'Biocluster Finland' originates in the small town of Haapavesi in the North Ostrobothnia region, rich in natural resources and bioenergy. The region has traditional livelihoods such as peat production, machinery, agriculture and forestry. 

To achieve national and international climate action targets, it was understood that these industries needed to reduce emissions, develop more environmentally friendly products and begin the path to carbon neutrality. The region thus needed to increase expertise in research, development and innovation (RDI). 

Coordinated business opportunities able to tackle complex challenges did not exist in the region due to the difficulty of networking in sparsely populated areas, such as North Ostrobothnia and other Finnish regions. To address this challenge, Biocluster was created in 2021 to support cooperation among RDI organisations, investors and the public and private sectors to promote green business and innovation.

The ambition of 'Biocluster Finland’ is to coordinate the green transition of the bio- and circular economies not only regionally in North Ostrobothnia, but also nationally, thus becoming a pioneer of the green transition in Europe. 

To increase resilience and self-sufficiency of cluster members, the initiative provides information about funding and resources, assists the member organisations in the preparation of their own projects, shares information on the EU development targets, and raises awareness across organisations about the benefits of collaborating towards the achievement of the green transition goals.

'Biocluster Finland' kicked off activities in 2021 with the benchmarking of different bioeconomy and bioenergy initiatives developed by other European clusters and regions that it could take as a reference. The main goal was to outline a strategy. 

The next step was to start piloting new services with companies, investors and RDI organisations within the cluster, for which it would play a key role as a support organisation offering technical advice, information on EU funding and other resources, as well as data on green transition policies, and as a network facilitator among the members to generate synergies and opportunities for collaboration. 

The biocluster joined the European Cluster Collaboration Platform (ECCP) in 2022 and collaborated with other RDI projects such as Coopid (Horizon 2020 Grant Agreement No. 101000519) to operate as ambassador in study visits across Finland, benchmarking other bioeconomy regions and sharing the results with primary producers and companies in the country. 

Following the completion of the REACT-EU project, the town continued applying for funding, including from the Just Transition Fund, to continue running the cluster and its services to the members. 

The next step is ensuring the initiative can become self-sustainable as a non-for-profit organisation offering services to the members and running projects with different funding sources. 

The first edition of the Green Transition Business Competition organised by 'Biocluster Finland' was held in spring 2023.

Over two years (2021-2023), 'Biocluster Finland' created a network of 50 active members, in addition to other national and European collaborations, and supported major industries in Finland, such as food and dairy, water purification, waste management, and inorganic chemistry to achieve green transition goals. 

For instance, the project is helping NordFuel to identify cooperating cluster companies that could use its biorefinery products and/or side streams. NordFuel has a 400 million EUR investment and aims to employ 250 workers. After completion, NordFuel’s biorefinery planned for Haapavesi town will start producing many second-generation biofuels like bioethanol, biogas and lignin from domestic raw materials to replace imported fossil fuels. 

A significant result has been the organisation of the Green Transition Business Competition aimed at innovative Finnish growth-oriented companies and start-ups with an environmentally friendly product or service. The competition offers a great opportunity for companies located in sparsely populated areas to network with investors and other promising new companies. 

The winner of the 2023 competition was Owatec Group, an environmental cleantech company specialised in industrial wastewater and sludge management, and in efficiently handling and recovering valuable components from side streams.

'Biocluster Finland' has worked to create trust among members by sharing knowledge and information, encouraging networking and peer-to-peer exchanges, and activating and empowering them to generate a feeling of being part of a process with future insight. 

Thanks to the process of building the cluster with and for the members, organisations understood that a cluster model can tackle challenges in a more efficient way to support the green transition of companies than if they were operating on their own. 

The cooperation with the ECCP and other European clusters has been another success factor, learnt from other areas and models. 

The Green Transition Business Competition for young, growth-oriented companies brought publicity and visibility and new entrepreneurs to the cluster. The competition is beneficial for venture capital companies, business angels and companies looking for seed and growth funding, and it is a model with high potential for transfer to other territories.