Arctic Design and Development Environments Clusters seek partners for COS-CLUSINT-2020-3-01: Clusters Go International

We are seeking partnerships in the call COS-CLUSINT-2020-3-01: Clusters Go International.

We represent two Bronze label clusters from Lapland, Finland, offering expertise in the fields of Arts and Design, including service and industrial design, and joint testing and experimentation facilities collaborating with SMEs:

- Arctic Design Cluster: https://arcticsmartness.eu/arctic-design/ (represented by the University of Lapland)

- Arctic Development Environments Cluster: https://arcticsmartness.eu/arctic-development-environments/ (represented by the Lapland University of Applied Sciences)

The Arctic Design Cluster brings together expertise on arctic conditions, culture and knowledge to resolve the challenges of extreme conditions in a wider scale. At the heart of the cluster is Arctic Design Centre of Expertise where the businesses, science and art meet. The Centre promotes cooperation between the local businesses, educational institutions, municipalities and regional development organisations. At the centre of expertise small design enterprises can create and test their prototypes with the new technologies developed by the university and get access to the exhibition spaces. The Arctic Design Centre can boost the innovation of new products and re-design of mature ones.

The backbone of the cluster is formed by the research of arctic designing including: service design, product design, interaction design and applied visual arts.

Through the Arctic Development Environments cluster, the services of Lapland’s RDI organizations are available to companies and researchers on a one-stop-shop basis. The cluster offers companies support at different stages of the product development life cycle and in finding suitable RDI funding.

For funders, the cluster provides foresight-based information about the technologies in the region and a service point to which funders can direct their clients. With the help of the cluster, RDI organizations to able to respond to customer needs in a more comprehensive and agile way.

The cluster provides expertise in linking R&I institutions capacity and infrastructure with societal and businesses' challenges, using testing and experimentation facilities with assessed TRL capacities, and links with related Innovation Readiness Level (IRL) capacities.

Through participation in this call, We would like to mature as clusters and generate international cluster partnerships through which we aim to create new value chains and cooperation. At this time, we do not have the resources to be the lead applicant.

For more infomation, please contact

Samuel Ahola, Arctic Design Cluster, samuel.ahola (at) ulapland.fi

Raimo Pyyny, Arctic Development Environments cluster, raimo.pyyny (at) lapinamk.fi