Every manufacturing company faces challenges – and somewhere out there’s someone with an idea for a solution. That’s the thinking behind the Iceland Ocean Cluster’s 100% Blue Innovation Platform, designed to link up established companies with imaginative innovators.
This initiative has already been kicked off as a group of companies with long track records of developing and producing a range of systems for the seafood industry – including Héðinn and Marel – have signed up to be a part of the Platform that gives them the opportunity to present technical challenges. The Cluster’s role is to locate the right individuals or groups with ideas able to generate solutions.
These get assessed in collaboration with the companies, and those that look promising move on to a two-day hackathon that’s due to be held in co-operation with the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation. Hackathon participants get to take part in the 100% Blue Innovation Platform, with the support of the Ocean Cluster’s mentors and staff.
‘The aim is to work systematically to try out the innovators’ ideas in practice, and to support the solutions being developed into the commercial sector,’ said Iceland Ocean Cluster managing director Heiða Kristín Helgadóttir.
‘In addition, this promotes vital connections and dialogue that’s intended to foster increased value creation across a wider spectrum.’
Marel Fish managing director Ólafur Karl Sigurðsson and Héðinn managing director Eðvarð Ingi Björgvinsson are among the first to sign up for this venture, while Haukur Ómarsson and his team at Landsbanki’s seafood industry decision have agreed to be on hand to provide innovators with advice and guidance. Engineering company Efla is also part of the mix, bringing its decades of experience in major sectors of engineering and technology.
‘We have more co-operative partners are part of the plans, and we’re aiming to be making contact with the innovation and research community with a variety of challenges that need to be solved,’ Heiða Kristín Helgadóttir said.
