BSR DeepTech Launch Kick-off Meeting

On the 17th and 18th of October 2023, a kick-off meeting for the BSR DeepTech Launch was organized in Vilnius, Lithuania by the Lithuanian Innovation Center (LIC). A total of 15 participants, including representatives from the five Project Partner organizations, which included business support institutions, sectoral agencies, and higher education and research institutions, were engaged in the activities.

The meeting's primary focus was to enhance understanding among partners and familiarize them with each other's experiences and scope of services. To achieve this, each project partner organization had a representative introduce their respective institutions, highlighting key areas of expertise and experiences relevant to the project.

Representatives from the Joint Secretariat/Managing Authority of the Interreg Baltic Sea Region program, addressed project management issues such as reporting, financing, and introduced project partners to the BAMOS+ system and its working principles.

The first day of the meeting also involved discussions on project management topics, responsibilities, and duties related to project activities, finances, communication, and dissemination activities. Additionally, partners discussed the work plan for the upcoming project implementation periods. Karolina Ivaldi, the representative of the project Lead Partner, delivered two presentations on these subjects.

On the same day, project partners were introduced to the Lithuanian DeepTech ecosystem and some of the institutions working in this field. Representative from the venture capital company "Iron Wolf Capital" highlighted the significant growth of deep tech innovations in the Baltic region over the past 15 years. While presenting the data, the expert revealed that according to the data of 2023, more than one innovative company per year appears in the height of the "Deep tech" industry of the Baltic region and the total value of "deep tech" innovation startups in 2023 is EUR 43.2 billion. Representative of Vilnius University Business School, presented the study program "DeepTech Entrepreneurship" and discussed its development, student attraction, main courses, its relation with CERN, and future prospects for students.

The second day of the event focused on discussing initial good practices collected by the project partners and visiting Lithuanian institutions in the deep tech and entrepreneurship fields. Six initial good practices, including acceleration/incubation programs and educational materials, were discussed among project partners. The partners agreed to continue searching for additional good practices and collect more information about the selected initiatives.

Two practical trips followed. The first visit was to the "Science and Technology Park of the Institute of Physics" (STPIP), a specialized park for laser, optical, and engineering companies. They introduced the organization's main activities and discussed how this institution could benefit from the project and what kind of its own knowledge and experiences could be relevant for project partners from other countries. This institution mostly provides support services to organizations active in the field of applied R&D, aiming to enhance the competitiveness of technological business and research laboratories through collaborative initiatives in the fields of photonics, functional materials and engineering.

The second visit was to the "Center for Physical Sciences and Technology" (FTMC), where we could explore laser production, scientific and business opportunities, and expressed interest in future cooperation within the project. FTMC is the largest scientific research institution conducting fundamental research and technological development in various scientific fields.