Synbio Powerhouse, the synthetic biology ecosystem, is partnering with Latvia to bring up industrial scale opportunities.
Companies interested in using straw as a raw material for novel applications can benefit from the new industrial zone being created in Bauska, Latvia. The city is just an hour drive away from the capital Riga and benefits from the most productive grain harvesting lands in the Baltics.
Bauska hosts a mature ecosystem of agriculture and food processing companies. The industrial area will have necessary infrastructure enabling straw processing to new products.
In addition, Bauska has access to the highest pool of students from the largest agriculture university – the nearby Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies.
Bauska has been partnering with scientific institutes within the Horizon2020 framework and other EU programs and has a wide experience in administrating various initiatives.
Tuula Palmén, co-creation manager of Synbio Powerhouse:
“We are happy to partner with Bauska and wish to identify and connect interested Finnish companies to this industrial scale opportunity. It would be great to use our knowledge of synthetic biology and other technologies and apply them using a natural and sustainable raw material. While wood based solutions are well known, straw can be another excellent material enabling new products.”
Ilze Tijone, head of planning and development of Bauska Municipality:
“We are building up the Bauska Industrial park as a convenient location for tech savy industrial players understanding the importance of using renewable materials.
The territory will have access to the new railroad network – RailBaltica – the large infrastructure project currently in the construction phase in the Baltics. In addition, the location is on the main TEN-T route from Berlin to Helsinki.
The industrial territory is being upgraded with EU co-financing and will be ready in the end of the 2021.
Background information:
Bauska is a local Municipality in south of Latvia, second largest in Zemgale region. The municipality covers a surface of 2 172.52 km2, of which 10,29 km2 are covered by Bauska town. Bauska local municipality has wide experience in administrating various national and international projects. Synbio Powerhouse is an ecosystem of companies and research organizations currently working with synthetic biology. Initiated by VTT, it is based in Finland but operates globally and aims to bring into fruition the massive business opportunities presented by this technology. Read more: https://www.synbio.fi/
Contact:
Ilze Tijone
Head of the development and planning department
Bauska Municipality
Tel: 00371 20213021
Tuula Palmén
Co-creation Manager
Synbio Powerhouse, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
Tel: +358 50 4617290