On 2 May 2018 the State Secretary for Technology of Schleswig-Holstein, Dr. Thilo Rohlfs, opened the 3rd Innovation and Technology Forum in Lübeck under the title "Cross Innovation versus Specialization - where is the key to successful business?". According to Rohlfs, innovation and optimised technology transfer are the main drivers of growth and employment in a country. However, these should base on a strong participatory process. “The regional innovation strategy (RIS) contains good proposals for strengthening the innovation, technology and the business location Schleswig-Holstein, but it has to be revised in a regular process. The improvement should lead to future scenarios and extract future potentials. Your knowledge and experiences are crucial to move forward,” said Rohlfs to the more than hundred participants from business, science and public institutions.

The Interreg Europe project MARIE is nominated to support the format and give relevant impulses regarding the event format and arrangements. Beside this, the Innovation and Technology Forum Schleswig-Holstein is a good practice example presented and discussed in the Interregional Learning Events of the project.