Empowering Underground Laboratories Network Usage

Underground laboratories provide unique environments for science, research and business, but many are not known or stay underutilised. Some of the underground laboratories are located or are planned to be built around the Baltic Sea region. In this work, the main outcomes of the EUL and the BSUIN projects will be presented.

The Baltic Sea Underground Innovation Network (BSUIN [1]) started in 2017 (ended in 12/2020), bringing together 13 (initially 14) partners with the common goal to help the underground laboratories to overcome the underutilisation and develop their practices, business models and marketing for attracting new users. The Empowering the Underground Laboratories Network Usage in the Baltic Sea Region (EUL, 1-12/2021 [2]) tested the developed tools and, with the feedback, helped the project partners to develop the tools further. The tools included the EUL Innovation platform (https://undergroundlabs.network/), the customer management relationship and marketing strategies, and social media coverages with various approaches to find the optimal practices for the platform and the actual laboratories.

The underground laboratories [3] participating in the BSUIN and EUL projects are:

• Callio Lab, located at a 1.4-km deep base metal mine in Pyhäjärvi, Finland,
• ÄSPÖ Hard Rock Laboratory, SKB´s final repository research site for spent nuclear fuel, Oskarshamn, Sweden,
• Ruskeala Underground Laboratory, located at the Ruskeala Mining Park, Sortavala, Russia,
• Educational and research mine Reiche Zeche, Freiberg, Germany,
• Underground Low Background Laboratory of the Khlopin Radium Institute, located at the heart of St. Petersburg, Russia, and
• The Conceptual Lab developed and coordinated by the KGHM Cuprum R&D centre, Poland.

The EUL and BSUIN projects are funded by the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme.

[1]         J. Joutsenvaara, “BSUIN - Baltic Sea Underground Innovation Network,” EGUGA, p. 11212, 2020, Accessed: Jan. 11, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2020EGUGA..2211212J/abstract.

[2]         E.-R. Niinikoski, “Empowering Underground Laboratories Network Usage in the Baltic Sea Region,” in EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts, 2021, pp. EGU21--14791.

[3]         M. Ohlsson et al., “Six Underground Laboratories (ULs) Participating in the Baltic Sea Underground Innovation Network,” EGUGA, p. 22403, 2020, Accessed: Jan. 11, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2020EGUGA..2222403O/abstract.