Sport and Food: Co-creating growth for Päijät-Häme

The project helps sports, food and beverage companies in the Päijät-Häme region identify new directions and methods for developing their operations and improving productivity. The project brings together companies from the region, encourages new ideas, and supports their development. At the same time, it helps companies strengthen their innovation capabilities and make better use of new technologies. The project is implemented jointly by the Wellbeing and Technology competence areas of LAB University of Applied Sciences.
The project aims to:
• promote company-driven innovation by bringing together SMEs from the sports, food and beverage sectors and identifying new opportunities for innovation between them;
• strengthen companies’ technological capabilities and help them identify the new technologies that best meet their needs;
• increase the role of sustainable development in cooperation between the sports, food and beverage sectors in line with the smart specialisation priorities of Päijät-Häme.
The project creates a new connection between two of Päijät-Häme’s smart specialisation priority areas: sports and food & beverage. The aim is to strengthen the region’s vitality and competitiveness while identifying innovation and collaboration opportunities at the intersection of these sectors that have not previously been utilised. At the same time, awareness and expertise related to the use of new technologies and sustainable development will increase.