Support of SME’s in the Baltic Sea Region through centers of excellence

Abstract

Small and medium-sized enterprises are the backbone of the economy in the Baltic Sea Region, also creating most new jobs and registering most new patents. To stay competitive, the companies must exploit their innovation potential. This asks for a stronger cooperation between the businesses and the research organisations, which can be achieved through so called “Centers of Excellence”. Starting from the 90's in Europe, many centers of excellence (CoE) and disciplines have been created practically in all areas. Although the concept of a center of excellence is often used, it is still rather ambiguous. Each organization could be recognized as a “center of excellence” as long as it attracts and comprises various parties such as researchers, enterprises, research units. The paper provides the concept of centers of excellence and its basic prerequisites to perform. It also briefly elaborates on a recent study showing which sectors or industries could be core areas for suchs centers and highlight concrete possible measures that can be realized in such centers.