Karlstad Innovation Park receives eight million kroner for the project Ställ om - expanded advice and innovation in Värmland. The ambition is to support regional small and medium-sized companies that have been affected by the covid-19 crisis to adapt and innovate new products and services.

As the pandemic hits Värmland's economy hard, the European Regional Development Fund distributes support to regional companies in a uniquely fast process. The project will be led by Karlstad Innovation Park in close collaboration with the Compare business clusters, Paper Province and IUC Steel & Workshop.

Support digital transformation

In the short term, the project will strengthen the companies' conditions to cope with the crisis by, among other things, supporting digital transformation and increasing knowledge of the market.

In the longer term, it should contribute to a more sustainable and efficient utilization of resources, service development and the development of methods and models that contribute to increased competitiveness.

- When the crisis first came, we quickly got started with "We change together" where we helped 23 companies to hibernate and find sustainable business models beyond the crisis. The new financing gives us good opportunities to help some industries important to Värmland in their transition work. We get the opportunity to support with both urgent measures but also to work more in-depth with the companies' value proposition in an upcoming service innovation lab, says Fredrik Lindroos, CEO at Innovation Park.

A strength is the collaboration between the large business clusters and Karlstad Innovation Park. This provides very good opportunities for the development of methods, working methods and collaborations that can spread well in the region, both during and after the project period, which extends to 31 Dec 2022.

Read more about how we support digital transformation here