Cern business centre in Lithuania: Invitation for cooperation

The Republic of Lithuania became an Associate Member State of European Council for Nuclear Research (CERN) on 8 January 2018. Associate Membership allows Lithuania to take part in meetings of the CERN Council and its committees (the Finance Committee and the Scientific Policy Committee). It also makes Lithuanian scientists eligible for staff appointments. Finally, the Lithuanian industry is entitled to bid for CERN contracts, thus opening up opportunities for industrial collaboration in areas of advanced technology.

It is crucially important to accelerate innovation and increase the impact of CERN on society, and Lithuania has taken the lead in the Baltic countries promoting CERN as a center of research and technological excellence and transferring research capital developed in cooperation with CERN. By following this, an agreement with CERN on the establishment of a CERN Business Incubation Centre (LT-CERN BIC) in Lithuania has been signed.

The Ministry of the Economy and Innovation of the Republic of Lithuania (MoEI) would like to invite Estonian and Latvian start-ups to join the LT-CERN-BIC in Lithuania as it deeply believes that the know-how and expertise of CERN activities will provide excellent opportunities for all three Baltic countries to close the gap between science and business and the society. LT-CERN BIC aims to become a melting pot for ingenious entrepreneurs, science and technology experts from CERN's technology and know-how areas that supports innovative start-ups built as a result of positive impacts of CERN technological excellence.

The LT-CERN BIC coordinator on behalf of the MoEI is a Lithuanian Innovation Centre (www.lic.lt), which will coordinate the activities implemented by 2 BICs: LT-CERN BIC Vilnius (based in Sunrise Valley) and LT-CERN BIC Kaunas (based in Santaka Valley). This consortium of two highly-specialised incubation sites interconnects the most prominent Kaunas and Vilnius innovation ecosystems and sets a new gravity field to attract the most outstanding start-ups in the Baltic States in technical fields broadly related to CERN activities, as well as takes full advantage of the biggest transnational business support network in the world - the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN).

LT-CERN BIC offers the following value proposition for the start-ups:

1. Soft measures:

Incubation sites with excellent facilities of physical and service infrastructure; MNA

• Fast track access to labs, other facilities and scientific support provided by stakeholders in the Sunrise and Santaka Valleys;
• Personal Key Account Manager for the lifetime for each start-up in the incubator: access to up to 40 hours of CERN scientists and technical expertise, access to up to 100 hours of EEN expertise in selected markets/collaboration domains, access to up to 60 hours of fundraising expertise (for national structural funds, COSME,H20201 HEU, SME Instrument etc.);
• Use of CERN intellectual property at favorable conditions.

2. Financial measures:

• EUR 40K per start-up during a 2-year incubation period: to be used for intellectual property protection, design, prototyping, market studies, etc.;
• Fast track to grants from EU structural funds (Key Account Manager + fundraising expert will guide the start-up through the process) that could support research, development and innovation activities performed by the incubated company.

 

Should you need more detailed information please do not hesitate to contact Mr. Mantas Vilys,
Director of the Lithuanian Innovation Centre (tel. +370 686 50156, e-mail: m.vilys@lic.lt).