The Unicornquest team and the parties from October 6 to 9 met in Ireland to attend a study visit, a workshop and a project working group meeting. During the meeting, the partners discussed the planned changes in policy documents and evaluated examples of good practices that could be taken over, including from Latvia.
One of the main objectives of the Unicornquest project is to implement improvements in the policy instruments and documents of the Member States to promote the business environment, support the development of start -ups and increase the number of potential unicorns*. During the meeting in the golveja (Galway) Project partners from 11 countries presented progress by introducing changes to the planning documents. One of the focus of the project is the transfer of international experience and the integration of good practices, taking into account the most successful solutions of other countries.
We are proud that good practice examples were taken from Latvia in presentations – Portugal and Romania in presentations – they highlighted the Latvian Investment and Development Agency (LIDA) support instruments, Startup House initiative and Riga Techgirls’ experience, which foreign partners met in Latvia in May this year.
During the meeting, project manager Ieva Zeiferte and project expert Vita Brakovska presented the progress of the Zemgale Planning Region progress on the planned changes to the development program business support priority. Such changes will help strengthen the business environment, promote investment attraction and increase the competitiveness of the region, which is essential for sustainable growth. Work is underway to update the changes. This work is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year in order to present them to the Zemgale Planning Region Development Council.
The project team and representatives of the parties involved – Armands Alksnis, Head of Zemgale Region, and Mairita Pauliņš, Head of the Zemgale Business Center, also had the opportunity to get acquainted with the support ecosystem, its instruments and approaches to the support ecosystem of the Western region of Ireland. According to Mairita Pauliņa, “Enterprise Ireland” works on principle Start – Compete – Scale – Connect (In translation – start – compete – grow – network), providing support at each stage – capacity development and grants, market access support (accelerators), market research and data analytics, as well as knowledge partnership and IPR licensing.
The experience of “Platform94” and other organizations, which helps start -ups to grow internationally, emphasizes the importance of “ecosystem navigation” – it is important for entrepreneurs to understand which stage of development and what to seek in support. According to Vita Brakovska, good practice is a unified vision and a visualized process scheme “The Road of Technology New Enterprise in the Municipality”, which connects local, national and international support points. Such an approach helps municipalities identify start -ups, including the status of HPS (high potential start -up), and to ensure customized solutions and data availability. The project manager emphasizes that a similar model can also be implemented at the Zemgale Planning Region level, creating a “road map” type resource on the Zemgale Business Center website. This would help link partner organizations and allow entrepreneurs to plan the next steps themselves.
The partner also visited the University of Golveja, where several innovative projects were presented in the Bioinnovate program. Bioinnovate UOG and Stanford Biodesign’s experience show that university involvement in innovation and business promotion is systemic – they prepare future innovators. This experience emphasizes the need to strengthen the cooperation of Latvian Bioscience and Technology University (LBTU) with companies, especially in the region’s specialization – FoodTech, BioTech, IRRED and Security.
Ieva Zeiferte summarizes the trip: “It is concluded that promoting good practices and start -up stories contributes to both local pride and investors’ interest. Ireland’s example of using the Unicorn Forest metaphor, or” unicorns favorable “, demonstrated an effective approach to new business ecosystem. Zemgale ” – Story and Good Practice Platform on the Zemgale Business Center website, where new business experiences and road maps would be collected, as well as an English version of international recognition.”
This was the last face -to -face meeting of the Unicornquest partners before the project. Another planned regional involved parties meeting in Zemgale region and online meetings on the ecosystem and good practice in Hungary. The active phase of the project will end in the early 2026, followed by the implementation and monitoring period to practice practically
The changes and initiatives included in the development program. But in 2027, the closing conference of the project will take place in Portugal.
* Unicorn – a new company whose market value has reached a billion US dollars.
The Unicornquest project is implemented with the Interreg Europe program 2021-2027. financial support for the year. See more about the project here.
This publication is prepared with the financial support of the European Union. The content of this publication is fully responsible for the Zemgale Planning Region and is under no circumstances to be the official position of the European Union.
