The project partnership, whose objective is to establish and promote the network of underground laboratories in the Baltic Sea Region, is made up of 13 organizations plus 15 associate partners.

The project has done much to design service offers by its partner underground labs in Finland, Sweden, Germany, Poland in order to build up their technology transfer capacity using the facilities and research infrastructures for business development. The project partners on the Russian side are KarRC RAS and Khlopin Radium Institute in St. Petersburg.

KarRC RAS has been successfully implementing its part of the project, employing innovative methods both in research on the subject, and for technical and marketing support to underground space users. This has been mentioned at the project Steering Committee meeting in Oulu, Finland, on December 4-5, 2019. The meeting was attended by KarRC RAS President Olga Bakhmet. Late in October, during the Annual Strategic Planning Leaders Forum in St. Petersburg, where the project was represented by KarRC RAS and BSUIN’s Lead Partner Kerttu Saalasti Institute, Oulu University (Finland), a cooperation agreement was signed between the Karelian Research Centre RAS and “Kolmas Karelia” company (representing “Ruskeala” Mining Park). The core of the document is cooperation for doing research in “Ruskeala” Mining Park premises, organizing an experimental research facility for studying security issues related to the use of underground spaces in tourism, working out the methodology for controlling the stability of mines, and identifying the environmental impact of tourist fluxes.

Experts at the Steering Committee meeting and the subsequent thematic workshop emphasized that apart from scientific research, underground laboratories constituting BSUIN network will be able to provide the settings necessary for developing techniques for the mining and construction industries, for testing geophysical, radiation measuring and other instruments, and for food production and storage.

The partnership has started preparations for an extension of the project (during 2020-2021), which is expected to produce a guidebook on underground laboratory operation and a modeling system to be used as the basis for laboratory development plan.