COMPETENCE CENTRES AND THEIR POSSIBLE IMPACT ON LITHUANIA’S KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

Establishment of Competence Centres is one of the main tasks on the European Union agenda. The article aims to analyse the possible impact such Competence Centres might have in Lithuania. The main purpose of Competence Centre is to encourage science and business collaboration in increasing effectiveness and efficiency of high added value article production. The newly established and currently not wide spread Competence Centres are encouraged by EU: the main goal of Lisbon Strategy is to set up necessary conditions for creation of critical mass in particular research areas. Developing significant European Competence Centres, which would be ready for international collaboration and for attraction of high qualified scientists from all over the Europe, could encourage competitiveness of the region as well as the competitiveness of EU itself. Therefore, this would be a huge step of Lithuania’s Knowledge Economy in catching up with the EU innovation leaders. Thus, the article captures: analysis of science and business potential in Lithuania, analysis of success stories of Competence Centres and suggestions on the possible model for boosting the development of Competence Centres in Lithuania.