♦ Erasmus+ project "Fostering the innovation in the European habitat and e-health sectors through the Public Procurement of Innovative solutions to improve the European SMEs competitiveness"(HAePPI).
Project date: 1/12/2019-31/05/2022
Project No. 2019-1-DK01-KA202-060224
The European project HAePPI aims to promote the connection between two different industrial sectors, the housing and the health sectors, to collaborate in tenders for innovative public procurement and R&D+i projects.
The objective of the HAePPI project is to develop an Innovative Public Procurement training tool aligned with the needs of SMEs in the housing sector that usually offer hospital equipment. Employees in the housing and health sector companies, for the most part, are unaware of the opportunities that innovative public procurement can offer them and they need an innovative and open training program. This program will provide an adapted curriculum that will allow professionals in both sectors (housing and health) to acquire the specific, basic, and transversal skills currently required to foster innovation in their companies. The program will also help to expand their niche market by means of this type of public purchase.
Innovative public procurement (IPP) is an administrative action to promote innovation through public procurement. It entails the acquisition by public authorities of new goods and services introduced for the first time into the market and developed by companies that opt for such a tender.
The development of the IPP is addressed by working on both the demand side, that is, the public manager bidding for innovative public procurement contracts, and the supply side, that is, companies competing in tenders helping them to participate and to submit innovative offers.
The HAePPI project partnership is strategically formed by 6 organisations from different countries with demonstrated experience in achieving the project objectives. The working team consists of two universities with high experience in public procurement policies: the University of Zaragoza, responsible for the management of the Observatory of Public Procurement (ObCP), and the University of Lodz in Poland. Two clusters, which directly receive the objectives of the project: the Innovative Business Association of Furniture Manufacturers and Related in the Region of Murcia (AMUEBLA) and IVITA – a health cluster of Lithuania. The Styrian Technology Park of Slovenia, experts in innovation management, and, last but not least, the public entity and project coordinator, the Nordjylland Region of Denmark.
♦ BSR Innovation Express project “International network gates to Germany (IntergatesDE)”
Project date: 03/04/2017-30/09/2018
Wellness cluster iVita cooperates with German partners SME network InoSpeed - a group of companies focusing on technology and equipment for sport and rehabilitation (Health technologies sector).
This project focuses on building partnerships with German SMEs, networking, organizing working groups meetings with the purpose of technology/knowledge transfer, and drafting new applications for the development of new innovative solutions in the area of the health care sector. All the activities during the project are oriented towards knowledge and technology exchange, practical workshops, best practice discussions, and networking between SMEs. Therefore, Lithuanian SMEs have visited German companies with the purpose to find mutual cooperation possibilities, finding new reliable partners, sharing knowledge, and building strong consortia for future projects.
The main interest of participation in this collaboration is the opportunity to support the networking, workshops, and technology/knowledge of R&D transfer. in 2018 German and Lithuanian enterprises will seek to establish working groups for new projects and new products creation.
SME network interest in cooperative actions in:
- Workshops and study trips.
- Networking and speed-dating activities.
- Technology/knowledge transfer.
- Cross-sectorial inter-cluster activities.
- Feasibility studies and piloting prior to RDI projects.
♦ BSR Innovation Express project “Networking and knowledge exchange to increase cluster's visibility in international markets (NETWORK)”
Project date: 01/10/2013-31/12/2014
The project was intended to generate new ideas for R&D and innovation projects, to identify cluster target partners, to develop concepts and cooperation in Norway.