Merimerkit in brief

Strengthening Competitiveness and Vitality of the Maritime Cluster

The Finnish marine industry consists of marine equipment manufacturers, turnkey suppliers, design offices, system suppliers, software providers and shipbuilding, ship repair and offshore yards. At the moment, sustainability represents the key point in all actions of Finnish maritime companies. The transition of Finland’s blue economy companies towards carbon neutral and more digital business operations offers a considerable number of opportunities for Finnish maritime companies. Many of these companies have risen to the challenge by developing current and new operations and products. The MERIMERKIT project brings together the knowledge of two different organisations, namely the Lahti Region Development (LADEC) and the Pori unit of the Turku School of Economics at the University of Turku.

Objectives and results
The main objective of MERIMERKIT is to strengthen the competitiveness, vitality and resilience of maritime companies by offering them new solutions facilitating their innovation activities in collaboration with their networks. These innovation activities are targeted to support companies within the maritime industry in their path towards carbon neutral operations and actions. Environmental, economic and business aspects play a key role in the operating models to be built during the project.

The sub-objectives support the achievement of the main objective:
1. Analysis of the current state of the maritime industry (the state of the maritime industry domestically and internationally)
2. Promoting national and international partnerships
3. New operating models and innovation in the maritime industry
4. Communication and information sharing

The implementation of the project is based on interviews, workshops, surveys and studies, and events where support is provided for the development of the models to facilitate the renewal fo the business network. The target group of MERIMERKIT is the entire maritime business life in the area of South and Southwest Finland covering large companies as well as SMEs and micro enterprises.

MERIMERKIT offers a comprehensive information package of the current state of the maritime industry and supports the networking of actors in the business both in Finland and abroad. The main result of the project measures will be the strengthened ability of the maritime companies to implement and coordinate the new sustainable innovations.

The project duration is 1 January 2023–31 May 2026.

Funding
MERIMERKIT is a project co-funded by the European Union and implemented by the Lahti Region Development (LADEC) (project code A80495) and the Pori Unit of the Turku School of Economics at the University of Turku (project code A80496). The funding authority is the Regional Council of Päijät-Häme from the EU Regional and Structural Policy Programme ”Innovation and Skills in Finland 2021–2027”.

Lead organisations
Lahti Region Development (LADEC)
Turku School of Economics at the University of Turku, Pori Unit (TSE Pori)

Project Team
Ville Uimonen | +358 50 574 3222 | Lahti Region Development LADEC
Anne E. Suominen | +358 40 779 9494 | University of Turku

Website https://sites.utu.fi/merimerkit/