IRIS Project launched in Dalarna

The Interreg project IRIS is in full swing and started off with a hugely successful Kick Off in Dalarna, Sweden. 32 participants from 14 incubators in 10 countries, gathered in the little village of Tällberg in Dalarna, Sweden, for a three day Kick Off Conference to launch the Baltic Sea Region Interreg Project “IRIS”.

IRIS stands for “Improved Results in Innovation Support – transnational exchange and joint development between innovation infrastructure organisations” – a vision which the Kick-Off participants truly embraced.

On the day of the arrival, the project partners started off at the headquarters of the host and lead partner of the project, Dalarna Science Park in Borlänge. A presentation of the Science Park and their Incubator program, an inspirational lecture about Swedish business culture, led by Eva Martinsson, CEO at the international business consultancy firm Myrtall, were first on the agenda. Now the project team know that Swedes are risk takers who take forever planning but are quick at execution and always delivers in the end.

The second and third day was spent in the beautiful resort and small village of Tällberg in Leksand, Dalarna. The participants discussed communication strategies, key values, project regulations, goals of the project, and of course, spent the time to get to know each other as a team. SISP – Sweden´s national association for business incubators and science parks, who will oversee the peer reviews, were also represented as well as the Nordic Council of Ministers who are also an associated partner in the project.

The project will span over three years and the core activities will be peer reviews of the 14 incubator operations around the Baltic Sea, thematic workshops, result dissemination and implementation. The results of the peer reviews will serve as a platform to improve and learn from each other – and in the end, set the standard for all incubators. The coordination framework set by the IRIS project, will also support the flagship BSR Stars in its ambitions to develop a collaboration platform for incubators.

Taking the opportunity of having all the partners in the same place, the first official steering committee meeting became the final item of the conference agenda.

After spending the three days in Borlänge and Tällberg together, the participants all agreed – if the Kick Off is anything to go by, the project can’t be anything else but a huge success!