shared insights and results...

What role should public organisations play in innovation activities? The dissertation by Antti Mäenpää is looking at the role of public organisations as innovation agents. The Connectivity model used in Mäenpää's research was designed to help the region of Ostrobothnia in its strategy formulation.