The SPIN project aims at enhancing “Sustainable Production through Innovation in SMEs”. SPIN is a business project and not a research project. It runs for 3 years (until January 2012) and is supported by the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) Programme 2007-2013 of the European Union. SPIN brings together some of the most important institutions for eco-innovations in the Baltic Sea Region and is supported by numerous national governments, sector associations, research bodies and transnational NGOs.

Our understanding of innovation is based on the definition of the former Finnish Prime Minister Esko Aho who stated: “Quite often, when people talk about innovation they mean research and development. But innovation is broader than that: research is transforming money into knowledge, while innovation is transforming knowledge into money and well-being. Innovation is about producing, not only economic prosperity, but also wellbeing in society”
We want to focus on identifying and promoting innovations throughout the BSR, which lead to sustainable production in SMEs. In other words: These innovations help to reduce economic, environmental and social costs while maintaining or even increasing production levels.

SPIN is based on the simple but normally successful business equation of matching supply and demand. SPIN taps on innovations throughout the BSR, which lead to sustainable production in SMEs. It supports SMEs who have developed sustainable solutions to reach out to a larger market. At the same time it gives enterprises the technical and managerial solutions they need to make their production process more sustainable and to comply with the legislative requirements from the EU. In order to support this matchmaking process SPIN offers SMES:

• The SPIN database (freely accessible on www.spin-project.eu)
• The SPIN Industry Workshops (find all the dates on www.spin-project.eu)
• The SPIN Tool Box (soon on www.spin-project.eu)