Southern Karelia is one of the sectors suffering from the shutdown of peat production. Additionally, with the closure of the Russian border, there is a great need in the area for new business activities that strengthen the regional economy. There is a high demand across various industries for fossil-free biomaterials and products developed from them. Southern Karelia boasts a world-class forest industry cluster and high value-added entrepreneurship based on advanced biomaterials, with good availability of biomaterials and top-notch research and education related to the circular economy and biomaterials. This project aims to accelerate the ongoing development and initiate the establishment of the Biofine competence center in Southern Karelia. Its vision is to become Europe's leading biomaterials competence center by 2030. It is based on the synergy between major bio-industries and emerging bio-economy growth enterprises, a pilot production facility supporting companies' product development and production scaling, international research and development activities, and training that meets the workforce and skills needs of companies. By 2030, the cluster will host 20 companies employing 300 professionals. The business is primarily export-oriented and is expected to generate revenue of at least €300 million per year. As a result of the project in 2027, 10 companies have initiated new business activities, and 50 new jobs has been created to the competence center. There have been 13 new innovations generated, and the project volume related to the bioeconomy has increased to €3 million. The LAB Biofine project will launch a pilot biomaterial production facility during 2026. The pilot plant will be part of LAB University of Applied Sciences' research infrastructure, which will be used for pilot production directly sold to companies, research and development projects funded by public and private sources, and as an educational environment. A competence center combining research and business activities will be built around it in Lappeenranta. The project will prepare the goals and roadmap for the Southern Karelia bio-ecosystem until 2030, significantly strengthen international research activities related to biomaterials, and attract external research, development, and innovation funding as well as new bio-economy business to the region. The operations of regional, national, and international target companies are broadly related to bio- and circular economy, biotechnology, or the production or further processing of bio-based materials. Additionally, the project benefits manufacturers and developers of technology related to biomaterial processing, as well as research and educational institutions. It also supports the transition of areas leaving peat production to new uses and replaces discontinued peat business with new bio-economy ventures. The project will be implemented as a collaboration between LAB University of Applied Sciences and LUT University, including an investment project managed by LAB.
