Creating resilient rural communities in BSR based on the opportunities of digital bio businesses

eRural resilience

eRural Resilience kick-off meeting took place in Tartu, September 7-8, 2023.

21 February 2024

Kick-off meeting in Tartu, September 7-8, was the start of the eRural Resilience project, the goal of which is to design and provide rural local authorities and business promotion centres a holistic solution to support them in the promotion of e-bio-businesses in their rural areas.

Technical details

The kick-off meeting of the eRural Resilience project consortium was held in Tartu, Estonia, September 7-8, 2023. The two-day meeting was the start of the eRural Resilience project, the goal of which is to design and provide rural local authorities and business promotion centres a holistic solution to support them in the promotion of e-bio-businesses in their rural areas.

The purpose of the meeting was to get to know each other better, to specify the activities, goals, deliverables and networks planned within the project and to get an overview of Tartu’s business ecosystem.

During the meeting, all partners presented their organisations and services. Project includes fourteen partners (and two associated) from seven countries. The project workplan, financial and reporting issues were specified. Participants agreed that the most challenging tasks during the project are project solutions piloting preparation and definition by partners and local communities as well as defining methodology for supporting e-bio-business launching and integrating the methodology into an online assessment tool. These actions need detailed preparation and communication. Additionally, the validation workshops calendar and joint platforms for communication and documents sharing were agreed.

All partners confirmed their willingness to actively participate in the project. In addition to the two developed tools/solutions – methodology for assessment of e-bio-business supporters and methodology for supporting e-bio-business launching – transnational knowledge and expert support by knowledge hubs has a high value to support the development of bio-entrepreneurship in rural areas. During the project, the consortium will build a transnational net of knowledge based on two knowledge hubs: Bio-knowledge Hub and Digitalization Hub.

Participants of the kick-off meeting visited also the University of Tartu Delta Centre which brings together studies, research and business. Overview about Tartu regional business support network was presented to participants, incl. Tartu Science Park which offers wide range of incubation services (and space tech incubation), business festival Tartu Startup Day etc.

The next offline meeting of project partners will take place in Germany, May 2024.