On 23 January 2018, Baltic TRAM project organized a collaborative workshop to discuss and develop the business model of the Industrial Research Centre (IReC) Network and to reach a common understanding of the strategic corner stones of the forthcoming network collaboration. During the day the most important business model aspects were discussed. Work package leader Sari Stenvall-Virtanen from University of Turku aims to organize still another workshop in Spring 2018 to cover the remaining important aspects of the Network business model to discuss the more operational aspects of the network collaboration. The aim of the IReC Network is to foster science-business collaboration and link the local markets together with a transnational pool of analytical research facilities in the Baltic Sea Region. Creating a feasible and sustainable network structure and business model hence requires strong engagement from the members. Baltic TRAM project partners tend to show a strong commitment to this future oriented objective as altogether 23 project partners from all Baltic Sea states participated in the workshop.

Proceedings of the results of the workshop and conclusions will be highlighted in the Baltic TRAM Review of the regional resources and further development of Analytical Research Infrastructures which will be published in Spring 2018. In addition, the conclusions from the workshop will be used to draft the Terms of Reference for the Network of IReCs which again will pave the way towards the Memorandum of Understanding for viable macro-regional collaboration which will be signed in the end of the Baltic TRAM project.

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