New Natural Kolarctic Product SME Assistance (KO 5094)
Funded by Kolarctic CBC 2014-2020

Objective of the project

Project aims to develop a better understanding of the real needs and priorities of SMEs in the Kolarctic region with respect to development of New Natural Kolarctic Products (NNKPs) with assistance from research institutes and academic institutions

Main activities

The target group are SMEs, and they will be invited to present success stories, priorities and needs and problems that they have encountered in the development, approval and marketing of natural products based on local raw material resources.

Achievements

To obtain the content for the SME profiles interviews were conducted. These attempted to identify what challenges the SMEs faced, with the intention of identifying areas where R&D&I organisations could assist. It proved difficult to obtain specific details on technical challenges, and it is problematic to publicise these challenges openly. In other instances the SME may not be fully aware of what technical assistance is possible. Hence another aspect of the project was to highlight through selected case studies how technical assistance can assist SMEs in their business development. Three case studies were presented on the webpage, as examples. The workplan had specified 10 case studies, but it was deemed sufficient to illustrate the potential with three case studies, and a main project would provide additional case studies. An overview of natural resources was started, but this as yet has not been developed to include technical information of use to production, explained in lay-person language. This is an activity for the main project to develop further. The intention of the main project was to illustrate the potential for a main project when attempting to engage the interest of SMEs in participating in a main project. The project concluded with a hybrid physical/online seminar where participants and SMEs gavce presentations about their organisations and products. The seminar took place in Arkhangelsk and was well-attended by Russian SMEs, underlining the high level of interest in Russia for the project.