Piteå supports innovation in green transition

Piteå municipality, through its development company Piteå Science Park, wants to support small and medium-sized enterprises working on innovations in green technology, clean energy and sustainable solutions.

Piteå municipality has granted co-financing for the North Sweden Cleantech and Swedish Composite Innovation Center projects, which are managed by Piteå Science Park.

"We want to contribute to a greener future for the whole of northern Sweden. It is also nice that we in Piteå have so many actors and companies that work for sustainable solutions and therefore it feels important that we support them by contributing to the development", says Kata Nilsson, municipal councilor (S) in Piteå municipality.

North Sweden Cleantech is a regional innovation and export platform that supports the business development of companies in green technology, clean energy and sustainable solutions. It is an initiative that has been running since 2013 in the regions of Västernorrland and Västerbotten, but now plans to operate in Norrbotten as well. Piteå municipality is contributing SEK 900,000 over four years. The project's total budget is SEK 5.7 million.

"Northern Sweden's business community is expanding at a rapid pace and we want to support small and medium-sized companies in their innovation work so that they can take advantage of business opportunities in the green industrial transition that is taking place here. We have identified over a hundred business ideas during the previous project period, of which over half were taken further and fifteen of the ideas were introduced to the market", says Henrik Bucht, CEO of Piteå Science Park.

The Swedish Composite Innovation Center is a project that will support the continued development of the innovation environment for fiber composites in Öjebyn. It is about supplementary equipment in the test bed to be able to handle new bio-based or recycled materials, and about developing the methodology to support small and medium-sized companies that want to develop new products in fiber composites all the way to establishment. Piteå municipality is investing SEK 1,250,000 over four years. Total funding is SEK 19.4 million.

Lennart Håkansson

editor@northswedenbusiness.com