Our partners

Riga Planning Region's mission is the planning and coordination of regional development, and the cooperation between local government and other State administrative institutions.

RPR functions include the facilitation and support of entrepreneurial activity, especially facilitating the development of SMEs in the region, promoting cooperation between the public, business, and academic/research institutions, as well as providing information and advisory support to enable access to EU funds and implementation of RIS3 in the region. This function is carried out by RPR’s Entrepreneurship Support Centre which serves the region’s businesses by providing relevant information, capacity-building and development of cooperation with other stakeholders.

Contact

Riga Planning Region
Rīgas Plānošanas regions
18 Zigfrida Annas Meierovica blvd
LV-1050, Riga, Latvia

Dace Grinberga, Head of Business Support Centre
E-mail: dace.grinberga@rpr.gov.lv
Web: www.rpr.gov.lv

Information about the RIS3 of the partner region:

Key challenges for innovation policy

• Current prevalent business model of Latvian companies is not oriented toward innovation
  
  • Oriented towards cheap labour and exploiting natural resources
    
• Weak cooperation between industry and science
  
• Existing education system does not match demand and supply of labour
  
  • Especially in STEM
    
• Not enough science and research capacity
  
• Monocentric regional development.
  

Smart Specialisations Areas in Latvia

• Smart Energy
  
• Advanced ICT 
  
• Knowledge intensive bio-economy
  
• Biomedicine, medical technologies and biotechnology
  
• Smart materials, technology and engineering.
  

Main objectives of the RIS3 

• Development of human capital
  
  • attracting young scientists
    
  • avoid fragmentation of resources (more consolidation)
    
  • internationalization of science (support of cooperation programs)
    
• Closer integration of education, science and industry sectors
  
  • facilitate technology transfer via attraction of technology transfer experts in universities and introducing new transfer services (proof-of-concept), better linkages with instruments oriented to support the creation of new businesses
    
  • continue to develop Competence Centres, especially in specialization areas, as long-term collaboration platforms between industry and academia and coordination platform among industry players themselves
    
  • support for development of technology transfer infrastructure (open labs, prototyping labs, living labs) in universities and research organizations
    
• Building innovation capacity of industry
  
  • new tax relief to support industry investments in R&D
    
  • support to SMEs to acquire knowledge for development of new products and technologies (innovation vouchers)
    
  • support for development of enterprises, especially newly established businesses formed on the basis of research results
    
  • support for business with fast growth potential via early stage investment instruments
    
  • support for non-technological innovation and creative industries.
    

Funding

1. Structural funds (ERDF, ESF, European Rural Development Fund)
   
2. EU R&D programmes (Horizon 2020)
   
3. EU Territorial Cooperation programmes
   
4. Latvian national budget.