Innovative societies Water-smart societies Climate-neutral societiesÂ
Interreg makes
a difference!
Explore how people in the Baltic Sea region have been benefitting
from our projects.
#MadeWithInterreg solutions for
Strong and competitive companies
From exploring new business models to reaching out beyond borders: this is how Interreg keeps businesses thriving
What are we doing?
Thanks to Interreg projects, enterprises, especially of small and medium size, open up to new business opportunities and find ways to build up their resilience against any disruptions. Comprehensively addressing the business sector, Interreg projects connect enterprises to research facilities. They ensure an inflow of skilled workers and increase the chances of young people and refugees to find their place on the market. In a longer run, thriving and competitive businesses boost the overall prosperity of the region, and increase its attractiveness as a place to live and work in.
Examples of #MadeWithInterreg solutions:
- support for young people in start-up businesses
- blueprints for businesses to diversify and enter new marketsÂ
- programmes integrating refugees into the labour market to ensure skilled workforce in place
- models for transferring ownerships in enterprises
- models to avoid bankruptcy
- support for local food producers in entering e-commerce
- improved access to research facilities for enterprises
What we’ve achieved so far
From 2004 to 2007, several projects supported SMEs in all Baltic Sea Region countries, facilitating over 1200 springboard events to help entrepreneurs develop business plans and attract venture capital. Regional development agencies and business support organisations improved their business training schemes and advice to SMEs.
From 2009 to 2014, projects linked incubators, chambers of commerce, and clusters to create support networks for SMEs. These networks helped SMEs find partners in other countries and enter new markets. They facilitated access to innovation expertise and testing new products in world-leading research facilities located in different Baltic Sea region countries.
Between 2016 and 2021, projects boosted regional innovation ecosystems, networks of public authorities, innovation actors, universities, and companies. They discovered best practices to engage SMEs in innovation activities within regional smart specialisation strategies, a systematic process to make European regions globally more competitive through innovation. Projects also supported SMEs in crisis situations, providing advice from business consultants and mentors to avoid bankruptcy and job losses. Further, they helped SMEs transfer their businesses to successors as a change of ownership is a complex process.
Ongoing projects
​The ongoing projects are building the resilience of Baltic Sea region companies, e.g. in the tourist or food sectors. A strong focus is also placed on driving the green transition in the region, e.g. bringing circularity or industrial symbioses into action. The projects address the labour market inclusivity, ensuring better conditions for improving competences, knowledge, and networking to ease entrepreneurship for more vulnerable groups and support social and ecological innovations.
Supporting the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea RegionÂ
Our projects support companies across various sectors and align with multiple policy areas of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR), helping to drive prosperity in our region. In collaboration with the coordinators of the EUSBSR policy areas Innovation, Culture, Tourism, and Bioeconomy, our projects diversify businesses, address modern threats and challenges, and support economic activity across generations.
Explore the project solutions in detail:
Solutions stay with the people: listen to our #InterregVoices
©Hanse-Parliament/D.Möllenhoff
Thanks to the Interreg projects, we brought tangible results for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Baltic Sea region for the past 20 years. (...) We created many solutions for SMEs to help them run their businesses better. We also created very strong structures that are still intact.
Max Hogeforster
Hanse Parliament
©City of Tartu
With the EmpInno project, we have developed a statistics tool in collaboration with Estonian citizens and entrepreneurs. Now local policymakers have a better overview of the local business ecosystem, and also its development trends.
Finally, the Baltic Game Industry project helped us to create a gaming and film industry incubation programme in Tartu. The programme is still running even though the project is over.
Raimond Tamm
Deputy Mayor of Tartu, Estonia
©Michael Biel
The Baltic Sea region is a games hotspot in Europe. BSG GO! supports players in Berlin's game industry in entering into international cooperations and thus strengthening entrepreneurial resilience.
Michael Biel
Senate Department of Economic Affairs, Energy and Public Enterprises of Berlin
