Improvement and expansion of the Technology Transfer Centre

One of the key task of the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme 2014-2020 Project „Advancement of non-technological innovation performance and innovation capacity in fruit growing and processing sector in selected Baltic Sea Region countries” (InnoFruit, #R004) is to build an open demo-farm network for providing support in the field of fruit production, storage, processing, and marketing, as well as for developing free of charge instruments for sharing and exchanging knowledge and skills thus contributing to fruit business development in the Baltic Sea Region.

It is essential for the fruit-growers and other participants of the Project to have all the relevant information available online on a single website. The activity aims to improve and expand the Technology Transfer Centre webpage for the use by SMEs in all the Baltic Sea Region and associated partners’ countries, as well as develop it as an international reference source, thus ensuring an efficient use of the capacity of the institutes and promoting their visibility. The webpage shall ensure broad coverage of the activities undertaken by the demo-farm network, int. al. providing information on the demo-farms involved in the network. In order to facilitate wider accessibility and application of the relevant information the mobile version of the webpage (for the use in tablet PCs and smart phones) shall also be developed, to facilitate the usage of the website even on fields (orchard) when working with real fruit crops and related problems.

This activity also envisages improvements of the webpages (and the related databases) of Project partners, thereby ensuring efficient exploitation of the capacity of the Research organisations and broadening the accessibility of innovation-related information and publications to both direct users of the demo-farm network and the wider audience.

Additionally, a system of individual consultancy via e-mail (“hot-line”) will be made available during the Project. A number of international experts from the involved countries will electronically provide answers to the e-mail questions. This “hot-line” will function as a tool for providing responses to inquiries sent in by users of the website, with the respective questions and answers to be published online as an additional source of information also for other users.

Improvement and expansion of the Technology Transfer Centre webpage is continuation for the Latvia – Lithuania Programme 2007-2013 project “Development of a technology transfer centre for fruit production”. Technology Transfer Centre was develop with an aim to ensure sustainable fruit growing in the region by transferring latest technologies developed in Latvia State Institute of Fruit-growing (now Institute of Horticulture, LatHort) (Latvia, Dobele) and Institute of Horticulture, Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry (Lithuania, Babtai) to producers.

Implementation of the Project was ensured in several direction:

1. Establishment of training and demonstration base in both institutes - training facilities and demonstration objects in gardens and laboratories.
2. Development of knowledge transfer tools - various informative and educational materials for the project target group (fruit and berry growers, processing SMEs, consumers) were created and prepared.
3. Technology and knowledge transfer – training of the target group was provided through the Technology Transfer Center.

Implementation of the Project in the region contributed to promote sustainable fruit cultivation through the transfer of knowledge from the Technology Transfer Center to the target group.