Wool Innovation

Aims

• Develop new services and products in collaboration with partner companies in Lapland.
• Strengthen the growth and innovation capacity of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the context of sheep farming, handicrafts, and cultural tourism in Lapland. The project builds a regional value chain around Lapland’s sheep wool, increasing its use and supporting primary production as well as turning product and service innovations into commercially viable offerings.
• Support SMEs in developing and commercialising products and services through the revitalisation of craft traditions and co-design. The project promotes business renewal, the establishment of new enterprises, and the continuity of existing ones.
• Stimulate innovation by organising workshops for ideation and concept development, bringing together expertise from the fields of art and design, and strengthening professional know-how.
• Promote growth-oriented and employment-generating business activity in the craft sector as well as in nature- and culture-based tourism, while also supporting the internationalisation of craft enterprises. The project partly addresses development needs and partly focuses on priority areas identified in Lapland’s Smart Specialisation Strategy.
• Enhance companies’ capacity to utilise creative expertise and increase added value through national and international networking.
• Improve business opportunities by creating network-based business models and pathways from wool production to the sale of handicraft products.
• Lay the foundation for a Lapland-based competence hub that strengthens cooperation between agriculture, crafts, and tourism, while also building networks.
• Promote sustainable development from cultural, social, ecological, and economic perspectives, in alignment with the European Union’s environmental policy.