STINNO · Sustainable Innovations and Treatment in Industrial Waste Water Clusters

The STInno project introduces 3 research driven clusters and 12 partners from 5 European countries. The regions of Päijät-Häme, Kalmar and Western Greece have a common objective to strengthen RTD resources in industrial wastewater treatment and become world leaders in sustainable, cost and energy efficient methods. The regions have clear focus on clean technologies and complement each other as they are in different stage in their cluster development, RTD policies, disciplines and sustainability. Together with expertise of the RTD partners (Helsinki Univ. of Technology, Lappeenranta Univ. of Technology, Univ. of Kalmar, Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas, International Association of Mediterranean Agro-Industrial Waste, Lancaster Environment Centre), enormous amount of knowledge on wastewater treatment, methods and techniques involved is generated. Finland, Sweden and Greece rely not on huge quantities of RTD activities and companies, but as small economies, on developing niche sectors of RTD. For niche economies value-added networks are the solutions. This mindset can also be seen in STInno. Concerning the participating regions, only Western Greece has actively taken advantage of direct EC funding. The whole industrial wastewater treatment sector is evaluated, thus more specific development activities will be carried out in olive mill wastewater sector. The reason for this particular focus are the enormous environmental problems the untreated olive mill wastewaters are causing. The overall objective of STInno project is to strengthen the internationally acting regional clusters via strengthening their regional innovation systems; to create value-added networks; and develop platforms for technology solution developers. The consortium has a strong triple-helix approach but at the same time wants to look the problems from the demand and offer point of view. Integration of end user concerns is a crucial part of the project concept and objectives.