Technology Business Centre is opened with a discussion of industry professionals

With an uplifting sense of celebration and industry specialist discussion on 7 October, the Technology Business Centre was opened in the event at LU Science house. People were honored to hear motivational greetings by the ambassador of the Kingdom of Norway in Latvia Christian Ødegaard.

Guests listened to a discussion in which the co-founder of TechHub Riga, Viesturs Sosārs, Technology Transfer Contact Point of Rīga Stradiņš University mentor Kristaps Zaļais, University of Latvia researcher Mārtiņš Borodušķis, RTU Sciences ProRector Tālis Juhna and TBC Head Nikita Kazakevičs took part. They discussed about the topics of technology field in Latvia, the vision of the new business centre, as well as future opportunities for supporting young professionals who will try to turn their innovative ideas into a competitive product.

During theevent, an insight was given into the Innovation Academy (Inovāciju akadēmija) programme, which will be implemented in cooperation with Riga Technical University Business School. The application for the program will start in October. It is intended that young professionals who already have their own business idea can apply for the program, as well as those who are still on their way to it. The programme is scheduled to start in November and will last for six months. 

TBC has been the initiative of the LIAA, supported by the financing of the Norwegian financial instrument of 2 million EUR. The project will be implemented in close cooperation with partners - the University of Latvia, Riga Technical University and Rīga Stradiņš University. The TBC is incorporated into the structure of the LIAA Business incubators and aims at promoting the development of business ideas, at developing technologically intensive products in cooperation with universities. The centre will provide support for research, development of ideas, prototyping and for transforming Latvian science achievements into competitive business projects.

“Technology Business Center needs to become a safe environment for experiments in developing new products and services. A safe environment means that, at the beginning of the idea, the process is directed towards testing, so there must be a safe environment at the centre where mistakes can be made. The entrepreneur can try to make a prototype and decide how to proceed, so there must be an environment where he can afford to perform various experiments,” says the head of the centre, Ņ. Kazakevičs.

You can watch the full event and discussion record here: Technology Business Center Opening event.

More information about the LIAA Technology Business Center: https://www.liaa.gov.lv/lv/tbc

Information is prepared by the LIAA Department of Communications and Information. Photo: Lauris Vīksne.