New beginning for Technet_nano

The cross-border Baltic Sea Region project Technet_nano was assessed when the partners met at the University of Southern Denmark in Sønderborg for the official closing of the project. In Technet_nano, research institutions in Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland have built a network and worked together on a communication platform, which represents their knowledge and facilities. And the results are good. As a consequence, the partners signed a document stating that the work does not end here.

Easy access to high technology

The project is responsible for developing several functional information solutions, which make it easy for especially small and medium-sized companies to access and get an overview of the partners’ expert knowledge as well as development and clean room facilities. Foremost, secretariats have been established in five countries. At each secretariat, an innovation agent is engaged in providing service to and contacting companies. Furthermore, a very thorough home page and various promotion material has been developed containing descriptions of all Technet_nano services. The goal is to get companies to employ these services for new product development. This is what the partners signed to continue working on.

Important cross-border cooperation

EU-parliamentarian Christel Schaldemose (S) participating in the celebration of the project and in her speech she noted how positive it is that companies in one EU country now gets easy access to experts in another EU country.

-This project is a very good example of how we internally in the EU can benefit of each other’s special competences. It is precisely in projects like Technet_nano that we make new contacts, create new knowledge and new possibilities. This is what results in new jobs in Europe and is exactly what we want to support in the EU, said Christel Schaldemose. She was also pleased to have been invited to the celebration.

-As EU-politician I make laws and rules for research and innovation among other things. At a function like this, I witness EU cooperation in practice and hear about the experiences of the project. That is very valuable, said Christel Schaldemose.

New Vice-Chancellor: Natural for MCI

The newly appointed SDU Vice-Chancellor Henrik Øregaard Dam also participated. In his speech he pointed to the fact that it was natural for MCI to initiate Technet_nano two years ago.

-MCI crosses borders both nationally, regionally, within certain sectors as well as the boundaries between fundamental research, applied science and product development. Now, the MCI and other partners in Technet_nano have established transnational contact to the industrial landscape in the Baltic Sea Region and we have easy access to intellectual and technical resources, said Henrik Øregaard Dam.

Among the guests were also Vice-Chancellor Herbert Zickfeld from Flensburg University of Applied Sciences and Vice-Chancellor Werner Reinhard of Flensburg University.

The Technet_nano consists of: University of Southern Denmark (Denmark), Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden), Christian-Albrechts-Universitaet zu Kiel (Germany), Flensburg University of Applied Sciences (Germany), WTSH - Business Development and Technology Transfer Corporation of Schleswig-Holstein (Germany), University of Latvia (Latvia), Kaunas University of Technology (Lithuania), Applied Research Institute for Prospective Technologies (Lithuania), Center for Physical Sciences and Technology (Lithuania), Silesian Science and Technology Centre of Aviation Industry Ltd. (Poland), Acreo AB (Sweden) og University of Tartu (Estonia).

Se home page for Technet_nano here http://www.technet-nano.eu/.

Photo top: Project partners sign the agreement. From left Toomas Plank (University of Tartu), Sigitas Tamulevicius (Kaunas University of Technology ), Teresita Qvarnstöm (Acreo Swedish ICT), Horst-Günter Rubahn (Mads Clausen Instituttet, SDU) and Indrikis Muiznieks (University of Latvia).

Photo below: EU-parliamentarian Christel Schaldemose (S). Both photos are by Patricio Soto Fotografi.