Sustainability challenges—whether in energy, circular economy, or bioeconomy—are global by nature. No single country, company, or discipline can solve them alone. International and cross-sector collaboration brings together diverse expertise, resources, and perspectives, making it possible to tackle complex problems at a scale. EU-funded projects are a prime example:
- The BalticSeaH2 Hydrogen Valley project, coordinated by CLIC Innovation, unites 40 partners from nine Baltic Sea countries to build Europe’s first significant cross-border hydrogen valley. By connecting infrastructure and expertise across Finland, Estonia, and beyond, the project creates an integrated hydrogen economy, reduces emissions, and boosts energy self-sufficiency in the region. This kind of collaboration simply wouldn’t be possible within national borders alone.
- The REMHub project, Rare Earth Elements and Magnets Hub; a European initiative to advance EU excellence in rare earth elements and permanent magnets through a dedicated business and innovation hub brings together 24 partners from 6 countries including Finland.
As an open innovation cluster, CLIC Innovation is uniquely positioned to connect companies, research institutes, and public sector actors across borders and sectors as a neutral operator. Our mission is to facilitate collaboration to maximise the impact for our activities and reach the target set by projects. We do this by facilitating and bringing together the right mix of expertise for each challenge. We support project coordination, stakeholder engagement in many forms and impact creation – ensuring that collaboration is not just a buzzword, but a practical reality. We help our partners navigate the complexities of international funding, regulation, and market entry.
Working across borders isn’t always easy as we need to overcome barriers to international collaboration. We have regulatory differences between areas, cultural and language gaps may cause misunderstanding, funding and IP issues can complicate partnership formation. But these challenges are not insurmountable. At CLIC, we’ve learned that we can overcome them by early and open communication that builds trust, by having clear roles and shared goals keep projects on track and leveraging established networks—like CLIC’s own ecosystems—helps partners find common ground and navigate complexity.
The opportunities for international collaboration have never been greater. New EU calls and initiatives are actively seeking cross-border consortia to address the Green Deal, circular economy, and clean energy transitions. CLIC’s network and expertise can help members find the right partners, shape competitive proposals, and scale their solutions beyond Finland.
Are you ready to take your innovation global?
We invite all CLIC members and other partners to leverage our ecosystem, share your collaboration needs, and join us in building the next generation of international projects.
The sustainable transition is a challenge that knows no borders. By working together—across countries, sectors, and disciplines—we can turn innovation into real, lasting impact.
Let’s break boundaries and build a sustainable future, together.
Want to learn more or get involved?
Contact us at CLIC Innovation to explore partnership opportunities and upcoming EU project calls.
Follow discussion on sustainable transition on our CLIC Talks video podcasts.