INGOs

Procurements from large international NGOs, like the United Nations, Red Cross, IMF, World Bank etc., form a 20-billion-dollar annual market. The Central Baltic countries, however, are much underrepresented in the volume of annual sales. Promoting exports to International NGOs (INGOs) project will inform and mentor companies in how to effectively enter these processes. Furthermore, the project will take SMEs to international INGO events as well as seeks to form cross-border consortia to provide more complex solutions. As a result, SMEs will be able to enter, and win, procurement bids from these organisations.

Promoting exports to International NGOs project will arrange events to inform SMEs about the potential and possibilities of entering the procurement processes on international NGOs. Also, the project will mentor companies on how to bid successfully, matchmake companies with NGO representatives, and have SMEs that have experience in this field share their expertise.

Furthermore, the project will take a select group of SMEs to visit international NGO events to learn more about the open calls, meet NGO representatives and present their innovative solutions. The project will also work with a range of NGO innovation and incubation programs to help and mentor SMEs from Central Baltic area to successfully enter these programs.

For international NGOs and other stakeholders, the project offers a neutral partner with a dedicated budget to help them further inform SMEs about their processes, and to introduce new innovative solutions to the NGOs. The project consortium represents four different countries.

What do we offer?

• Information on procurement processes and open calls.
• Coaching and workshops on how to work with these organisations successfully.
• Matchmaking SMEs with INGO and IGO representatives, to inform them about your innovation.
• Expert support to facilitate consortium building for a group of SMEs to offer a joint solution.
• Contact-making with other SMEs from Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Sweden.
• Business missions to visit INGOs and IGOs, with some expenses covered by the project.
• Sharing of best practices, peer learning and a cross border community of SMEs.

You can join the INGO project at any time until the end of the project in September 2026.

If you want to join the activities of the project, register your company information here, for more info contact katrin.senkevits@tehnopol.ee.

The partner consortium consists of:

• Turku Science Park from Finland (lead partner)
• Business Tampere from Finland
• Tehnopol Science and Business Park from Estonia
• IT Cluster from Latvia
• RISE from Sweden

The 3.5-year project is funded by Central Baltic Interreg Programme 2021 – 2027.

More information about the project can be found here: https://centralbaltic.eu/project/ingos/.

Contact in Estonia: katrin.senkevits@tehnopol.ee

Activities in 2026

January 2026
22.01.2026 Export Excellence Workshop

February 2026
The INGOs project recommends the Humanitarian Finance Summit, taking place on 26 February 2026. The event focuses on the future of humanitarian financing and on identifying innovative and sustainable financial solutions for crisis response.
Further information: https://www.humanitarianfinancesummit.com/

April 2026
In April 2026, the INGOs project will organise a seminar and networking event for companies in Stockholm, Sweden. The seminar will focus on NATO-related topics and the European Defence Fund (EDF). More detailed information will be published in February; expressions of interest may be submitted earlier by contacting the INGOs Project Manager at Tehnopol.

May 2026
Within the framework of the INGOs project, companies will have the opportunity to participate in a medical sector trade fair in Ukraine — the Lviv Medical Forum “GalMed”, taking place on 19–21 May 2026. Further information about the event is available here:
https://galexpo.com.ua/galmed/index_en.html

INGOs project partners will attend the event together with a group of companies from Estonia, Finland, Sweden and Latvia. Interested parties are invited to contact the INGOs Project Manager at Tehnopol no later than the end of January 2026.

August 2026

26 August – INGOs Project Final Event: “Shared Experiences in Global Procurement”

The seminar marks the final event of the INGOs project. As the project comes to a close after a little over three years, the event offers a valuable opportunity to reflect on the journey, share the knowledge gained and exchange experiences from the project.

The event brings together companies and experts to share experiences, lessons learned and practical insights into participating in international procurement processes and exploring the opportunities they offer.

More information.

As part of the INGOs project, a visit to Geneva took place on 21–23 October 2025, with the aim of exploring cooperation opportunities with the UN and other international organizations (including procurement and piloting) and establishing new contacts.

Participants had the opportunity to attend the INGOs seminar “From Procurement to Piloting”, followed by an evening networking reception, as well as to take part in the AidEx exhibition.

More information here.

On February 18, 2025, the event “Grow your business with United Nations procurement opportunities” took place, providing an overview of the procurement processes of UN organizations and the United Nations Global Marketplace (UNGM), the primary procurement platform used by most UN organisations. Participants received practical tips on how to enhance their visibility to UN organisations and heard a success story from an Estonian company that has collaborated with the UN.

Watch the recording here.

On February 6, 2025, the event “How to do business with CERN?“ took place to provide insights into the procurement processes of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).

Watch the recording here.

On October 3, 2023 we hosted an event called “Promoting Exports to International NGOs” to empower small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Central Baltic region to tap into the vast 20-billion-dollar annual market of procurements from renowned international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and intergovernmental organisations such as the United Nations, Red Cross, IMF, the World Bank etc.

Recording of the event is available here!