Projects

Sunrise Valley Digital Innovation Center (SVDIH) has joined an international project BOWI in 2021. The project provides an opportunity to grow the competencies of SVDIH experts and help the country's businesses to develop innovative technologies by attracting funding.

At the beginning of 2021, Sunrise Valley DIH submitted an application under the BOWI widening call for developing hubs, and in summer, it became clear that the SVDIH had become one of the 9 winners of the BOWI project call. Together with the help of experienced digital innovation hubs in European countries and the knowledge of experts, our center will help the country's companies to develop innovative technologies and attract up to 60,000 Eur of funding for each selected technological experiment in our region.

The aim is to attract 240 000 Eur of financing for companies in the Vilnius region. The same amount will be distributed in the remaining regions of Lithuania. In total, up to 8 Lithuanian companies will be able to receive the financial and experts’ help from digital innovation hubs.

The EU-funded BOWI (Boosting Widening Digital Innovation Hubs) project aims to create a network of digital innovation centers and small and medium-sized enterprises in Europe to accelerate the search for and development of digital innovation, thus increasing the competitiveness of companies in both local and global markets.

The two-phase project strengthens the competencies of the digital innovation hubs and helps companies to develop digital technologies and implement experimental technological projects by providing the necessary support and funding. At the very end of 2021 the open call was launched for companies to apply for this funding opportunity. It is open for submissions until the 16^th of February, 2021.

At the end of 2021, Sunrise Valley DIH became a member of the DIH2 (DIH Squared) network. The network connects EU technology centers with access to robotics competencies. The members of the DIH2 network aim to transform the European manufacturing sector utilising technology for SMEs and this way boost the EU's economic growth. Our role in this network is to facilitate the communication that enables the promotion of production efficiency, where speed and versatility are essential to meet customer needs.

Prior to joining SSSIC, the network brought together 25 digital innovation centers with an ecosystem of more than 300,000 manufacturing companies across the European Union. The network aims to expand the network to more than 170 organizations during the year 2022.

The DIH² project is funded by Horizon 2020 - the European Union research and innovation programme tasked with bringing great ideas from lab to market. In turn, the programme is at the heart of the Europe 2020 strategy, which aims to achieve smart, sustainable and inclusive economic growth for the future of Europe.

Main objective of the project „Lithuanian manufacturing companies employees digital competences development to digitalise manufacturing processes, No. 09.4.3-ESFA-K-814-02-0008“ – increase manufacturing companies employees professional competences, ensure their capabilities to adapt to changes in manufacturing processes during digitalisation.

Futurepreneurs is a sustainability pre-acceleration program organized by Sunrise Valley science and technology park since 2017.

This business development training package outlines 5 training sessions (workshops) for building a startup from an idea to a viable solution that can be presented to potential investors. Every session is led by business experts (CEOs, VCs), while participants get insights from mentors in between the sessions. In order to create and develop their (future) start-ups, participants have to focus on Sustainable Development Goals and find an innovative solution to worldwide problems. In two months, participants are trained not only to become the entrepreneurs, but also to build an impact driven business that is good for the environment, society and economy. 

Programme starts in February with a “Launch day” (team building event) and ends in April with a “Demo day” (pitching event).

In 2016-2018, Futurepreneurs was co-funded by Erasmus+ program.

More information:

The widest innovation consultant consortium in Lithuania is implementing the project „Innovation consultancy and support services for business“ (Inospurtas). The project foresees activities to provide innovation consultancy and support services which promote R&D&I and its effectiveness in business, technology transfer, innovative entrerpeneurship, participation of companies in international R&D&I programmes and pre-commercial purchases. Project activities are dedicated to companies which are implementing R&D&I activities or their future activity is attributed to R&D&I, also purchasing organisations aiming for expertise and methodological assistance in organising pre-commercial purchases. It is expected that the project will foster business investment in R&D&I activities and contribute to the economy growth. The project takes place til March 31, 2020. 

Project partners: Agency for Science, Innovation and Technology (MITA) (coordinator), Lithuanian Innovation Centre, Science and Technology Park of Institute of Physics, Visoriai Information Technology Park, Kaunas Science and Technology Park, Klaipėda Science and Technology Park, Northtown Technology Park, Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists, Lithuanian Confederation of Employers, Lithuanian Business Confederation, Sunrise Valley Science and Technology Park.

Project Inospurtas (Nr. 01.2.1-LVPA-V-842) is funded by EU Structural Funds measure INOGEB LT.

ClimateLaunchpad is the world’s largest green business ideas competition with a mission to unlock the world’s cleantech potential that addresses climate change. The competition is part of the Entrepreneurship offerings of EIT Climate-KIC. Sunrise Valley science and technology park runs national competition of ClimateLaunchpad in Lithuania since 2015.

There are three rounds to the competition:

• Boot Camp - ClimateLaunchpad kicks off with a 2-day Boot Camp with a trainers coming from abroad to teach participants all they need to know about jump-starting their business.
• Intensive coaching and National Finals – the Boot Camp is followed by a period of intensive coaching. Teams perfect their pitch, value proposition and business model. After that, they pitch their idea in the National Final in front of the National Jury. Winning teams of National Finals get to compete in the Global Grand Final.
• Global Grand Final – the best competitors in the Global Grand Final may be offered access to the Climate-KIC Accelerator and win monetary prizes.

For more information on this project please refer to: http://climatelaunchpad.org

EcoRIS3 project deals with seven European policy instruments, which will be reviewed in the context of today’s innovation and economy development. Partners will analyse innovative regions and identify elements, which determine successful launch and expansion of companies. Partners will also establish a mechanism to ensure more efficient business and science collaboration, foster relationship between actors of the innovation system.

Sunrise Valley Science and Technology Park, a partner in EcoRIS3 project, intends to improve Lithuanian Innovation Development Programme for 2014-2020. This will be achieved through new projects and improved R&D support services to small and medium enterprises. Partners will use good practices from thematic business and science discussions, new projects involving all key actors in the regional innovation system and improving understanding and common communication goals through smart specialization. Sunrise Valley Science and Technology Park will identify regional innovation support services, which would foster business investment to R&D, develop interconnections among enterprises, research and development centres, and higher education, f.e. to help companies make use of „Innovation Vouchers“ financial instrument. 

EcoRIS3 is implemented by the consortium of 8 partners and involvement of stakeholders and regional partners. Project Coordinator is Fomento de San Sebastián (Spain), partners: Cork Institute of Technology (Ireland), Intermunicipal Council of Ave Region (Portugal), Sunrise Valley Science and Technology Park (Lithuania), Kainuun Etu ltd (Finland), Metropolitan City of Turin (Italy), Vidzeme Planning region (Latvia), Conference of Atlantic Arc Cities (France).

Project „Policies & Measures to Support Local & Regional Innovation Ecosystems“ (Nr. PGI02229) is funded by Interreg Europe programme. 

More about the project http://www.interregeurope.eu/ecoris3/

Area Based Collaborative Entrepreneurship (ABCE) means entrepreneurs collaborate by co-investing in facilities and initiatives, market their urban district collectively, improve shared public space, etc. The value of such collectives is increasingly recognised by local governments and policy measures to stimulate these initiative.

Area based collaborative entrepreneurship fosters urban regeneration as the local business are most often strongly connected to their neighbourhood and committed to social goals. Neighbourhood liveability and social ties between local stakeholders are enforced. ABCE supports inclusive growth, cooperation and cohesion and helps to address the negative impacts of globalization such as economic restructuring, income inequality and the decline of urban areas.

Five European urban regions are involved in this project: Amsterdam, Athens, Manchester, Vilnius, and the conurbation Varazdin-Cakovic (Croatia). All regions currently experiment with ABCE and initiated this project to share experiences and gain deeper insights in order to develop more effective policy instruments.

Official project website: www.interregeurope.eu/abcities/

Main objective of the project „Implementation of smart specialization STEM results for manufacturing processes digitalisation“ – stimulate Lithuanian industry companies to implement STEM results in smart specialization sector while digitalising manufacturing processes. Volumes of high value added production development would be increasing as a result.

Sunrise Valley Digital Innovation Hub (SV DIH) takes part in H2020 initiative „Smart factories in new EU member states“ which is providing training and mentoring needed to shift SV DIH into operational stage. Representatives of Sunrise Valley Digital Innovation Hub took part in the Kick off workshop, which was held on 19-20 of February, 2018, in Sofia, Bulgaria. Presentations of good practices by Fraunhofer (Germany) and Innovalia (Spain) proved that digital innovation hubs bring added value to the industry, helping them to gain competitive advantage through digitalisation.

For more information please contact info@ssmtp.test

The idea of the project is to increase the capacity of Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) in the Baltic Sea Region, which would become the new vehicles to implement digitalisation strategies / policies designed by respective public authorities. Therefore, InnoCAPE involves 3 public authorities from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia directly and has support from 5 public authorities in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Lithuania as associated partners. They all will act together with 8 DIHs from the abovementioned countries, resulting in better knowledge on DIHs, increased capacity to develop measures for DIH sustainability, and better capacity to design and implement national digitalisation policies via DIHs as public enablers.

Ministry of Science and Higher Education (Poland) and Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications (Estonia), as the Policy Area Coordinator for INNOVATION of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region’s Action Plan, expressed the support to the InnoCAPE project by nominating it as a Flagship project.

InnoCAPE is a project funded by Interreg BSR programme and will run in 2019-2021. Sunrise Valley Science and Technology Park is the lead partner of the project. 

More information:

The InnoCAPE DMA tool developed during the InnoCAPE project has attracted the attention of the countries and organizations beyond the Baltic Sea Region. One of them also includes the European Joint Research Center. At the beginning of 2021, the EJRC has started developing a digital maturity tool for all European digital innovation hubs in the European Union. As part of its activities, Sunrise Valley Science and Technology Park, coordinator of Sunrise Valley Digital Innovation Hub was invited to join the piloting of the tool phase and apply the experience gained by the InnoCAPE consortium.

During the implementation of the activities of this project, 15 different Lithuanian companies were interviewed using a prepared evaluation questionnaire. A detailed analysis of the data collected was carried out and a report was prepared with comments from both respondents and DIH experts.

The second report provided a more detailed overview of the specific recommendations for changes to the final tool. For this report, we have used the insights from InnoCAPE project partners, who have contributed most to the development of the InnoCAPE DMA tool - they have also provided their expert insights and recommendations. In the report, comparisons with the InnoCAPE tool were provided, recommendations for the wording of texts and questions were provided, as well as a list of indicators and visualization suggestions. All project implementers met in a final meeting to present the main aspects of the analyzes performed.

In parallel with Lithuania, pilot activities were organized in two other EU countries - Portugal and Romania. The aim of all activities is to test the questionnaire in different national or regional contexts, taking into account socio-economic characteristics, languages, differences between SMEs and levels of business digitization. Because it requires knowledge and experience to work with local businesses, different digital innovation centers have been used.

The tool developed by the EJRC was proposed to DG CNECT as a suitable format for assessing the digital maturity of EDIHs’ customers in their digitization projects. The final version of the tool was announced together with the launch of the Digital Europe program in autumn 2021.

In 2020, together with RISE (Research Institutes of Sweden) and the Latvian IT Cluster, an application was submitted to analyze the level of involvement of future European digital innovation hubs, identify needs and publicize the topic of inclusiveness. This pre-study included 5 virtual seminars and meetings to learn more about the term of inclusive DIHs - how such centers should work to involve everyone equally in the digitization process, both in terms of the diversity of people and the diversity of business sectors.

During the last meeting, RISE have presented an overview of the interviews conducted. RISE have shared the general overview of companies, which peculiarities prevail in different countries. Sweden already has high standards of inclusion, which are used by organizational communication, event organization and hiring processes. All seminars were useful for the team of the Sunrise Valley Digital Innovation Hub – they have gained an experience from a more mature digital innovation hub, which will later allow them to apply good practice both to their DIH processes and to the wider public. All activities were coordinated by RISE.

The network was initiated as a result of the Interreg BSR project and is coordinated by Innovatum - a science and technology park in Sweden.

During the accelerator's operation, the members of the network met in several virtual meetings-discussions to discuss potential future initiatives involving existing members. On 2021 September 30, the public event "SmartUp Accelerator Network Digital meet-up: new routes" took place, which was also attended by external companies interested in consumer-oriented clean technologies.

The aim of the HEI MAKERS project is to increase innovation and creativity through partnership of higher education institutions (HEIs) and technical spaces, leading to trans-disciplinary approaches and new teaching methods in HEI, availability of open resources for formal and non formal education, better entrepreneurial and creativity skills of graduates. Therefore the international HEI MAKERS consortium:

• Fosters collaboration of HEIs, university and private makerspaces, and other businesses;
• Amplifies technological entrepreneurship and technical creativity as key competences;
• Promotes innovative education methods;
• Increases open resources based learning opportunities;
• Recognises competencies gained through active learning at makerspace as per programmes developed;
• Tests the above-mentioned collaboration concept and ensure sustainability of results;
• Identifies and attracts new players who will join the next stages of the HEI MAKERS initiative.

HEI MAKERS will encourage more HEIs to initiate collaboration with makerspaces and re-think their study programmes, to employ innovative training methods and address the challenges of XXI century labour market. Project's outputs will open up new learning opportunities through practical application of entrepreneurial and prototyping skills, which can involve and lead to the commercialization of new services and products, to attracting potential investors, to creation of global start-ups and spin-offs and thus growing economy.

Poject partners: Sunrise Valley Science and Technology Park (Lithuania) – project coordinator, LinkMenų fabrikas at Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (Lithuania), Association of Technical Spaces (Lithuania), Inventya Ltd (United Kingdom), SC Ludor Engineering SRL (Romania), University Politehnica of Bucharest (Romania), Riga Technical University (Latvia).

HEI MAKERS project (N^o 2017-1-LT01-KA203-035231) is co-funded by Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership programme. The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Sunrise Valley Science and Technology Park is expanding its network of international partners through the project „Search for partners in the field of modern technologies for entrepreneurial skills development in Enterprise Europe Network regions“. The project (Nr. S-01.2.1-LVPA-T-844-01-0008) is partly funded by EU Regional development funds. Sunrise Valley Science and Technology Park will take part in networking and matchmaking events in Sweden, Norway, Turkey, Italy, Japan, etc. We will present the Science Park and our companies while looking for useful contacts and initiating Horizon2020 projects for the development of our services to business.

In 2015 - 2016, the Agency for Science, Innovation and Technology, together with the universities and science and technology parks operating within Lithuania (including the Public Enterprise Saulėtekio slėnis (Sunrise Valley) implemented the project INOVEKS, the total value of which was EUR 2,785,200.  The aim of this project was to increase the comparative part of business with high added-value, thus encouraging establishment and development of technological and innovative enterprises.  Within the scope of this project, the best ideas of students, PhD level students, and the young scientists and researchers were selected and on the basis of those ideas, the teams of their authors established the equivalents corresponding to the statute of small and medium-sized business entities. Expert consultancies for small and medium-sized business entities on scientific research commercialisation, technology transfer, prototype and/or dummy (model) development issues were conducted within the scope of this project.

In 2012 - 2015, the Agency for Science, Innovation and Technology, together with science and technology parks operating within Lithuania, including the Public Enterprise Saulėtekio slėnis (Sunrise Valley), implemented the project Technology and Science for Innovative Enterprises. The project activities were focused on promotion of business and science collaboration, technology transfer, science and research results commercialisation, and intellectual property protection. Also, it was aimed at activation of participation of Lithuania in international R&D and innovation activity programmes. Free consultancies related to different business-relative issues were provided within the scope of this project. Extensive personal experience of the employees and partners of the Public Enterprise Saulėtekio slėnis (Sunrise Valley) in establishment and management of businesses as well as wide network of contacts within and outside Lithuania, contributed to the starting of 5 new enterprises and allowed assisting of over 200 business enterprises in resolving issues and finding new opportunities for business development.

In 2011 - 2014, the Public Enterprise Saulėtekio slėnis (Sunrise Valley) together with its partners implemented a project TP-Uni, the goal of which was to develop and implement training sessions focused on development of technology transfer and entrepreneurship skills in scientists, researchers, and other professionals engaged and operating in technology transfer area. The training sessions were held having employed the experience of foreign education (research) institution – University of Bremen (Germany). During the training sessions held within the framework of the project, 80 Master and PhD level students introduced the cases of technology transfer and commercialisation, performed the analysis of technology commercialisation models, quoted the examples of efficient of technological ideas portfolio and assessed the plans on student ideas commercialisation. Together with the partners from the University of Bremen, the Public Enterprise Saulėtekio slėnis (Sunrise Valley) also implemented a 10-months training session cycle, which involved participation of over than 40 scientists and researchers from different areas.

The aim of AdVenture project, implemented over the period from 2011 to 2013, was to promote establishment of new enterprises in Lithuania while enhancing entrepreneurship skills of students. The principles of innovations management and functioning, establishment of new businesses, design and creativity were introduced to the participants of the project. The teams participated in a six-week practical trainings in the companies, after which they developed their own business plans, gained experience in innovative Danish enterprises and participated in business plan competition. Project participant teams were consulted by 12 mentors from successfully operating and well-known in Lithuania companies. Within the scope of this project, 15 training programme leaders and coordinators were trained under the methodology of the Imperial College of London Business School, 140 participants gained entrepreneurship skills, and 3 new enterprises were founded. The total project value amounted to almost EUR 64 thousand; the project was funded by the European Social Fund.

In December 2011, the Public Enterprise Saulėtekio slėnis (Sunrise Valley) completed implementation of the UnInova project. The primary goal of this project was to develop the competences of the scientists of Vilnius University and Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, expand the thematic and partnership network of experts in different scientific areas and professional agents and moderators (technology brokers) aimed to contribute to successful transfer of technology and establishment of the demand of outsourced scientific research (including open access laboratories services). Within the scope of this project, 35 experts, able to provide versatile qualified advice in the area of technology transfer, were trained under the programme developed by the experts of the Danish Technological Institute.

The aim of TPC2 project was to contribute to the improvement of the conditions of Lithuanian business enterprise innovativeness, compatibility and ability to develop the R&D activity. In the course of the project (2009 - 2011), the non-refundable advices on business development, legal, innovations management and project management issues were given, cognitive visits to university establishments engaged in scientific research were organised and innovation partnership and youth entrepreneurship development events were held. A technology database, which includes the data on the scientists offering to business enterprises the developed technologies, as well as the information on business entities looking for partners in scientific institutions, was created within the scope of this project.

The project InoTinklas (Innonetwork), implemented over the period from 2009 to 2011, was the sole initiative linking the science and technology parks of all five 'Valleys' that are being established in Lithuania. This initiative was aimed at concentrating the potential of the parks when resolving business enterprise issues, activating the business-demand oriented R&D and otherwise developing and expanding innovations within the ranges of "Valleys".

In 2008 – 2010,  during the implementation of the Ready for Equity! 2 (RfE!2) project, the trainings of business angels, entrepreneurs and business support organisations run in the developing markets of risk capital, were conducted. Within the scope of this project, the start-up companies were assisted in attracting risk capital investments, and the partners from the countries where risk capital markets are significantly advanced (Great Britain, Italy, Belgium, Germany) shared their experience with the newly established business angel networks in Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia, Hungary, and Spain. Business network angels personnel education sessions were held, the sets of training material and methodology for business angels and entrepreneurs were developed, and the Ready for Equity academy, which includes development of competences necessary for operation in risk capital market, was established within the scope of this project.

During the implementation of the first stage of this project, in September 2008, the Public Enterprise Saulėtekio slėnis (Sunrise Valley) finished construction and installation/equipment works of the Science and Technology Park. The Science and Technology Park, which occupies a 6 300 sq. m. area, is designed for establishment of innovative technology enterprises. The 900 sq. m. area of the Park is allocated for business incubator, where the beginning entrepreneurs can rent the premises on preferential terms.  The overall value of the Science and Technology Park project was over EUR 8.10 million.

The primary goal of this project was to set up a permanent innovations support system designed for development of science and business collaboration networks and innovation activity and promotion of transfer of technology from Vilnius University, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University and related Vilnius scientific research institutes to Lithuanian businesses. This project aimed to improve the abilities of innovative high technology enterprises in implementing innovations, enhance public awareness on scientific researches, conducted at Vilnius University, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University and Vilnius scientific research institutes and on the possibilities to implement the outcomes of such researches in practice, set up a system of transfer and propagation of the technologies of the above mentioned scientific institutions, provide business enterprises single-purpose high quality consultancies related to innovation implementation issues. The EU Structural Funds support amounting to almost EUR 376 thousand was granted to the Public Enterprise Saulėtekio slėnis (Sunrise Valley) for project implementation.

In 2006 - 2008, the Public Enterprise Saulėtekio slėnis (Sunrise Valley), together with its partners had successfully implemented the project Sunrise [Valley] School of Entrepreneurship, which was granted a EUR 327 thousand. aid. The aim of this project was to develop a practical training and consultancy framework designed to educate entrepreneurship skills of students, scientists and other participants of the programme. Over 60 Master and PhD level students and scientists of Vilnius University and Vilnius Gediminas Technical University as well as over 50 representatives of incubated enterprises were trained within the framework of this project. The Project was acknowledged by the Ministry of Education and Science as one of the top 15 education and science projects.

In 2004 – 2005, the Public Enterprise Saulėtekio slėnis (Sunrise Valley), together with Tartu Biotechnology Park, Ekspla and Vilnius University participated in the BRIDGE project, which aimed to invite Lithuanian high technology enterprises and scientific research institutes to join the current network of the partners of the EU EUROPRACTICE initiative. Public Enterprise Saulėtekio slėnis (Sunrise Valley) was a project partner in Lithuania responsible for involvement of enterprises, organising of workshops, and selection and introduction (presentation) of products and articles related to new technologies.

In 2004 - 2005, the Centre for Strategy and Evaluation Studies (Great Britain) implemented the project on the development of  Sunrise Valley knowledge economy nucleus strategy and business plan funded by the EU Phare programme (EUR 195 thousand) Public Enterprise Saulėtekio slėnis (Sunrise Valley) acted as the project coordinator. The outcomes of this project were as follows: a feasibility study of knowledge economy nucleus, project and design proposals, investment and development plan and a management model.

In 2003 – 2004, the Public Enterprise Saulėtekio slėnis (Sunrise Valley) participated in the project Support to the Innovation Structure (SINO) as business support / consultancy agency. Within the scope of this project, a training programme for small and medium-sized business enterprises was developed and 35 experts in innovations area trained as well as 10 innovations projects implemented in Lithuanian companies. SINO project partners: Danish Government, Danish Technological Institute, Lithuanian Innovation Center, Knowledge Economy Forum, Northtown Technology Park, Kaunas Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Crafts, Kaunas University of Technology and Klaipėda Economic Development Agency.