Interreg Baltic Sea Region( https://interreg-baltic.eu/)project „Creating resilient rural communities in BSR based on the opportunities of digital bio-businesses“ general objective is to provide to the target groups, rural local authorities and business promotion centres, a holistic solution to promote and support bio-business sector (SMEs and individuals) development in rural areas. The project involves 14 partners from 7 countries around the Baltic Sea.
The project focuses on designing and piloting a group of tools, which will convert target groups into fully competent e-bio-business supporters and allow fast-launching of e-bio-businesses.
The following main solutions and activities are implemented:
1. Methodology for Assessment of e-bio-business supporters
Developing a solution, which allows local business support institutions to assess their capacity and competences to support rural businesses in their transition into e-bio-businesses.
2. Methodology for supporting e-bio-business launching, incl. online tool.
Developing and piloting methodology for e-bio-business launching, which facilitate business support centres to evaluate rural businesses capacity to change into bio-business, and to provide a personal roadmap for the e-bio-business launching. The methodology for supporting e-bio-business launching will create a link between the SMEs necessities and the business centres new capacities and will be tested through 200 visits to rural SMEs/individuals in bio-business sector.
3. The consortium will build a transnational net of knowledge based on two knowledge hubs: Bio-knowledge Hub and Digitalization Hub.
Transnational network of knowledge and experts allows business support institutions to provide wide-range of specific advice for bio-businesses in rural areas, involving sectoral experts internationally to share specific thematic knowledge.
Thanks to this transnational cooperation, the consortium of partners will be able to customize the solution in each area, test it and learn from the testing process in order to up-scale it for a long – term application.
By providing rural communities the capacity to promote e-bio-business, the rural areas will be able to promote a better management of renewable biological resources, and their conversion into food, livestock feed, bio-based products via innovative and efficient technologies, for a later global commercialization by the rural producer. All these activities and innovative opportunities make both rural economy and society more resilient.
This achievement improves the resilience of the rural communities in several aspects. On the one hand, this promotes the self-sufficiency of the area in one critical sector such as bio (and it derived food, livestock feed, etc.). On the other hand, it increases rural economy by developing new upgraded more-valuable products, and by finding new markets for these valuable products outside the local community.
Thanks to the project solutions, the rural communities and businesses will be more prepared to face or recover from external disturbances.
More information: https://interreg-baltic.eu/project/erural-resilience/
Project implementation period: November 2023 – October 2026
Project budget: EUR 2.92 mln
ERDF co-financing: EUR 2.34 mln
Lead Partner: Association of Municipalities of Tartu County (Estonia)
Project Coordinator at Creativity Works Europe creativityworkseurope@gmail.com
