The DISTINCT project will be featured during the Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme's Annual Conference 2021, which will take place on the 27th of October in Sligo, Ireland.

During the afternoon, NPA will organise separate thematic sessions online and one session on site. Each of the sessions will look at a topic addressed by the NPA 2021-2027 programme and will discuss how future NPA projects can contribute to the objectives of the new programme, also taking into account the solutions developed by the projects carried out throughout 2014-2020. The DISTINCT project will be presented at the Innovation Capacity session to answer the following question: how can NPA projects support the uptake of advanced technologies, reap the benefits of digitisation and enhance sustainable growth and competitiveness of SMEs?

The aim of this session is to show the possibilities that Virtual Reality (VR) technologies can offer for building the capacity and technology knowledge of SMEs and public service providers. As part of it, some experiences implemented by ERNACT - DISTINCT Lead Partner - as the Innovation as a Service (IaaS) approach or immersive VR collaboration environments will be demonstrated.