Latvia has both excellent ideas and strong scientists – this is an opportunity to turn this potential into technologies, products and export-capable solutions. To achieve this, closer and more practical cooperation between science and industry is needed. This was also demonstrated by the event “Industry Day & Sensing the Future”, organised on 24 September by the Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia (ISSP UL) and the biomedical and photonics innovation platform “BioPhoT”.
At the event, researchers, technology developers and entrepreneurs not only learned about new technologies, but also discussed their practical application and commercialisation opportunities. The main conclusion of the experts was that, in order for the potential of innovations created in Latvia to be fully utilised, not only investment but also a strong ecosystem and cooperation are needed.
“State support instruments such as ‘BioPhoT’ connect the needs of entrepreneurs with researchers’ expertise and build an ecosystem, and would be important both in biomedicine and photonics, as well as in other fields,” says Daiga Eiduka, Senior Expert at ISSP UL. The European Commission’s European Innovation Scoreboard 2025 ranks Latvia 25th among the 27 EU countries, with overall innovation performance reaching 56.7% of the EU average. Latvian companies’ research and development (R&D) expenditure amounts to only 17.9% of the EU average, while innovation sales amount to 43.6%.
At the same time, entrepreneurs themselves recognise the importance of cooperation with science. In Riga Technical University’s latest Knowledge Transfer Barometer, 83% of companies indicated that cooperation between companies and scientific institutions can significantly contribute to Latvia’s competitiveness and growth. However, 63% cited a lack of information about opportunities for such cooperation as the most significant obstacle.
“These data show that the challenge is not only the amount of funding. A company may have a specific technological challenge, but it is not always clear where to look for the necessary knowledge and partners. Meanwhile, a researcher may have a promising technology, but lack opportunities to test it in a real industrial environment and develop it for the market. Therefore, cooperation should be established already at the beginning of technology development, when there is a much greater chance that a scientific idea will turn into a practical solution, a product and economic value,” Eiduka outlines.
By narrowing the gap between scientists and entrepreneurs, the “Industry Day & Sensing the Future” event gave entrepreneurs an opportunity to visit ISSP UL laboratories and learn about technologies developed by researchers in the fields of smart windows, functional coatings, sensors, biomedicine, energy harvesting, additive manufacturing and water purification.
At the University of Latvia, discussions continued on energy, communication and advanced manufacturing technologies. Particularly significant was the evaluation of technologies developed by Latvian scientists provided by industry representatives, as well as a special presentation session that created an opportunity to find potential cooperation partners within a short period of time.
The experience of the scientists and entrepreneurs involved shows that industry should become engaged already at the beginning of technology development, rather than only when the researcher has already created a finished solution. A company can help define a real market need and technical requirements, while a scientist can create a solution that meets them. This increases the likelihood that a research result will become not only a scientific achievement, but also a practically usable product or technology.
This approach also underpins the “Industry Challenge” initiative of the biomedical and photonics innovation platform “BioPhoT”: companies approach it with their technological challenges, while the platform helps bring together research teams and technical infrastructure to create targeted solutions. “BioPhoT” helps build a bridge from research to commercialisation by supporting technology development, validation, the development of commercialisation strategies, the resolution of intellectual property issues and the attraction of industry partners.
“For a new technology to reach the market, a good scientific result alone is not enough. Time, expertise and targeted support are needed to test and develop it, find a suitable application and identify partners. This is precisely where we see our role – helping researchers and entrepreneurs find common ground and move together from a promising idea towards a solution with real market potential,” says Osvalds Pugovičs, Head of “BioPhoT”.
Since 2025, 66 Latvian innovation projects have been developed within “BioPhoT”, with 12.7 million euros invested in them. The platform is particularly important in the innovation “valley of death” – the stage when a promising technology is not yet mature enough to attract market funding on its own, but already requires the next step towards commercialisation.
BioPhoT
“BioPhoT” is implemented under the leadership of the National Research and Innovation Institute by the Institute of Electronics and Computer Science, the University of Latvia, the Institute of Solid State Physics of the University of Latvia, the Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry, the Institute of Food Safety, Animal Health and Environment “BIOR”, Rīga Stradiņš University and Riga Technical University.
Project No. IVPP-EM-Inovācija-2024/1-0002 “Biomedical and Photonics Research Platform for the Creation of Innovative Products (BioPhoT)” is implemented within the framework of the long-term national research programme “Innovation Fund – Long-Term Research Programme”, funded by the Ministry of Economics.
