Another step towards the Baltic Sea Region as one test site for development of health care products and services

ScanBalt BioRegion met excellent response to the new strategic focus discussed at the 6th Annual Forum of the European Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region

On the Picture: Lars Lindsköld, Region Västra Götaland, CEO Image Repository, vice chairman of ScanBalt, presents the Baltic Sea region as one test site for development of health care products and services

The top priority for ScanBalt BioRegion is the “Baltic Sea Region as one test site for development of health care products and services” (BSR One Site) according to the new strategy for ScanBalt® fmba 2015 – 2018. Read more in details here.

BSR One Site was presented and discussed on several occasions during the Forum starting with the session “Innovations and cross-border infra structures for a better health care” organized by the Northern Dimension Partnership of Public Health and Social Well-being  (NDPHS) June 16.

ScanBalt vice chairman Lars Lindsköld, Region Västra Götaland (SE) pointed out that BSR One Site is a huge benefit for SMEs, which faster and easier can bring their innovations to the market and it improves the health care offered to patients. For the regions it means more efficient use of existing research and innovation infrastructure and economic development.

Coordinated Investments

The process consists in mutually coordinated sup-topics being targets for coordinated investments between Horizon 2020, structural funds, regional and national public-private financing. The sub-topics are identified via the continuously ongoing discussions among the members of ScanBalt, in the ScanBalt network at large and in dialogue with regional, national and supranational decision and opinion makers. See status here.

Finally Lars Lindsköld pointed out that ScanBalt is a shared (macro-regional) innovation infra-structure between Baltic Sea regions and since 2001 acting as a smart specialization platform identifying key competencies of the regions and promoting coordinated trans-national investments between ESIF, H2020, regional and national public-private financing. Read more in details here.

DanuBalt Stakeholder Forum

To promote the process further ScanBalt as partner in the Horizon 2020 funded project DanuBalt June 17 organized a meeting as part of the 6th Annual Forum for the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea region – DanuBalt Stakeholder Forum – which brought together key participants from all levels (EU, macro and regional) with an interest in influencing and shaping the RDI support policy of the future.

The meeting had several highly interesting proposals for future collaborative activities in the Baltic Sea Region from Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The proposals will be part of an investment catalogue aiming to promote coordinated financing.

Exhibition together with NDPHS and projects

The exhibition of ScanBalt BioRegion at the 6th Annual Forum of the European Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region led to many interesting discussions on BSR One Site and a number of useful contacts.

The exhibition booth was shared with NDPHS and DanuBalt. The project proposals Baltic Fracture Competence Center, HealthShare and HealthSuportNet also used the exhibition as a platform for distribution of their material.

Next steps

The conclusion at the end of the 6th Annual Forum of the European Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region is that there is a real interest to move forward. Next step in the process will be:

– Baltic Sea Region Health and Bio Economy Project Accelerator Day and ScanBalt Forum, Stockholm, September 8, see here.

– Plenary session “Baltic Sea Region as one test and development site for health care products and services” at the Nordic Life Science Days, Stockholm, September 9-10, see here.

In addition various concrete project proposals are in preparation or have been delivered for evaluation, see an overview here.

 NDPHS and ScanBalt exhibiting together at 6th Annual EUSBSR Forum