Business Hub Zealand is lead of the new project 'Fehmarn Belt Innovation', shortened FBI. A collaborative project that has been awarded DKK 10.6 million from the EU program Interreg Deutschland-Denmark. According to Region Zealand, the FBI project will strengthen small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Fehmarn area through innovation processes, where they first of all will learn to exploit the potential and opportunities that exist across the border in the Fehmarn area.
"The Fehmarn Belt tunnel creates increased awareness of the Fehmarn area and the business potential that lies here. We must be keen to exploit the growth and development potential of the fixed connection. A very central element of the FBI project is the collaboration between students from higher education and SMEs, this can be in the form of internships, student projects or semester assignments. Here the students can directly contribute to a company's innovation process. It is a very special combination and a valuable opportunity for everyone," says Kathrine Monsrud Ekelund, member of the regional council in Region Zealand and Danish chairman of the Interreg committee.
Will increase innovation, business development and technology transfer
With a focus on the themes of food, maritime industry and industry 4.0, the project offers SMEs in the Fehmarn area, among other things advice, matchmaking and study tours across the border.
“A unique opportunity to increase innovation, business development and technology transfer across the border. The FBI project helps to support the attraction of qualified labour as well as the establishment of a joint Danish-German labour market and a more closely integrated border geography. It is a huge advantage that we can support such a promising Danish-German project as the FBI with Interreg funds," says Stefan Leyk, district president of Kreis Plön and German chairman of the Interreg committee.
Will build networks
Over the next 3 years, the FBI project will build a network consisting of business promotion organisations, knowledge institutions and clusters, which, in addition to network activities between the members, also will be given the task of preparing strategies for the future cross-border work within the food sector, maritime industry and industry 4.0.
The FBI project is based on a strong partnership between amongst others Business Lolland-Falster, Knowledge Hub Zealand, Roskilde University and Business Academy Zealand on the Danish side and Kieler Wirtschaftsförderung and Technische Hochschule Lübeck on the German side.
The project builds on experiences from the Interreg project “German Danish Innovation”, GDI (2019-2022).