/ GRESS
Kristiansand municipality participates in the EU project Green Startup Support, "GRESS". The project runs over three years and looks at how Kristiansand municipality can facilitate green innovation through plans and strategies.
The project aims to promote green innovation and entrepreneurship and to contribute to more and more viable start-ups in green and blue industries.
Five countries are participating
Besides Kristiansand, the following participants are involved in the project: Piraeus in Greece, Bologna in Italy, West Pomerania in Poland and the CleanTech business network in Bulgaria, which focuses on technology, innovation and sustainability.
Photo: Interreg Europe
Exchange of experience and surveys
The exchange of experience, identification and transfer of good practices between the partners is intended to raise awareness of the opportunities in these industries among potential entrepreneurs and stimulate more start-ups to make it through the first years after establishment. There is also an ambition to exchange experiences and practices that can improve start-ups' access to risk capital and help them to be more successful in public procurement in relevant sectoral areas.
In the spring of 2020, the participants conducted a survey among relevant companies in the respective geographical areas, to gain insight into how the companies experience their framework conditions and opportunities to identify any potential for improvement. The survey conducted in Kristiansand showed that businesses believe that the public sector must set stricter climate requirements in procurement and that there is too little access to risk capital.
You can find the results of the survey here.
An Interreg Europe project
GRESS is an Interreg Europe project that addresses relevant planning in counties, municipalities or regions. The aim of the project is to improve policy instruments in the development of innovation and business, a goal that clearly corresponds with Kristiansand municipality's own objectives.
