Since the beginning of 2014 the Baltic Sea Cluster Development Centre has been actively pursuing new funding opportunities to further develop its cooperation activities in the near future, especially through the next generation of territorial cooperation programmes within the Baltic Sea Region. At the same time the BSCDC has been working with existing structures by linking them to new cooperation initiatives.
Some weeks ago a very promising meeting was held with the Nordic Council of Ministers (NCM) during which it was agreed that a closer cooperation between the BSCDC and NCM’s green growth bio-economy initiative would be maintained, which in turn would provide new opportunities for BSCDC partners involved in clean-tech and food clusters.
Another interesting opportunity for the BSCDC is to unite in terms of facilitating clean-tech cluster-to-cluster cooperation to create channels for business-to-business cooperation in far-away markets. The BSCDC has recently been approached by a cluster organisation from South Africa which would be keen to organize a SA-BSR clean-tech expo and cluster and business matchmaking in connection with Cape Town World Design Capital 2014. This would happen at the end October or early November 2014.
Also, the BSCDC is in a dialogue with the Baltic Development Forum on a possible organisation of a BSCDC cluster-to-cluster and business-to-business session during the Baltic Sea Days in Turku in the first week of June. Furthermore, on 27-28th October 2014 the Euroregion Baltic will organise its annual Forum where a discussion will be held on future cooperation with BSCDC. This could also provide excellent opportunities to advance BSCDC cooperation.
For more information on recent developments in the Baltic Sea Cluster Development Centre, please visit its official website.