The first regional stakeholder group meeting of the BERRY+ S3 industrial modernisation partnership, was organised on 24.2.2021, online. Twelve participants, representing the regional triple helix gathered together:
- Regional Council of Kainuu (regional policy makers & project funders),
- ELY Centre (policy makers & project funders),
- Arktiset Aromit (private sector),
- University of Oulu (research and education), and
- KAMK (education, training and research).
The participants discussed the BERRY+ partnership, possible complementarities with other regions, and value chain priorities and potential for Kainuu. For example, one criterion for deciding value chains could be selected in relation to the critical amount of renewable natural resources side-products available, and type of end product that have the most value-added potential.
In the next period, the value chain priorities will be discussed more and inputs to the scoping document will be ensured for all the stakeholders.
The 2nd BERRY+ Kainuu RSG meeting will take place on 20.4.2021.
BERRY+_1st Kainuu RSG_24-2-2021 (PPT presentation)
What is BERRY+ Partnership?
During the programming period 2014-2020, the European Commission has emphasized smart specialization strategies as a part of the implementation of Europe 2020 strategy. In Kainuu region, the Smart specialisation choices were first defined for years 2018–2021 and updated for years 2021-2017, as a part of the renewal process of the larger Kainuu Programme. The Kainuu Smart Specialization Plan 2021-2017 was officially approved on 9 December 2020.
The original idea for planning the BERRY+ partnership came up in the framework of the Interreg Europe project BRIDGES (implementation period 1.4.2016 – 31.3.2021). The BERRY+ S3 partnership implements Action 2 of the Kainuu region BRIDGES action plan. It builds on the BRIDGES project experience from inter-regional collaborative schemes based on RIS3 complementarities and the corresponding research, knowledge and economic bases of the participating regions. The partnership application was prepared together and in November 2020, the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission approved the European Commission approved the proposal to establish an international BERRY + cluster.
BERRY+ is a Smart Specialisation and industrial modernisation partnership, bringing together eight regions from six European member states. BERRY+ is dealing with the processing of renewable natural resources, ingredients and side flows towards high added value products.