The Baltic Sea Region is business-friendly and there is a tangible innovative culture and spirit in the region. Innovation is supported by good cooperation between private companies, public authorities and universities. In addition, there are a wide variety of excellent business clusters and centers of expertise throughout the region. All this enables innovation to bloom and entrepreneurship to flourish.
Innovation capacity is a very important factor for the competitiveness of the BSR. Regions in Sweden and Finland as well as all of Denmark and Berlin are found among the 30 regions in the EU with the highest share of GDP spent on R&D. The BSR countries also gain high rankings in INSEAD’s Global Innovation Index (2009-2010). For example, out of 132 countries examined, the BRS puts 5 countries in the top 30 (Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Germany and Poland).
Tekes, the Finnish funding Agency for Technology and Innovation, is the most important public organization for funding R&D&I in Finland with an annual budget of 600 million euros.
