I BSO Workshop - Refining SME Selection Criteria

The CIRC-2-ZERO Project held an internal online workshop within the Business Support Organization (BSO) group on 25 August 2025 to refine the SME selection criteria. The 1.5hour workshop was not sufficient to finalize the criteria, so we mutually agreed to continue the work in the next BSO meeting on 1 September 2025, 14.00 – 15.00.

A representative from each BSO Finland, Sweden, Latvia, Estonia, Poland and Germany participated in the workshop, which was facilitated by Luleå University of Technology (LTU). The group was divided into two teams: one focusing on the recruitment of Engineered Wood Product (EWP) companies for digital twin demo platform (DTDP) piloting, and the other on regions working with Electronics sector SMEs. LTU also presented the living lab principles, which were reviewed together and will apply in the selection process. Through living lab-inspired criteria is ensured that users are committed to the piloting process and are willing to share data and feedback transparently.  

The teams conducted brainstorming sessions and used a MIRO board to support the work. In the followup meeting on 1 September 2025, a summary was prepared and the common SME selection criteria were finalized. The aim is to apply clear and consistent criteria while still ensuring that promising and innovative companies within the project’s target group are not excluded. 

The main outcome was to establish the selection criteria, and now each BSO representative knows how to apply the jointly agreed basic criteria (SME status, sector, language skills, motivation, and capability to pilot), as well as the livinglabinspired criteria, such as openness to digital tools and learning, data sharing, and international cooperation. This internal workshop was part of project’s activities where objective is to engage and prepare SMEs in the project’s piloting and other actions like resilience transformation hub. Resilience Transformation Hubs will be established during the project to foster transnational collaboration, training, mentoring, and hands-on support.