Department of Business Administration

15.05.2024-15.11.2024

Principal investigator: Professor Wolfgang Gerstlberger

Agreement No. 2024/7

Funding: This project of the Baltic-German University Liaison Office is supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) with funds from the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Consortium: Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech), University of Tartu, TalTech Narva College, and from Germany: HU Berlin, HS Wismar, HS Magdeburg-Stendal

Summary: The project bring together well-known German and Estonian institutions and scientists to discuss future research and exchange activities together with young researchers (PhD Students and Junior researchers, Postdoctoral researchers). The aim of this binational discussion is a joint book publishing.

Team: Professor Dr. Wolfgang Grstlberger, Professor Dr. Tarmo Kalvet, Prof. Dr. Mari-Klara Stein, Professor Dr. Gunnar Prause, Professor Dr. Marcel Robischon, Professor Dr. Michael Herzog, Professor Dr. Harald Kitzmann, Professor Dr. Ulrich Norbisrath

Administrative support team: Dr Koidu Saia, Mare Orav, Pia Riips, Marit Oja

The project Train4ESG has been co-funded with support from the European Commission, Erasmus+ KA2 action. This material reflects the views of the author – the Train4ESG consortium – and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. 

Funding programme: ERASMUS+ Key Action 2: Cooperation partnerships in adult education (KA220-ADU)
Project Nr: 2023-1-FR01 -KA220-ADU-0001 55643
Project duration: 01.12.2023 - 31.05.2026
Project budget: 400 000 €

Project webpage             ETIS          Newsletter - Issue 1 | June 2024

Project description

During the last couple of years, the number and value of ESG investments have been growing at an unprecedented pace, as investors recognise that ESG factors will significantly impact the long-term value of their portfolios. This growth has been reinforced following the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, which increased the interest of institutional investors in ESG.

Despite this growth and interest in ESG investments, digital finance and banking professionals lack the knowledge and skills needed to understand, assess, validate and monitor ESG assets and investments. This is largely because ESG topics are new and have hardly been part of any university or professional curriculum up to date. Furthermore, there is a lack of high-quality courses on ESG investments, beyond simple, introductory tutorials. Train4ESG will fill in the gap in ESG professional education based on developing a novel training programme for ESG investments. 

The open nature of the project's results will boost their adoption by Small and Medium Enterprises in the digital finance sectors, which lack the equity capital needed to invest in high-quality ESG education.

We aim to achieve 4 objectives: (1) To identify the skills gaps in the fast-growing ESG segment of the digital finance market. (2)To design and develop a complete and integrated ESG training program comprising various levels of knowledge and targeting finance sector professionals. (3) To validate and fine-tune the Courses based on the delivery of the program to the target audiences of the financial sector. (4)To ensure the sustainable development and wider use of the ESG training programme.

Consortium:

Lead Partner: Finance Innovation (France)
BICERO Ltd (Slovenia)
The Italian Chamber of Commerce (Luxemburg)
TalTech (Estonia)
Weave Consulting Limited (Malta)

Project team in TalTech:

Natalie Gurvitš-Suits (PI)
Tarmo Kadak
Vaiva Kiaupaite-Grušniene
Liis Ojamäe
Alla Ozeran
Mari Avarmaa
Niina Dulova

Funder: EU Interreg BSR - Baltic Sea region
Project duration: 1.11.2023-31.10.2026
Total Budget: 3.520.368,54 €

Project website             ETIS

Summary

Interreg BATS project main goal is to increase active mobilty (walking and cycling) in adverse light and weather conditions. 

Active mobility (AM) is an accessible, healthy and green mode of transport. In our region during dark winters, with snow and rain, active mobility usage drops. To increase Year-Round Active Mobility (YRAM), suitable infrastructure and equipment must be in place, and citizens need to see it as an attractive and safe option. It is public authorities resposibilty to give special attention to urban design, mobility planning and road maintenance for enhance active mobility Year-Round.

BATS supports local and regional authorities to design and implement policies, infrastructures and campaigns that effectively promote YRAM.

Two solutions will be co-developed and tested in 7 Baltic Sea Region countries and transferred to neighbouring cities and regions.

• Solution 1: a YRAM Technical Toolkit, helps planners to Diagnose YRAM issues, develop Intervention Strategies and Monitor progress.
• Solution 2: a Citizen Activation Guide for YRAM helps planners understand and prioritise user groups, and deploy effective campaigns to promote AM use.

Tallinn University of Technology is taking part in developing Citizen activation guide, piloting and evaluating co-developed solutions and adoption of these solutions within public authority partners.

There are 12 Project Partners:

7 public authorities:

• Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg-Borough of Altona (Germany)
• Porvoo (Finland)
• Umeå (Sweden)
• Municipality of Gdynia (Poland)
• Kalundborg Municipality (Denmark)
• Klaipeda Public Transport Authority (Lithuania)
• Union of Harju County Municipalities (Estonia)

3 universities:

• Aalto University (Finland),
• Tallinn University of Technology (Estonia)
• Gdansk University of Technology (Poland)

2 active mobility support org:

• Swedish Cycling Advocacy Organization (Sweden)
• Gate 21 (Denmark)

TalTech Project Team: 
Prof. Wolfgang Dieter Gerstlberger
Assoc. Prof. Mike Franz Wahl
Assoc. Prof. Liis Ojamäe
Tarmo Tuisk, Project Specialist
Jaana Merisaar, Project Specialist

ERASMUS+ project “LEarning And Development in micro- and small enterprises”. This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.

Project period: 1.11.2021−30.04.2024

Training of micro- and small enterprises' owners and employees using new innovative teaching content and methodology, relying on the intensive use of digital platforms, means and procedures in order to make changes in the entrepreneurial and managerial orientations and attitudes favouring better adjustment to external changes via continuous learning and development.

The project consortium consists of:

Budapest Business School (Hungary – Lead Partner), Tallinn University of Technology (Estonia), ADINVEST Europe AISBL (Belgium), Catholic University of Portugal (Portugal), SMEs and Entrepreneurship Policy Center (Croatia), Universite Paris Nanterre (France), Wroclaw University of Economics and Business (Poland).

Programme: Erasmus+

Key Action: Vocational Education and Training Knowledge Management Training for KIBS SMEs
Action Type: KA220-VET - Cooperation partnerships in vocational education and training
Start:    01-11-2021
End:     01-02-2024
Project Reference:  2021-1-EE01-KA220-VET-000032944

Partners:

Lead: TALLINN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

• POLITECHNIKA GDANSKA
• SCOALA NATIONALA DE STUDII POLITICE SI ADMINISTRATIVE
• UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI PADOVA
• MTÜ EESTI KAUBANDUS-TÖÖSTUSKODA
• 4EXPERIENCE SP. Z O.O.

Summary

The main objective of the project is to prepare and disseminate an interactive guide and an e-learning training module (Knowledge Pills) to help KIBS (knowledge intensive business services) SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) to manage their knowledge and succeed in knowledge management initiatives, considering that SMEs are the basis of the European economy according to the European Commission. With this project, there is a greater prospect of success for the target group to digitally conduct training sessions and knowledge management workshops in a more innovative way through advanced interactive learning methods. Overall, the project addresses one main target group: owners/managers/employees of KIBS SMEs. The digital learning materials and tools will be made available as Open Educational Resources (knowledge pills).

TalTech Project Team:

Prof. Susanne Durst
Samuel Foli, PhD candidate
Elena Domínguez Romero, Research assistant

Project website

NEWS: With the Erasmus+ Knowman project an e-learning Moodle platform has been developed to help SMEs (taltech.ee)

You can access the course through the following link:
Course: Knowledge Pills for KIBS SMEs

2017 to 2023

The aim of the project is to draw up a methodology and, on the basis of this methodology, to map the current activities and objectives of local authorities in promoting the circular economy. It will identify bottlenecks in the implementation of circular activities, propose appropriate solutions and create roadmaps for each municipality, outlining concrete actions to promote the circular economy.

Duration: 03.01.2023–31.08.2023

Funder: Environment Agency of Estonia

Project contacts at TalTech: coordinators Ulrika Hurt and Wolfgang Gerstlberger (Sustainable Value Chain Management Research Unit), Kristjan Piirimäe (Water and Environmental Engineering Research Group), Allan Niidu (Circular Economy Core Laboratory)

ETIS

The goal of the project is to find out how to motivate Estonian wood and furniture industry entrepreneurs to use the opportunities offered by the green transition and to mitigate the related risks. As a result, specific tools and ready-to-implementation solutions are proposed, on the basis of which it is possible to provide input to action plans and measures related to sustainable development.

Duration: 03.01.2023–31.08.2023

Funder: Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications

Principal investigators: Ulrika Hurt and Wolfgang Gerstlberger (Sustainable Value Chain Management Research Unit)

ETIS

The goal of the project is to find out how to motivate Estonian metal and machine industry entrepreneurs to use the opportunities offered by the green transition and to mitigate the related risks. As a result, specific tools and ready-to-implementation solutions are proposed, on the basis of which it is possible to provide input to action plans and measures related to sustainable development.

Duration: 03.01.2023–31.08.2023

Funder: Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications

Principal investigators: Wolfgang Gerstlberger and Merle Küttim (Sustainable Value Chain Management Research Unit)

ETIS

Programme: Erasmus+

Advancing circular economy in partner countries by development and implementation of Master programme "Waste management"/ UnWaste

The project focuses on the development and implementation of Master programme "Waste management“ by advancing circular economy in EU partner country Kazakhstan. These activities are carried out under guidance EU universities. The aim of the project is training of waste management specialists and raising their awareness in the countries where waste management problems are recognised.

Project period: 15.11.2020-14.11.2023

Partners:

Lead: Hochschule Wismar, University of Applied Sciences: Technology, Business and Design (Germany)

• Tallinn University of Technology
• EKA University of Applied Sciences
• Almaty Management University
• Akhmet Baitursynov Kostanay State University
• Saken Seifullin Kazakh Agro Technical University

Project website      ETIS

The project analyzes the dynamics needed to transform business models into circular economy models for small and medium-sized enterprises of Estonia. The project will propose additional strategic goals for a vision to promote smart consumption. The indicators for evaluation of the circular economy in business practices will be implemented. Also, concrete, practical and business-friendly ways to improve circular economy will be worked out and described in order to achieve goals of sustainable development.

Duration: 8.09.2021−12.12.2021

Orderer: Ministry of Economics and Communication

ETIS

Programme: Erasmus+

Key Action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices
Action Type: KA226 - Partnerships for Digital Education Readiness
Start:    01-03-2021
End:     28-02-2023
Project Reference: 2020-1-BE01-KA226-HE-082744
EU Grant: 278.904,00

Partners:

Lead: EFMD AISBL Belgium

• UNIVERSITE LIBRE DE BRUXELLES Belgium
• UNIWERSYTET EKONOMICZNY W POZNANIU Poland
• TALLINNA TEHNIKAÜLIKOOL Estonia
• NEW BULGARIAN UNIVERSITY Bulgaria
• UNIVERSITE LYON 3 JEAN MOULIN France
• CONFORM-CONSULENZA FORMAZIONE E MANAGEMENT SOCIETA CONSORTILE A RESPONSABILITA LIMITATA Italy

Summary

The objective of the IDEA project is to support the transition towards a more inclusive digital education, by adapting the pedagogy of the faculty. The project aims at building awareness of the importance of inclusiveness in digital education and its consequences on pedagogical practices; facilitating an understanding of the importance of inclusiveness for the quality of digital education; developing a quality assurance system embedding inclusiveness in all phases of the digital pedagogy; and providing practical tools and evaluation instruments to guide faculty members for the evolution of their pedagogical practice.

TalTech Project Team:

Prof. Susanne Durst
Basel Hammoda, PhD Candidate
Samuel Foli, PhD Candidate

Project website

Programme: Erasmus+

Key Action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices
Action Type: Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training
Start:    01-09-2020
End:     31-08-2022
Project Reference: 2020-1-EE01-KA202-077891
EU Grant: 192,650 EUR

Partners:

• Hochschule RheinMain
• UNIVERSITAET GRAZ
• UNIVERSIDADE DO MINHO
• COTEC Portugal Associacao Empresarial para a Inovacao
• INSTITUTE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT
• UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DELLA TUSCIA

Summary

Many companies, regardless of size, are working in global supply chains and managing the latter has increased the data being exchanged among the companies. This increased data exchange bears risks like severe damage of data and/or IT infrastructure, the loss of proprietary knowledge and unintended revelation of crucial business insights to other supply chain actors can be named. Against the impact on SMEs in all European economies, the project will address risks small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) may be exposed to due to digital interactions in supply chains. The main objective of the project is to develop a VET training called “SMEs: Be prepared for supply chain risks” intended to better prepare SMEs for identifying and handling supply chain risks. The project targets SMEs, in particular, because they are important actors in value chains and a vital component of EU economies, but at the same time, they typically have limited resources to address and manage the supply chain risks properly.

TalTech Project Team:

Prof. Susanne Durst
Prof. Wolfgang Gerstlberger
Lidia Davies, PhD Candidate

Project website

“Potential of Industry 4.0 and Digitalisation in Estonia” project is an internally funded, interdisciplinary project between Department of Business Administration and Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering of Tallinn University of Technology with the aim of starting joint research between different departments and other companies as well as increasing visibility in academic, policy-making and enterprise communities, both in Estonia as well as abroad.

The project is designed to develop a better understanding of the current state of the business digitalisation related to readiness, opportunities and impact on organisations and people. Because of the increasing relevance of the topic, an improved understanding is very important as it will help to assess the stage of the development of different companies and based on that improve existing approaches or come up with new solutions. To investigate the potentials of digitalisation for both SMEs and universities as contribution to the TalTech priority area “Innovative SMEs and digital economy”.

Project will be carried out in empirical study, mainly based on standardized questionnaires for SMEs, government and educational institutions in Baltic and possibly other countries with additional pre-test. Questionnaire development based on thorough literature review and complementary qualitative interviews. Online questionnaire as a tool for quantitative data collection using the Qualtrics software Kick-off workshop and final workshop for presentation of project findings and derived policy and managerial recommendations.

The project team is led by Professor Tauno Otto (School of Engineering) and Professor Wolfgang Gerstlberger (School of Business and Governance) and other members are:

• Prof. Tarmo Kalvet, PhD (School of Business and Governance)
• Prof. Gunnar Prause, PhD (School of Business and Governance)
• Kristo Vaher, PhD student (School of Engineering)
• Tavo Kangru, PhD student (School of Engineering)
• Jana Peterson, PhD student (School of Business and Governance)
• Yassine Bakkar, PhD (Researcher) (School of Business and Governance)

Budget of the project is 100 000 EUR for the period 1.01.2020-31.12.2020.

ERASMUS+ project “Accelerating ICT students' startup development competence via interdisciplinary modular courses in the HEI curricula”. This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.

Project period: 15.11.2019-14.11.2023.

UXiship project is designed to modernize university curricula in Kazakhstan by developing entrepreneurial module for ICT majors (including hard ICT skills) and implementing it on bachelor, master and PhD levels to address lack of relevant skills among university graduates. The developed module contributes to assessment of soft skills development which is also a challenge for partner countries higher education institutions.

The project consortium consists of:

Wismar University of Applied Sciences (Germany – Lead Partner), Tallinn University of Technology – TalTech (Estonia), Ekonomikas un kulturas augstskola (Latvia), Republican State Enterprise Operating under the Right of Ministry of Economics (Kazakhstan), Almaty Management University (Kazakhstan), Caspian State University of Technologies and Engineering (Kazakhstan).

Be Competent in Entrepreneurship: Knowledge Alliances for Developing Entrepreneurship Competencies for the Benefit of Higher Education and Business (BeComE)

The idea of the project is to excel entrepreneurship education in higher education by creating effective knowledge alliances (KA) between higher education institutions (HEI) and businesses. It is focused on developing students’ entrepreneurship competencies (ECs) to meet the labour market expectations towards professional competencies of employees and entrepreneurs taking into account the macro-level developments such as globalisation, technological advancements and demographic shifts. The project includes both diagnoses of divergences between employers’ needs and actual students’ entrepreneurship competences (ECs), proposition of the new entrepreneurship education (EE) framework embedding ECs together with innovative teaching and learning approaches and its application in practice.

The novelty of the project is connected with a combination of university and business resources in order to provide both theory grounded and practice oriented EE aimed at strengthening the development ECs of target groups (students, employees, teaching staff, entrepreneurs) in changing and developing business environment. Inclusive character of the project is guaranteed by cooperation of diverse partners interested in different but innovative teaching and learning approaches for students and future workforce with competences meeting societal challenges. The Project includes new and innovative tools and teaching and learning opportunities, which are different from the existing experiences in HEI and businesses today. These include: self-assessment tools to assess the level and need for ECs according to societal needs; new innovative study and training programmes relying on entrepreneurship competence-based approach; innovative teaching and learning approaches based on embedding the development of ECs in EE and subject-specific courses; roadmap for the development of expansive entrepreneurial learning environment at the workplaces supporting ECs development. The project is focused on providing innovative solutions for both, universities and businesses and is supporting the development of innovative and reflective European societies with an innovative HEIs and businesses in a context of growing global interdependencies.

Budget of the project is 806 720 EUR for the period 1.01.2020-31.12.2022

Project Partners (15):

• TALTECH
• TAU
• UL
• ISCTE-IUL
• UNISANNIO
• VINCIT
• RAMBOLL
• SHUMEE
• JACK THE MAKER
• INDIE CAMPERS
• GEOLUMEN
• BE PACKAGING
• BIT
• KAUBAMAJA
• EVEA

Project website

The Department of Business Administration of Tallinn University of Technology is a project partner of CSHIPP (Clean Shipping Project Platform) which is an EU Interreg funded project that constitutes a strong voice for the valuable work done in projects funded by the EU in the maritime sector. Two interlinked challenges accelerate the transition to clean shipping in the region: the environmental state of the Baltic Sea and the growing competition both globally and regionally. CSHIPP tackles these challenges by bringing together transnational projects and their key actors to ensure effective use, better durability and transferability of the projects’ results so that the cross-cutting clean shipping research and piloting that are being performed in several projects are acknowledged by policymakers as well as the industry in order to make informed and knowledge-based decisions.

Within the project activities, TalTech is responsible for developing the “best practices manual on clean shipping financing for private and public bodies”.

Project Duration: 01/10/2018 - 30/09/2020
Total Budget: 1,082,581.75 €

Project Partners

• University of Turku, Finland
• Centrum Balticum Foundation Centrum Balticum, Finland
• Finnish Meteorological Institute, Finland
• IVL, Swedish Environmental research Institute, Sweden
• Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission - Helsinki Commission (HELCOM), Finland
• Norwegian Meteorological Institute, Norway
• Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
• Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia
• Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht Centre for Materials and Coastal Research, Germany
• ATI Küste GmbH - Association for Technology and Innovation, Germany
• Maritime University of Szczecin, Poland
• MDC (Maritime Development Centre), Denmark
• Aalborg University, Denmark
• The St. Petersburg House Property Owners Association, Russia

Creative Ports project is funded by the European Union (European Regional Development Fund) and the project strives to foster growth and employment in the cultural and creative industries (CCI) of the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) by enhancing the internationalisation of support organisations and enterprises.

Cultural and creative industries (CCI) play an important role for intelligent and sustainable growth in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) but until now they do not realise their full growth potential. Therefore a consortium of 14 partners under the lead of the German Goethe-Institute submitted in spring 2018 the application “Creative Ports” within the BSR Interreg Programme in order to foster growth and employment in the CCI sector of the BSR by enhancing the internationalisation of support organisations and enterprises. The “Creative Ports” application has been approved on 20.09.2018 by the Monitoring Committee of Interreg Baltic Sea Region. TalTech University is project partner of “Creative Ports” together with Loov Eesti and Tallinn Business Incubators and Tallinn City Government as associated organisation.

According to Prof. Gunnar Prause who is the principle investigator from the Department of Business Administration at TalTech the project will help to increase the expertise and reputation of the university in the field of transnational creative entrepreneurship since the project aims for actions to expand international reach of “Smart internationalisation and export promotion policies (that) are needed to allow a wide majority of small organisations and companies to operate in a global environment and reach new audiences and markets worldwide” which was highlighted already 2012 by the European Commission in promoting cultural and creative sectors for growth and jobs in the EU.

TalTech will contribute as work package leader to “Creative Ports” project which will have duration of 30 month and a total budget of about 3 Mio. €. The implementation work of the project started in January 2019. The project consortium includes partners of different branches such as audiovisual industries, design, art, fashion, media, publishing, games and tourism, and important cities in the BSR like Copenhagen, Hamburg, Helsinki, Malmö, St. Petersburg and Vilnius are represented. “Creative Ports” bundles the competences of the consortium to stimulate internationalisation in the CCI sector by:

• Facilitating an exchange process between public authorities and business support organisations about focus areas of regional CCI support, the state-of-the art in internationalisation and future trends and developments in the CCI that eventually leads to the improvement of regional strategies and support programmes
• Collecting and piloting support tools that CCI support organisations and intermediaries can use to assist enterprises in accessing foreign markets and building transnational networks
• Creating a CCI secretariat as a durable exchange forum and facilitator of transnational CCI cooperation in the BSR
• Developing learning modules and creating an online platform to build the capacity of support organisations and intermediaries for fostering internationalisation of the CCI.

Thus, the project helps to realise the BSR Cooperation Programme and in the Policy Area Culture of the EUSBSR Action Plan by strengthening the diverse and attractive cultural life of the BSR and the potential of its CCI sector to create (youth) employment and trigger innovative spill-over effects in other sectors.

Project Partners

• Goethe-Institut (lead partner)
• Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft mbH
• Nordkolleg Rendsburg GmbH
• Danish Cultural Institute
• Tallinn University of Technology
• Tallinn Business Incubators Foundation
• Creative Estonia NGO
• South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences
• Vilnius City Municipality Administration
• Westpomeranian Region
• Media Dizjan / Szczecin Incubator of Art and Creative Industries
• Filmby Aarhus
• Media Evolution
• Non-commercial Partnership "European-Russian InnoPartnership"

In addition there are 17 associated partners.

ERASMUS+ project “LogOn-U: Green Logistics Management: Advancing Trans-Eurasian Accessibility through Sustainable Logistics Management and ICT Competence”. This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. Project period: 2015-2018.

LogOn-U sets ambitious goal to advance Trans-Eurasian accessibility through strengthening logistics competitiveness, and bringing the partner universities in Kazakhstan and Russia on international level according to Bologna process in fields of sustainable, i.e. “Green” Logistics Management. The international component will be strengthened via promoting inter-regional cooperation, since modern transport challenges are mostly of global nature, thus a common and consolidated approach is needed.

The project consortium consists of Wismar University of Applied Sciences, Tallinn University of Technology, Linköping University, Kostanay State University, Caspian Public University, Rudny Industrial Insitute, the Ministry of Education and Science of Kazakhstan, Kazan National Research Technical University, Rostov State University of Economics, Saint-Petersburg State Polytechnical University and the Industry Company BETAR.

EnviSuM project is funded by the European Union (European Regional Development Fund) and will be studying the technical efficiency and socio-economic impacts of clean shipping solutions in the BSR.

The project addresses a highly topical issue relevant for policies aimed at alleviating climate change including United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It will be engaging stakeholders and target groups in sharing challenges, solutions and know how, by influencing policy and practice and developing new partnerships. The consortium will ensure the relevant actions to be taken during and after the project to support the expected impacts and market uptake. It also targets the technological transfer and raising awareness of clean shipping solutions, and targets to influence the key players and professionals through the networks of the NGOs, research organisations, and companies.

Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia will be studying the Economic impacts of SECA regulation. This aims for the creation of "Economic Guidelines for SECA" as well as recommendations for political and maritime market stakeholders by assessing costs and benefits of SECA/NECA regulations including evaluation of emission abatement costs, administrational burdens, changes in modal split as well as socioeconomic impacts related to health and environment. The guidelines will consider direct and indirect costs/benefits on micro and macro level which will be based on previous studies, primary & secondary data including a survey.

Activities consist of 4 parts: 

• SECA Investment Analysis (SIA)
• SECA Administration Cost/Benefit Analysis (SAA)
• SECA Logistics Cost/Benefit Analysis (SLA)
• SECA Socio Cost/Benefit Analysis (SSA)

SIA will identify and evaluate SECA related key investments for public and private sector comprising ports, shipping industry, shippers and public sector. SAA evaluates administrational burdens on micro and macro level related to SECA regulation with standard cost model based on previous studies, a survey, and on business cases.  SLA evaluates the SECA impact on changes of transport patterns and modal flows by taking under account internal and external costs. Special focus will be laid on vulnerable transport customers such as paper and metal industry.

The results of the activities will be consolidated into final "Economic Guidelines for SECA" comprising policy and business recommendations, and an economic decision tool.

Project partners:

• University of Turku (lead partner)
• Finnish Meteorological Institute
• Chalmers University of Technology
• Maritime Development Center of Europe
• Norwegian Meteorological Institute 
• Maritime University of Szczecin
• Tallinn University of Technology
• City of Gothenburg
• University of Gothenburg
• Baltic Marine Consult GmbH
• Nordkalk Corporation
• HELCOM

In addition there are 17 assosiated partners.

A cross-border business acceleration process is needed to be able to compete with regions with stronger startup scene. The Springboard project supports the development of new joint and co-operating knowledge-intensive startups springing up of the shared smart specialization strengths of the participating regions (ICT, cleantech and healthtech).

The project provides its target group a supported path towards entrepreneurship by implementing three joint 10-week business acceleration programs and coaching of the most potential teams. Targeted B2B matchmaking activities will also be organized in order to support already established early-stage companies. By combining expertise across borders, it is easier to find potential business ideas and to establish globally competitive joint teams with versatile know-how and experience.

The main result of the Springboard project is an increased capacity to produce international startups in the Central Baltic region, which includes the enhanced support in the process of turning university-based business ideas to viable businesses and fostering of cross-border cooperation in the early stage of business development. The Springboard will achieve 15 new joint or co-operating knowledge intensive Central Baltic companies aiming for rapid growth. Central Baltic Startup Springboard supports the development of new startups in Turku, Tallinn and Riga and their cross-border collaboration. Total budget for the project is 1.338.502 EUR of which 1.078.053 ERDF. Project period: 01.11.2015-31.01.2018

Partners:

• Turku Science Park Oy
• Turun yliopisto
• SA Tallinna Teaduspark Tehnopol
• Tallinna Tehnikaülikool
• Latvijas Tehnoloģiskais parks
• Rīgas Tehniskā universitāte

Main results

Three joint accelerator programmes in Riga, Tallinn and Turku with a total of 
- 82 start-up teams/companies (goal 45–90) 
- 214 team members (goal 150)  
- 18 registered co-operative companies (goal 15) 
- of which 4 joint companies (goal 2–4) 

Contact in TTÜ Marianne Kallaste

More information about all activities in the Project website.